HR-5781 : Still Just a Bill

California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014 - Title I: California Emergency Drought Relief - Grants the Secretaries of Commerce and the Interior (Secretaries) emergency authority, subject to existing water rights, to direct the operations of the Central Valley Project (CVP) and allow the State Water Project (SWP) operated by the California Department of Water Resources to provide the maximum quantity of water supplies possible to CVP agricultural, municipal and industrial, and refuge service repayment contractors and SWP contractors, by allowing, consistent with applicable laws, any projects or operations to: (1) provide additional water supplies; and (2) as quickly as possible, based on available information, address the emergency drought conditions.

Grants the applicable Secretary authority to take certain actions to increase the water supply, subject to specified environmental protections, including:

• ensuring that the Delta Cross Channel Gates remain open to the maximum extent practicable;
• implementing turbidity control strategies to increase water deliveries and minimize water supply reductions for the CVP and the SWP;
• adopting a 1:1 inflow to export ratio for the increment of increased flow of the San Joaquin River;
• issuing all necessary permit decisions within 30 days of receiving a completed application by the state of California to place and use temporary barriers or operable gates in Delta channels to improve water quantity and quality;
• completing all requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) necessary to make final permit decisions on water transfer requests within 30 days of receiving such requests;
• allowing any North of Delta agricultural water service contractor with unused CVP water to take delivery of unused water through April 15 following the contract year in which such water was allocated; and
• implementing instream and offsite projects in the Delta and upstream in the Sacramento River and San Joaquin basins that offset the effects on threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 due to actions taken under this Act.

Directs federal agency heads to use the expedited procedures of this Act to make final decisions relating to a federal project or operation to provide additional water supplies or to address emergency drought conditions.

Directs the Secretaries to authorize the CVP and the SWP, combined, to operate at levels that result in negative Old and Middle River flows for a cumulative period of 28 days during certain high-flow conditions on the Sacramento River.

Title II: Protection Of Third-Party Water Rights - Directs the Secretary of the Interior to confer with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife on potential impacts to any consistency determination for operations of the SWP resulting from the implementation of this Act.

Requires the Secretary, in the operation of the CVP, to: (1) adhere to California laws governing water rights priorities and honor water rights senior to those held by the United States for operation of the CVP, regardless of the source of priority; and (2) allocate water provided for irrigation purposes to existing CVP agricultural water service contractors within the Sacramento River Watershed (i.e., water service contractors within the Shasta, Trinity, and Sacramento River Diversions of the CVP) in compliance with specified requirements.

Requires the Secretary to ensure that actions taken to comply with environmental laws do not: (1) result in the involuntary reduction of water supply or fiscal impacts to recipients of water from either the SWP or the United States, or (2) cause redirected adverse water supply or fiscal impacts to those within the Sacramento River or San Joaquin River watersheds or the SWP service area.

Requires the Secretary to direct the Bureau of Reclamation to develop and implement a program to enable existing CVP agricultural water service contractors within the Sacramento River Watershed to reschedule water from one year to the next.

Title III: Miscellaneous Provisions - Declares that nothing in this Act preempts or modifies any existing obligation of the United States under federal reclamation law to operate the CVP in conformity with state law, including established water rights priorities. Terminates this Act on the later of September 30, 2016, or the date on which the governor of California suspends the state of drought emergency declaration.