Late on Thursday, Dec. 4, the Bureau of Reclamation announced it was adopting Action 5, an updated operation plan for the Central Valley Project and the State Water Plan in California.
Among other things, the plan is projected to increase annual water deliveries to central and southern California, will remove seasonal protections for the Delta smelt, and will require that any actions that restrict the water supply “provide a material benefit to listed species.”
“Action 5 represents a forward-looking approach to water management that balances the needs of California’s communities, agriculture and ecosystems,” said Andrea Travnicek, Bureau of Reclamation assistant secretary for water and science, in the group’s announcement.
According to the Record of Decision for Action 5, the updated operations plan will increase annual CVP water deliveries by 130,000 to 180,000 acre-feet, and SWP deliveries by 120,000 to 220,000 acre-feet, “depending on hydrologic conditions and subject to the state’s adoption of Action 5.”
Praise for the plan
The move was welcomed by agricultural voices in the Golden State.
“These changes will help ensure that our growers have the water they need to support local communities and the nation’s food supply, while also protecting California’s wildlife,” said Allison Febbo, general manager of Westlands Water District, in a statement. The district delivers water to the southern portion of the San Joaquin Valley and has experienced disappointing allocation levels this year, despite comparatively good water supplies.
Westlands expressed gratitude for the rapid development and adoption of Action 5. It additionally estimated that, for its service area specifically, the updated plan is expected to deliver an average of 85,000 acre-feet per year of additional water. Such an increase will help keep more Central Valley agricultural land in production and reduce reliance on groundwater, the group said.
Western Growers also welcomed the updated plan.
“Considering the fact that the farms that pay for the Central Valley Project have only received 45% of their contracted allocations over the last 20 years, totaling many millions of acre-feet of water cutbacks, this modest potential rebalancing represents a welcome return of common sense,” said Dave Puglia, Western Growers president and CEO, in a statement.
What is in Action 5?
Action 5 is an update of a CVP operations plan adopted in December 2024 in light of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 24 executive order. The order directed Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum “to operate the CVP to deliver more water and produce additional hydropower including by increasing storage and conveyance and jointly operating federal and state facilities, to high-need communities…”
Among the key operational changes in Action 5 compared to the 2024 plan were a pair of species-focused changes:
- Removing Delta smelt protection — Action 5 removes the Delta Smelt Summer-Fall Habitat Action, which California’s Delta Stewardship Council called “a critical component” of the SWP for Delta smelt survival. Action 5, however, cites U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service findings, asserting that the protections are not expected “to have observable effects on Delta smelt survival.”
- Water restrictions require proof of benefit — Any actions that restrict water supply must show a material benefit to listed species in Action 5. It adds that this can be by using predictive tools for real time assessment of environmental conditions.
Not everyone is on board with the plan
Not everyone in California is happy about Action 5, however.
Prior to the final signing of Action 5’s Record of Decision, which occurred Dec. 2–4, several California state organizations raised concerns with the then-proposed plan in their comments. For example, California Department of Water Resources deputy director John Yarbrough said Action 5 could have “adverse consequences” on the SWP’s ability to deliver water.
“If Reclamation implements Action 5 in a way that harms the SWP’s ability to deliver water to its contractors and customers, the CVP export increase would be at the expense of all SWP water contractors and, due to the different water purposes the SWP and CVP serve, disproportionately impact Californians’ water supplies,” he wrote.
He additionally described Action 5 as “vague in how it will be implemented” and incomplete in its analysis of impacts. Similarly, Diane Riddle, assistant deputy director of California Water Boards Division of Water Rights, called many of Action 5’s claims about the impact of its changes on fish in California unsupported.
