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GAO-08-307R 1 (2007-12-18)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptavta0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Sai Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 December 18, 2007 The Honorable Nick J. Rahall, II Chairman Committee on Natural Resources House of Representatives The Honorable Grace F. Napolitano Chairwoman Subcommittee on Water and Power Committee on Natural Resources House of Representatives The Honorable George Miller House of Representatives Subject: Bureau of Reclamation: Reimbursement of California's Central Valley Project Capital Construction Costs by San Luis Unit Irrigation Water Districts In 1960, Congress authorized the construction of the San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project (CVP) in California. The CVP is a network of dams, canals, pumps, and other facilities providing water for multiple uses. Located south of the Sacramento- San Joaquin Delta, the San Luis Unit is a component of the CVP and was built jointly by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and the state of California. The San Luis Unit stores and delivers water that is used for various purposes, including agriculture, municipal and industrial uses, and fish and wildlife needs. Four irrigation water districts in the San Luis Unit currently receive water from the CVP. Westlands is the largest of these districts, covering about three- quarters of the land in the San Luis Unit. The three smaller districts are Pacheco, Panoche, and San Luis. Reclamation has a water service contract with each irrigation water district to deliver CVP water to the district's farmers and other water users at a set rate per acre-foot. Existing water service contracts may be renewed for a period of no more than 25 years. The San Luis Unit includes water storage and delivery facilities, such as dams, canals, and pumps, as well as the San Luis Drain. This drain was designed to return used irrigation water to the delta, but it was never completed. Drainage is needed for about 400,000 acres of the San Luis Unit's approximately 700,000 acres because a layer of clay prevents natural drainage, trapping salt and water in the root zone of crops and reducing the land's agricultural productivity. Construction of the San Luis Drain was halted in the mid-1970s, in part because of environmental concerns, including harmful effects on wildlife, caused by the drainage water. It was later determined that GAO-08-307R San Luis Unit Capital Construction Costs

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