The Shasta Dam Raise

UPDATE: October 26, 2023: The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill purporting to federally preempt McCloud River protections in the California Wild & Scenic Rivers Act. The U.S. Senate and the Administration must now respond.

Due to the proposed raise, the McCloud River was recognized as one of the Most Endangered Rivers in America for 2021. Friends of the River has joined forces with the American Rivers organization to ask the new Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, to kill this unjust and harmful project once and for all. You can help stop the Raising of the Shasta Dam by signing the Petition to stop the raising of the Shasta Dam

This year, Rep. David Valadao introduced legislation (H.R. 215) to override the California Wild & Scenic Rivers Act to allow the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to inundate a portion of the state-protected McCloud River and authorize federal construction funding to do so by raising Shasta Dam. The measure passed the House Natural Resources Committee on April 28, 2023. In June H.R. 215 was included by the House Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee markup of the Energy and Water Appropriations bill (page 64, Title V “Water for California” Sec. 501). On October 26, the U.S. House of Representative passed the Energy and Water Appropriations bill, H.R. 4394, the “Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2024.” H.R. 4394 included H.R. 215. This is one of the must-pass bills to fund the federal government.

The U.S. Senate must now act, and so must the Administration. A key Administration contact is:

Shalanda Young, Director,
Office of Management and Budget
Executive Office of the President
The White House
725 – 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20503

Shasta Dam fundamentally changed how the Sacramento, Pit, and McCloud Rivers flow and function. The proposed dam raise threatens an already impacted ecosystem.

Resources, Comments, & Documents

Raising Shasta Dam

The federal Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) has developed a Feasibility Report and final EIS to raise Shasta Dam by 18.5 feet to enlarge its reservoir 20.5 feet and in August 2020 issued a supplemental draft EIS. The dam raise will further modify flows in the Sacramento River to the detriment of downstream fish and wildlife species, flood more than 5,000 acres of forest and riverside habitat, and harm several rare and endangered wildlife and plant species (including the Shasta snow-wreath, Shasta salamander, and Pacific fisher). It will also violate state law protecting the McCloud River and destroy sacred cultural sites of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe on the McCloud River.

In addition, the proposed project would cost $2 billion while resulting in new deliveries of a paltry 51,300 acre feet of water annually and cause the expensive relocation of recreational facilities, roads, and other public infrastructure. The Westlands Water District has begun the preparation of an environmental impact report (EIR) for partnering with Reclamation on the project. Replies from state agencies have called the project and the preparation of an EIR by the district unlawful. The last two California Natural Resources Agency directors have called the project illegal under California law.

On May 13, 2019, in separate lawsuits, the California Attorney General, representing the people of California, and Friends of the River et al. (Friends of the River, Golden Gate Salmon Association, Pacific Coast Fishermen’s Association, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Natural Resources Defense Council), represented by Earthjustice, filed a complaint in Shasta County Superior Court against the Westlands Water District for violation of the California Wild & Scenic Rivers Act. The complaints sought declaratory and injunctive relief and a writ of mandate that Westlands is prohibited from undertaking the SDRP EIR, signing a cost-sharing agreement with Reclamation, and must halt its assistance and cooperation with Reclamation’s Shasta Dam raise project.

On June 12, 2019, the CA Attorney General sought a preliminary injunction against Westlands. On June 20, 2019, a third lawsuit was filed against Westlands by the North Coast Rivers Alliance and the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association. The California Attorney General's preliminary injunction request to stop Westlands' environmental impact report and other planning for the dam raise was granted on July 29, 2019, in Shasta County Superior Court. Westlands' effort to to get that judgement reversed was turned down by the Third District Court of Appeals and the California Supreme Court. The trials were scheduled for April 14, 2020, months after Reclamation was scheduled to begin construction and even more months after Westlands' upcoming scheduled cost-sharing agreement with Reclamation.

On September 30, 2019, Westlands announced that it was terminating its enjoined EIR and instead going to prepare an analysis on whether putting an expanded Shasta Reservoir on a free-flowing river might have an adverse effect on its free-flowing condition and wild trout fishery, presumably with the view to starting up the draft EIR once they had concluded otherwise.

On November 8, 2019, the plaintiffs in the lawsuits announced a settlement with Westlands for a proposed stipulated judgment that would order Westlands to comply with the California Wild & Scenic Rivers Act. The preliminary injunction would also end. The judgment was subsequently issued by the court on November 20, 2019.

In the view of the plaintiffs, the judgment would prevent Westlands from undertaking an EIR and cost-sharing the project with Reclamation. In previous court filings and press interviews, Westlands has taken the view that neither it nor Reclamation are constrained by the California Wild & Scenic Rivers Act since the Act does not explicitly prohibit the dam raise (and for other reasons). Under the judgment, if Westlands begins to cooperate and assist Reclamation in the planning of the dam raise again, plaintiffs would be able to ask the court to enforce the judgment and a trial on the merits of the case could follow.

See below for an extensive collection of resources, documents, fact sheets, and press.

In June 2019, Senator Feinstein and others introduced the Drought Resiliency and Water Supply Infrastructure Act ("DRWSIA"), S. 1932, which would amend the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act of 2016 (WIIN)—the statute that Reclamation purports to be using to "authorize" the Shasta Dam & Reservoir Expansion Project (SDREP)—to be a permanent part of Reclamation Law. DRWSIA would also add two thirds of a billion dollars of appropriations authority available to the Secretary of the Interior (once appropriated) to spend on DRWSIA projects (making a billion dollars of authority available). The legislation, does require Reclamation to follow environmental law and any existing requirements to comply with state law. The current federal Administration maintains, however, that it does not read in state environmental law any prohibition of the dam raise, a reversal of statements made in Reclamation's Shasta Dam raise final feasibility and environmental impact statements from 2014 and 2015.

