2014-024 - Calling for Support of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan for Reliable Water Supplies

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Jxs 6!312014 RESOLUTION NO.2014 -024 RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA ANA CALLING FOR SUPPORT OF THE BAY DELTA CONSERVATION PLAN FOR RELIABLE WATER SUPPLIES AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESTORATION WHEREAS, water supplies from Northern California that move across the Sacramento -San Joaquin Delta are vital to the economy of California, serving 25 million people from the Bay Area to the Mexican border and agriculture throughout the Central Valley; and WHEREAS, the Delta is the 550,000 -acre estuary where the rivers of the Sierra Nevada merge before heading west to San Francisco Bay; and WHEREAS, the Delta is in a state of environmental stress due to the loss of wetlands habitat, invasive species, pesticide runoff, a depletion of native food supplies, pumping operations and other factors; and WHEREAS, the decline in the Delta's health threatens this unique environment and water supplies that are key to the California economy; and WHEREAS, the Delta's levees are not engineered to protect the State's water supply distribution system from a major earthquake, and multiple levee failures could disrupt water deliveries and the state economy for up to three years; and WHEREAS, State and Federal agencies, via the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) process, have worked for years towards developing a comprehensive package of ecosystem and water system improvements to address both current conflicts in the Delta and long -term threats to the State's water supplies; and WHEREAS, BDCP represents an effort to comply with State and Federal environmental laws for 50 years through a cooperative effort to reverse the Delta's decline; and WHEREAS, the failure to take decisive actions would be an unacceptable risk to the environment of the Delta and the economy of California; and WHEREAS, on December 13, 2013, the State released a public draft BDCP and its environmental impact statement/report; and WHEREAS, the State's preferred alternative is the most promising plan developed to date to solve Delta challenges and resolve decades of conflicts between agricultural, urban and environmental water users with a comprehensive solution that Resolution No. 2014 -024 Page 1 of 3