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Record of Decision Signed for the San Luis Drainage Feature Re-evaluation Environmental Impact Statement

In-Valley Water Needs Land Retirement Alternative Selected

Media Contact: Jeffrey McCracken, 916-978-5100, 03/09/2007 22:00

For Release: March 09, 2007

The Bureau of Reclamation has signed the Record of Decision (ROD) for the San Luis Drainage Feature Re-evaluation Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).  Reclamation has selected the In-Valley Water Needs Land Retirement Alternative as the alternative for implementation.  The selected alternative would fulfill the requirements of a District Court Order and a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Reclamation has a statutory duty to provide drainage service to the San Luis Unit (Unit).  Reclamation worked closely with other Federal and State agencies, agricultural interests, and environmental interests to develop numerous alternatives for evaluation, including alternatives with land-retirement components.

Under the selected alternative, a total of 194,000 acres would be retired from irrigated agriculture in the Unit (44,106 acres have already been retired).  The alternative also includes drainage reduction measures, collector systems, drainage water reuse facilities, treatment systems, evaporation ponds, and mitigation measures.

Reclamation is finalizing an estimate of the project costs, which is expected to confirm the need for new authorizing legislation to increase the appropriations ceiling for funding beyond what was authorized by the San Luis Act (Act of June 3, 1960, 74 Stat. 156).

Reclamation made available the Draft EIS in June 2005 and held public hearings during July 2005.  The Final EIS was made available in June 2006.  The ROD is available online at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/.  For a copy of the ROD, please contact Ms. Sammie Cervantes at 916-978-5189 or scervantes@mp.usbr.gov.  Please contact Mr. Jerry Robbins, Project Manager, at 916-978-5061 or grobbins@mp.usbr.gov for questions regarding the ROD.  If you encounter problems accessing documents online, please contact Ms. Lynnette Wirth at 916-978-5102 or lwirth@mp.usbr.gov.

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Relevant Link:

Record of Decision (4MB PDF Formatted)