Report 2016-132 Recommendation 7 Responses

Report 2016-132: Department of Water Resources: The Unexpected Complexity of the California WaterFix Project Has Resulted in Significant Cost Increases and Delays (Release Date: October 2017)

Recommendation #7 To: Water Resources, Department of

To ensure that DWR manages WaterFix in an effective manner, DWR should complete both the economic analysis and financial analysis for WaterFix and make the analyses publicly available as soon as possible.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2023

In 2019, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) withdrew all regulatory approvals for California WaterFix. Consistent and in accordance with the response from 2020, 2021 and 2022, DWR is pursuing a new environmental review and planning process for modernized water conveyance in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This effort is consistent with Governor Newsom's vision for water resilience and his directive for a single-tunnel project that will ensure water security.

DWR is leading the planning effort and environmental review process through the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for the new single tunnel Delta Conveyance Project (DCP). DWR is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) as the lead for the Federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) document. DWR is still tracking to complete the CEQA document by the end of 2023 and USACE is tracking to complete the NEPA document in the summer of 2024. The completion of the CEQA document is critical in preparing the economic and financial analysis requested under Recommendation No. 7. The final preferred project, operational benefits, and program costs will not be known until the CEQA document has been certified; at which time the project will be approved, and the economic and financial analysis requested can be performed. It should also be noted that the DCP program has been tracking on schedule and on budget to complete the work described herein.

DWR will complete the economic and financial analysis for the Delta Conveyance Project in the summer of 2024.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022

Consistent and in accordance with the response from 2020 and 2021, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) is pursuing a new environmental review and planning process for modernized water conveyance in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This effort is consistent with Governor Newsom's vision for water resilience and his directive for a single-tunnel project that will ensure water security.

DWR is leading the planning effort and environmental review process through the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for the new single tunnel Delta Conveyance Project (DCP). DWR is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the lead for the Federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) document. DWR is still tracking to complete both the CEQA and NEPA documents for DCP toward the end of 2023. The completion of the CEQA and NEPA documents is critical in preparing the information requested under Recommendation No. 7, as the final preferred project, operational benefits, and program costs will not be known until then; at which time, the economic and financial analysis requested can be performed. It should also be noted that the DCP program has been tracking on schedule and on budget to complete the work described herein.

DWR will complete the economic and financial analysis for a proposed Delta conveyance project in the second quarter of 2024.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From September 2021

Consistent and in accordance with the response from 2020 the Department of Water Resources (DWR) is pursuing a new environmental review and planning process for modernized water conveyance in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This effort is consistent with Governor Newsom's vision for water resilience and his directive for a single-tunnel project that will ensure water security.

DWR is leading the planning effort and environmental review process through the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for the new single tunnel Delta conveyance project (DCP). DWR is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the lead for the Federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) document. DWR is still tracking to complete both the CEQA and NEPA documents for DCP toward the end of 2023. The completion of the CEQA and NEPA documents is critical to prepare the information requested under this Recommendation No. 7 as the final preferred project, operational benefits, and program costs will not be known until then; at which time the economic and financial analysis requested can be performed. It should also be noted that the DCP program has been tracking on schedule and on budget to complete the work described herein.

DWR will complete the economic and financial analysis for a proposed Delta conveyance project in the first to second quarter of 2024.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2020

On May 2, 2019 the Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced that it will pursue a new environmental review and planning process for modernized water conveyance in the Delta. This effort is consistent with Governor Newsom's vision for water resilience and his directive for a single-tunnel project that will ensure water security.

DWR is leading the renewed environmental planning process for Delta conveyance project. The Notice of Preparation was released on January 15, 2020 to begin compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for the new single tunnel Delta Conveyance Project. The Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) decided it would not pursue a participating role in Delta conveyance in May of 2020. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has taken over and become the new Federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) lead as of August 2020 and their NEPA process and review of the CEQA work is a longer process than that of the Bureau. Therefore, the schedule to complete both the CEQA and NEPA documents for Delta Conveyance project is not anticipated to occur until end of 2023. The completion of these documents is critical for the answering of this Recommendation No. 7 as the final preferred project, operational benefits, and program costs will not be known until then; at which time the economic analysis requested can be performed.

DWR will complete the economic analysis for a proposed Delta conveyance project in the first quarter of 2024.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2019

On May 2, 2019, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced that it will pursue a new environmental review and planning process for modernized water conveyance in the Delta. This effort is consistent with Governor Newsom's vision for water resilience and his directive for a single-tunnel project that will ensure water security.

DWR will lead the renewed environmental planning process and will provide ongoing oversight of the Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Authority (DCA). DWR will issue a Notice of Preparation for an environmental impact report on a single-tunnel conveyance proposed project later this year. The economic analysis for the new Delta Conveyance project is anticipated to be completed towards the end of the environmental planning phase in late 2022.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

1-Year Agency Response

An economic analysis for the full 9,000 cfs project, as approved in July 2017, was released and made publicly available on September 20, 2018. As noted in our 6-month response, DWR has continually coordinated with the SWP and CVP public water agencies regarding exact levels of participation for this project. This coordination led to the determination that staged implementation was not needed and subsequently the revised economic analysis was released in September 2018 ( https://www.californiawaterfix.com/benefit-cost-analysis/ ). The Department will complete and make available a financial analysis once more precise information is available regarding financing components and levels of participation by the SWP and CVP public water agencies.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

On February 12, 2018, the Department completed and made available an economic analysis based on "staged" implementation of WaterFix. This economic analysis for this staged project can be found here: https://www.californiawaterfix.com/economic-analysis/?utm_source=CA+Water+Fix+Update+Issue+%2336&utm_campaign=CA+WaterFix+Update+Issue+35&utm_medium=email DWR is considering this proposal for a staged construction in order to preserve options that may be required depending on final participation of the SWP and CVP public water agencies. However, as coordination with the SWP and CVP public water agencies continue, there may be revisions to this economic analysis and the Department will complete and make available a revised economic analysis and financial analyses once the exact levels of participation of the SWP and CVP public water agencies and the implementation schedule for the project is determined. Partially Implemented.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

The Department will complete and make available economic and financial analyses once the exact level of participation of each public water agency and the implementation schedule for the project is determined.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2016-132

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.