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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
Program Assessment

Program

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Bureau of Reclamation: Central Valley Project Improvement Act

This program carries out activities to protect, restore, and enhance fish, wildlife, and associated habitat in California's Central Valley. Activities include restoring habitat, modifying water delivery structures, providing water for fish and wildlife, and modifying Central Valley Project operations.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Adequate

This rating describes a program that needs to set more ambitious goals, achieve better results, improve accountability or strengthen its management practices.
  • The 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act established ambitious goals to mitigate historic and ongoing impacts of the Bureau of Reclamation's water management infrastructure and activities in California's Central Valley.
  • Reclamation has made uneven progress on meeting the goals for fish and wildlife restoration. Much work remains to mitigate the impacts of the irrigation infrastructure. The dedicated funding in the Central Valley Project Restoration Fund (CVPRF) may be inadequate to meet the legislatively-established restoration goals.
  • Not all constituents support the Act's goals. Some water users do not want to continue financing the restoration goals; other water users and beneficiaries do not think that Reclamation and the Fish and Wildlife Service (which jointly administers the CVPRF) are equitably allocating CVPRF funds between watersheds.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Developing a more robust justification for Reclamation's annual CVPRF funding request, with clear links between funding levels and progress toward meeting goals.
  • Developing options to adjust program goals and allow for greater flexibility to focus budgetary resources on achieving those goals.
  • Improving internal Administration oversight of the CVPRF, especially with respect to the budget development process.

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