	Introduction

The 1,153-square mile estuary at the confluence of the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers Delta—the Bay-Delta—is also the hub of California's extensive water supply system. This partnership resulted in an agreement known as the Bay-Delta Accord, which ultimately led to the development of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program (CALFED) and the Record of Decision (ROD) for the CALFED Bay-Delta Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement and Report (EIS/EIR). The reauthorization of federal participation in the CALFED program was quite controversial. While the CALFED program is an attempt to balance competing interests and develop a plan for managing Bay-Delta water resources to meet competing demands, all parties have not been 100% satisfied in the final goals, programmatic actions, and water management regimes called for the in the ROD. 108-361 ). Two networks of pumps, dams, canals, and reservoirs take an estimated 5.9 million acre-feet (maf) of water from the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers and their tributaries, and distribute it to agricultural and urban water users in the California Central Valley via the CVP, and to Southern California via the SWP. Today, the Bay-Delta ecosystem is still generally considered to be unhealthy and unable to provide reliable amounts of water for water users. Conflicts and Federal Government Involvement

The limited supply of water in California has been the subject of conflicts among competing interests for decades. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) by state water contractors. The Accord was in effect until 2000 and then was incorporated in part by the ROD. CALFED Bay-Delta Program

Controversies surrounding implementation of the federal statutes outlined above fueled the creation of the Bay-Delta Framework Agreement (a refinement of the Accord), which was signed in 1995 by state and federal agencies with regulatory responsibilities in the Bay-Delta. This agreement marked the beginning of the CALFED process and defined three issues that were deemed important for federal-state coordination and cooperation: the formulation of water quality standards; coordination of federal and state project operations with regulatory requirements (i.e., coordination of CVP and SWP operations to maintain compliance with the ESA, CVPIA, and state and federal water quality provisions); and development of a joint federal-state process to develop long-term solutions to environmental, water supply, and water quality problems in the Bay-Delta. The CALFED Program was created from the Framework Agreement to address these issues. This legislation authorized nearly $430 million for FY1998 to FY2000. The funding authorization expired September 30, 2000; however, some activities that support CALFED program goals continued to receive federal funding. CALFED Legislative Issues

The debate over the reauthorization of CALFED in the 108 th Congress largely centered on specific issues such as the authorization for water storage projects, cost allocation, balance among project and program activities, and water supplies for the environment, as well as broader issues such as governance and the degree to which the ROD is implemented. Funding

The implementation of CALFED is expected to cost an estimated $10 billion dollars over 30 years; however, during the first seven years (referred to as Stage 1), implementation costs are estimated to be $8.7 billion. For example, the ROD estimates that nearly 260,000 acres of agricultural land will need to be used for ecosystem restoration, water quality, water storage and conveyance, and levee system integrity projects and activities. 2003 —The Sacramento splittail is delisted from the threatened species list by the U.S. 2004 —The Water Supply, Reliability, and Environmental Improvement Act is signed into law on October 25, 2004 ( P.L.
The California Bay-Delta Program (CALFED) was initiated in 1995 to resolve water resources conflicts in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Rivers Delta and San Francisco Bay (Bay-Delta) in California. The program planning effort focused on developing a plan to address three main problem areas in the Bay-Delta: ecosystem health, water quality, and water supply reliability. CALFED was initially authorized to receive federal funding from FY1998 to FY2000; and since that time only certain projects supporting CALFED goals received appropriations. The program was finally reauthorized October 25, 2004.
The Bay-Delta is formed by the confluence of the north-flowing San Joaquin River, the south-flowing Sacramento River, and the San Francisco Bay, to which the delta of the two rivers is linked. This 738,000-acre area contains a vast network of marshes, wetlands, and open water that supplies water to two-thirds of California's population and nearly seven million acres of farmland through a series of pumps, canals, and dams operated by the federal and state governments. The competing demands for Bay-Delta water have stretched the resource's capacity to provide reliable amounts of water to users (e.g., farmers) and the ecosystem. The Bay-Delta ecosystem is being altered by habitat conversion and water quality degradation, including salt water intrusion. For example, several fish populations have declined, and some species are on federal threatened and endangered species lists. Many attribute the deterioration to unnaturally low levels of water in the Bay-Delta. Listing of these species has affected the timing and use of water pumped from the Bay-Delta and has created uncertainty in water supplies for water users in southern California.
Allocating water from the Bay-Delta has been the subject of conflicts and disputes among stakeholders such as farmers, urban water contractors, and environmentalists for years. CALFED was developed as a response to these conflicts through a series of agreements and revisions that have involved federal and state legislation, and stakeholder accords. A Record of Decision (ROD) for the current CALFED Program was issued by a consortium of state and federal agencies in August 2000; however, legislation to implement the CALFED Program as outlined in the ROD had not been enacted until recently. CALFED, as described in the ROD, has 12 program components that range from water quality and supply to ecosystem restoration and governance. CALFED was planned to be implemented in three phases, of which two are already completed. The third phase is the implementation of the CALFED program as outlined in the ROD. Stage I (of three stages in phase III) of CALFED is currently underway and is expected to take seven years to complete and cost nearly $8.7 billion.
The reauthorization of CALFED funding has been controversial. Specific issues such as authorization for water storage projects, balance among project and program activities, and water supplies for the environment, as well as broader issues such as governance and the degree to which the ROD is implemented, were resolved to varying degrees with the passage of P.L. 108-361, which reauthorized the CALFED Program. This report will be updated as events warrant.