RES-10809 Support For Bay Delta Conserveration PlanRESOLUTION NO. 10809
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE
CITY OF ORANGE IN SUPPORT OF THE BAY
DELTA CONSERVATION PLAN, RELIABLE
WATER SUPPLIES AND ENVIRONMENTAL
RESTORATION.
WHEREAS, water supplies from Northern California that move across the
Sacramento -San Joaquin Delta are vital to the economy of California, serving 25 million
people from the Bay Area to the Mexican border and agriculture throughout the Central
Valley; and
WHEREAS, the Delta is the 550,000 -acre estuary where the rivers of the Sierra
Nevada merge before heading west to San Francisco Bay; and
WHEREAS, the Delta is in a state of environmental stress due to the loss of wetlands
habitat, invasive species, pesticide runoff, a depletion of native food supplies, pumping
operations and other factors; and
WHEREAS, the decline in the Delta's health threatens this unique environment and
water supplies that are key to the California economy; and
WHEREAS, the Delta's levees are not engineered to protect the state's water supply
distribution system from a major earthquake, and multiple levee failures could disrupt water
deliveries and the state economy for up to three years; and
WHEREAS, state and federal agencies, via the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP)
process, have worked for years towards developing a comprehensive package of ecosystem
and water system improvements to address both current conflicts in the Delta and long -term
threats to the state's water supplies; and
WHEREAS, BDCP represents an effort to comply with state and federal
environmental laws for fifty years through a cooperative effort to reverse the Delta's decline;
and
WHEREAS, the failure to take decisive actions would be an unacceptable risk to the
environment of the Delta and the economy of California; and
WHEREAS, on December 13, 2013, the state released a public draft BDCP and its
environmental impact statement /report; and
WHEREAS, out of all the proposed BDCP alternative plans examined by the state,
Alternative Number 4 was designated as the state's preferred alternative for the BDCP; and
WHEREAS, the state's preferred alternative is the most promising plan developed to
date to solve Delta challenges and resolve decades of conflicts between agricultural, urban
and environmental water users with a comprehensive solution that achieves California's Co-
Equal goals of a reliable water supply and a restored Delta ecosystem; and
WHEREAS, our agency is supportive of the proposed twin - tunnel conveyance
system that isolates and protects drinking water supplies and helps restore natural flow
patterns in the Delta for the benefit of native species as well as the complementary habitat
restoration, water quality and predator control measures outlined in the BDCP.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE CITY COUNCIL OF
THE CITY OF ORANGE urges the state to move forward with the draft BDCP,
specifically with support for Alternative Number 4, the state's preferred alternative, and
focus efforts on resolving those remaining issues needed to provide assurances that the plan
will achieve California's co -equal goals of water supply reliability and ecosystem restoration
in a cost effective manner.
ADOPTED this 8 day of July, 2014
C_)C"
Teres . Smith, Mayor, ity of Orange
ATTEST:
Mary E. ity Clerk, ity o e
I, MARY E. MURPHY, City Clerk of the City of Orange, California do
hereby certify that the foregoing Resolution was duly and regularly adopted by the
City Council of the City of Orange at a regular meeting thereof held on the 8 day of
July, 2014, by the following vote:
AYES: COUNCILMEMBERS: Alvarez, Whitaker, Smith, Murphy, Bilodeau
NOES: COUNCILMEMBERS: None
ABSENT: COUNCILMEMBERS: None
ABSTAIN: COUNCILMEMBERS: None
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Mary E. City ' of Orange