Reclamation drought plan would nix environmental reviews

摘要

As the Trump administration moves toward a drought contingency plan for the Colorado River, the Bureau of Reclamation is pushing legislation that would exempt its work from environmental reviews. That includes potential impacts on what has emerged as a major sticking point in the drought negotiations: Southern California's Salton Sea, a public health and ecological disaster. Draft legislation obtained by E&E News would authorize the Interior secretary to implement the drought plan "notwithstanding any other provision of law" and "without delay." "When you combine those two phrases together, you are essentially trying to override laws to say it doesn't matter what other laws say, you shall do 'X,'" said Kim Delfino, an attorney with Defenders of Wildlife. Reclamation has sought to attach the authorizing language for the drought contingency plan, or DCP, to at least one bill that Congress passed. The language has raised red flags at the Imperial Irrigation District. IID is California's largest Colorado River water user, accounting for more than half of California's 4.4 million-acre-foot Colorado River allocation. (An acrefoot is about 326,000 gallons, as much as three Los Angeles families use in a year.)