Bureau of Reclamation: Reimbursement of California's Central Valley Project Capital Construction Costs by San Luis Unit Irrigation Water Districts

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "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. Reclamation is considering two options to provide drainage for the San Luis Unit. The first option, which would be implemented by Reclamation, would include land retirement, evaporation ponds, and treatment methods to remove salt and selenium from the water. The second option would transfer responsibility for providing a drainage solution to the four San Luis Unit irrigation water districts. To assist Congress in evaluating the proposed drainage solutions, Congress asked us to determine how much the federal government has spent to construct the CVP, including the San Luis Unit irrigation and drainage facilities, and what amount is reimbursable by water users, and how much of the reimbursable CVP construction cost has been allocated to San Luis Unit irrigation water districts and how much they have repaid.