Contract Amendment Public Participation

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the State Water Project (SWP) contractors held a public process of negotiating proposed amendments to the SWP water supply contracts for a new Delta Conveyance facility. DWR opened the negotiations to the public to allow the opportunity to observe and provide comments to DWR during and after each negotiation session.

The process that DWR followed to enable members of the public to observe and comment on the negotiations was designed to be consistent with the "Principles Regarding Public Participation Process in SWP Contract Negotiations."

A series of public negotiation sessions were held from July 2019 through March 2021 to discuss the proposed contract amendment, and resulted in a Final Agreement in Principle, described and linked below.  Documents related to the public meetings are available on request.

Background

The Legislature designed the water supply function of the State Water Resources Development System, commonly referred to as the SWP, to be a self-funded system. Unlike highways, levees, and other familiar infrastructure that receive significant funding from the State general fund, the costs of constructing, operating and maintaining the SWP water supply function are paid entirely by the local public agencies that contract with DWR for a supply of water from the SWP.

The timing and amount of SWP charges is described in the SWP Long-Term Water Supply Contracts. DWR has 29 such contracts with a variety of local agencies sometimes referred to as Public Water Agencies (PWAs). DWR bills the PWAs for these costs on an annual basis.

From time to time, DWR and the PWAs have found it desirable to amend the terms of the water supply contracts to add terms and conditions that are applicable to a specific contractor or to a group of contractors, or applicable to a particular project or both. These contract amendments each continue with the requirement that the SWP water supply function is paid by those receiving water from the SWP.

DWR and many of the PWAs believe it is desirable to amend the water supply contracts to add terms and conditions applicable to the construction, operation and maintenance of a new Delta conveyance facility. The public negotiations provided the venue for DWR and the contractors to negotiate a Delta conveyance facility amendment. SWP contract amendment negotiations that are of statewide significance are conducted in public so that interested members of the public may hear, and comment on, the matters raised in the negotiations.

The public negotiation process resulted in a Final Agreement in Principle (AIP) among DWR and the PWAs that describes a conceptual approach to cost allocation and the related financial and water management matters of a Delta conveyance facility. Approval of the AIP is not the same as approval of a Delta conveyance related water supply contract amendment or of a Delta conveyance facility itself. Neither of those approvals can occur until after the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review is completed.

DCF allocation factors as of March 29, 2021, are presented in this table.

More Information

For additional information about the Delta Conveyance Project, please visit the Delta Conveyance page.