In mid-December 2019, press accounts revealed that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) was pressuring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to fund the Shasta Dam raise in the must-pass annual appropriations (spending) bill for much of the federal government. The resulting appropriations "minibus," HR 1865, became law without any new or modified appropriations for the Shasta Dam raise in FY 2019-20. Discussions have occurred within Interior about tapping other federal funding sources other than Congressionally specified project annual appropriations.

The first public demonstration of this was on February 4, 2020, when U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation planned a "Distribution of Additional Funding" for federal fiscal year 2020 of $8 million dollars for preconstruction engineering and design for the Shasta Dam and Reservoir Enlargement Project. This distribution was necessary in Interior's view because of the failure of Congress to provide for appropriations for the project in the previous two fiscal years. It apparently came from funds in HR 1865 to be used for storage projects under the discretion of the Secretary.

Also in December, the Golden State Salmon Association et al., represented by Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior for failure to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests from the group (GGSA, PCFFA, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Friends of the River, and the Sierra Club).

In February 2020, Secretary of the Interior Bernhardt, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Burman, and President Donald Trump barnstormed the southern San Joaquin Valley with a message of support for a lotta dam and the Shasta Dam raise.

On February 25, 2020, the State Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board received a letter from Reclamation rejecting the Board’s rescission and denial of a §401 Clean Water Act permit for Reclamation’s “Shasta Lake Geologic Testing and Scope Project.” Reclamation would therefore be proceeding with the Project.

On June 22, 2020, the Administration wrote to the House Appropriations Committee Chair asking for construction funding in the federal FY 2020-21 budget to raise Shasta Dam.

On August 6, 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released a supplemental Shasta Dam raise EIS announced in a press release with the quote from the California-Great Basin Regional Director Ernest Conant “We are pleased to complete another step forward in making this project a reality.” The comment period closed on October 5, 2020.

According to the press release: "A Draft Supplemental EIS is used when new or updated information becomes available after the publication of the Final EIS. Since 2015, Reclamation identified several key areas that required updating and initiated preparation of the Draft Supplemental EIS in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and is making it available for a 45-day comment period. The supplemental document provides information relevant to Reclamation’s application of Clean Water Act Section 404(r), updates modeling to be reflective of the 2019 Biological Opinions and provides an updated analysis on effects to the McCloud River."

To translate, Reclamation is seeking to use a provision of the Clean Water Act to escape some federal Clean Water Act water quality permitting requirements from the state of California. The "updated" analysis on the project effects to the McCloud River attempts to reverse the conclusions of Reclamation's 2015 final EIS wild & scenic rivers chapter that the project would be in conflict with the state's Wild & Scenic Rivers Act. Our comments are below. They had no effect on Reclamation final EIS, released on November 19, 2020.

Congress did not fund the Shasta Dam raise in the FY 2020-21 omnibus appropriations bill. Congress left reauthorization of the WIIN to 2021. Reclamation apparently missed its end-of-2020 deadline for a Secretarial feasibility determination. This should end its eligibility for participation in the WIIN program, making the dam raise dependent on a WIIN successor such as DRWSIA or specific authorizations from Congress.

As of the time of the inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Reclamation's website does not claim to have made a Secretarial "Record of Decision" for the project's environmental impact statements, apparently not leaving office tidying up the Shasta Dam raise project.

This year, in January 2023, Rep. David Valadao (co-sponsored by then House Speaker McCarthy) introduced legislation (HR 215) to override the California Wild & Scenic Rivers Act to allow the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to innundate a portion of the state-protected McCloud River and authorize federal construction funding to do so by raising Shasta Dam.

For a little good news, on February 8, 2023, the California Fish & Game Commission made the decision to list the Shasta Snow Wreath as a "threatened" plant under the California Endangered Species Act.

Contribute to this effort

Building the Delta Tunnels
One last cog in this chain of river destruction was to be Governor Brown's proposed twin Delta Tunnels, now Governor Newsom's single tunnel.

The twin tunnels, would have been capable, in some years and some seasons, of diverting the entire flow of the Sacramento River prior to its reaching the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Governor Newsom has embraced this get-around the Delta concept with his one-tunnel approach, apparently helping to pave the way for the vision of south state water interests for increased reliance on north-state waters. Existing state and federal diversions have already degraded water quality in the Delta and driven its resident native fish species (including the Delta smelt and Sacramento split-tail) and migrating salmon and steelhead trout to the brink of extinction. Because the Sacramento River is the Delta’s primary source of fresh water, the Delta Tunnels could well turn out to be a death sentence for the largest estuary on the West Coast.

How you can help the Sacramento River

Friends of the River is actively working to oppose these threats to the Sacramento River. We are coordinating a wide-ranging group of citizens and organizations to oppose the raising of Shasta Dam, ensure that proper diversion restrictions are required of Sites reservoir (this may make the project uneconomical), and working with other NGOs to oppose the destructive Delta Tunnels, and building grassroots support for protecting the Sacramento River and its tributaries.

Resources, Comments & Documents