The Bureau of Reclamation released Draft Water Banking Criteria for banking Central Valley Project water outside of a contractor’s contract service area. Reclamation developed these criteria to implement water banking as authorized by the Central Valley Project Improvement Act and as allowed by certain federal contracts.

Reclamation recognizes groundwater banking as an important water management tool in optimizing the use of CVP water while addressing groundwater overdraft in certain areas.

These criteria will apply to contractors under contract with Reclamation for water service or repayment, water rights settlement, exchange, or other applicable contracts requesting to bank CVP water outside of their contract service area. These criteria set forth the standards under which Reclamation may approve banking and recovering of CVP water outside of the contractor’s contract service area boundary, while protecting the integrity of the CVP.

Written comments on the criteria must be received by the close of business on June 21, 2013. Send comments to Sheri Looper, Bureau of Reclamation, 2800 Cottage Way, MP-400, Sacramento, CA 95825. Comments may also be faxed to 916-978-5290 or emailed to slooper@usbr.gov. The documents are available online at www.usbr.gov/mp/waterbanking. If you encounter problems accessing the document online, call 916-978-5100, or e-mail mppublicaffairs@usbr.gov.

For more information, contact Sheri Looper, CVP Water Resource Program Specialist, at 916-978-5556.