San Joaquin River Salinity Management - Westside Regional Drainage Plan - San Joaquin River Salinity Management | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The San Joaquin River Salinity Management - Westside Regional Drainage Plan - San Joaquin River Salinity Management opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number R16AN20007) is a discretionary grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation (DOI-BOR), under CFDA 15.517 (Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act). It is structured as a grant award with an anticipated federal funding amount of $3,750,000, no required cost share, and a total anticipated award of $3,750,000. The anticipated period of performance runs from the date of execution through September 30, 2018. The primary recipient identified is the Panoche Drainage District, with Dennis Falaschi (General Manager) listed as the Principal Investigator/Program Manager, and the Reclamation point of contact is Stacy Brown (sbrown@usbr.gov). Eligible applicants are special district governments, and the opportunity was posted January 19, 2016, with a closing date of February 2, 2016. One award was expected, with an award ceiling matching the anticipated award amount.

The core purpose of the funding is to support implementation of projects identified in the Westside Regional Drainage Plan (WRDP), with the practical goal of managing and reducing salinity (and related drainage-water contaminants) in the lower San Joaquin River while also improving fish and wildlife habitat in the river corridor and in nearby wetlands and refuges. The narrative frames this as part of a longer-term federal investment dating back to 2002 that helped establish a more sustainable, district-level system to control and reduce agricultural drainwater discharges from the Grasslands Drainage Area. In other words, the grant is not just a one-off construction effort; it is meant to continue building out an integrated drainage and salinity management approach that reduces pollutant loading to public waterways and supports habitat outcomes.

The activities proposed for this particular award are a mix of staffing, infrastructure, land and crop management, and on-the-ground modifications to the drainage network. Federal funds are slated to cover personnel costs and the design and construction of a pump station with associated pipelines, which are central pieces of infrastructure for controlling where and when drainwater moves. The award also supports converting up to 18 miles of dirt roads into all-weather roads, which may sound secondary but is often essential for year-round access to drainage facilities, monitoring points, and maintenance needs, especially during wet periods when unpaved routes become impassable. On the land management side, the plan includes planting up to 420 acres of salt-tolerant crops, reflecting a strategy of using dedicated lands to beneficially reuse or manage saline drainage water rather than sending it directly to the river system. Finally, the funding includes filling in 2.65 miles of unneeded drainage ditch, a type of physical reconfiguration that can reduce unnecessary conveyance, limit mobilization of salts/selenium through legacy channels, and simplify the overall drainage footprint.

The public benefit case emphasized in the announcement is improved water quality in the San Joaquin River and enhanced conditions in adjacent wetlands, refuges, and other public lands influenced by river water quality. The document points to measurable outcomes from prior WRDP implementation, stating that the recipient has displaced 192,000 acre-feet of agricultural drainwater that contained more than 997,300 tons of salts and 39,700 pounds of selenium. Those figures are used to illustrate that the program reduces contaminants that would otherwise have been discharged downstream, supporting cleaner river conditions and better habitat quality. The summary also explicitly links this approach to sustaining agricultural production in the Grasslands Drainage Area, indicating the program is designed to balance environmental compliance and habitat objectives with the practical reality of ongoing irrigated agriculture and its drainage challenges.

From an oversight and administration standpoint, Reclamation indicates it does not anticipate “substantial involvement” in completing the work, which is typical grant language signaling the recipient will manage day-to-day execution. Reclamation’s role is described as standard federal stewardship: monitoring performance, providing technical assistance if the recipient requests it, and ensuring general compliance and accountability for federal spending rather than jointly operating the project.

The award is justified as a single-source (non-competitive) action on two grounds: continuation and unique qualifications. The continuation rationale is that this work is necessary to satisfactorily complete or continue an ongoing activity, and introducing competition could disrupt continuity or completion. The announcement notes the federal government has invested over $39 million with the Panoche Drainage District on related efforts to control agricultural drainage water and manage salinity in the San Joaquin River, and it credits that investment with helping the recipient meet selenium and salinity load targets. The unique qualifications rationale is that the Panoche Drainage District is the public entity responsible for drainage service to farmers in the Grasslands Drainage Area, and it owns and operates key local drainwater management facilities, including more than 6,000 acres of land used to displace agricultural drainwater by irrigating salt-tolerant crops. That combination of statutory responsibility, location, existing assets, and operational capacity is presented as the reason another entity would not be positioned to implement the same plan as effectively.

Legally, the opportunity is grounded in the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act authorities (including Section 7(a)), as delegated to the Bureau of Reclamation through DOI departmental delegations (255 DM 1.1B) and subject to limits described in Reclamation Manual delegations (including Paragraph 6.F.(2)). In plain terms, the statutory and delegation language is used to show that Reclamation has the authority to provide financial assistance to non-federal parties for projects that protect or improve fish and wildlife resources and habitat in connection with water-resource development and operations, including habitat improvement actions and related environmental management measures. This legal framework is the backbone for why a drainage and salinity management effort can be funded under a fish and wildlife coordination authority: the environmental outcomes (water quality improvements and habitat benefits) are treated as coordinated features of broader water management activities.

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