Bay Delta Program

The CALFED Bay- Delta Program is a joint state-federal process charged with developing long-term solutions to problems of water quality, fish and wildlife, water supply reliability, and vulnerability of Delta levees and channels to natural disasters within the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary in California.

Bookman-Edmonston (B-E), a division of GEI Consultants, Inc. provided assistance to the Bay-Delta Program in developing and evaluating alternative solution strategies to meet CALFED’s objectives. B-E evaluated the role of water transfers and exchanges as a component of various solution strategies. Among other firms, B-E was retained by CALFED to prepare the power economics framework and analysis for the Bay-Delta EIR/EIS. The analysis identifies power generation and pumping requirement impacts to the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project resulting from various alternatives for arriving at a long-term solution to water supply and quality concerns in the Bay-Delta region of California.

B-E also teamed to prepare a programmatic environmental impact report/ statement (EIS/ EIR) for the Bay-Delta Program. The project team used an integrated resource planning process by involving all of the stakeholders affected by decisions on the Bay-Delta in an open process. The consulting team assisted in the development of the mission statement, problem definition, goals and objectives, and performance measures. The next steps included identifying actions, developing solution strategies, identifying preliminary alternatives, evaluating and refining alternatives, and selecting a shortlist of alternatives to carry through the National Environmental Policy Act process. Multiple workshops, advisory committees, and public forums were used to respond to stakeholder concerns. The public hearings and workshops have been commended for being balanced, fair, and inclusive.

The consulting team prepared impact analyses and a draft of the EIR/EIS. Specific tasks completed by B-E included evaluating and refining alternatives, conducting prefeasibility evaluations of surface water storage and conveyance facilities, evaluating the role of water transfers and exchanges as a component of various solution strategies, and performing operations modeling to determine changes in streamflow and Delta water quality for alternative operations scenarios.