Common use of Environmental Commitments Clause in Contracts

Environmental Commitments. The Final IA EIS describes the impacts of the Federal action on the Colorado River, such as changes in flow and reservoir storage. The Final IA EIS also summarizes and incorporates by reference analyses of off-river impacts that would result from actions taken by the QSA participating agencies as a result of implementing the QSA. This is because the changes in water deliveries agreed to by the Secretary in the Water Delivery Agreement will enable the QSA to be fully implemented. It is important to recognize that while the EIS describes the off-river impacts of actions taken by the QSA participating agencies, it does not ‘‘federalize’’ those actions, nor does it create a requirement for supplemental NEPA compliance for those actions. The Department recognizes that the non-Federal actions carried out by the participating California agencies pursuant to the QSA will need to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), California Endangered Species Act, and other State and local requirements. Toward that end, the California participating agencies prepared a Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) for the QSA (Implementation of the Colorado River Quantification Settlement Agreement, June 2002), CVWD prepared a PEIR for the Coachella Valley Water Management Plan (Coachella Valley Water Management Plan and State Water Project Entitlement Transfer PEIR, October 2002), and an EIR/EIS was prepared for the IID Water Conservation and Transfer Project, October 2002, pursuant to these State and local requirements.12 The following environmental commitments are those relating to the proposed Federal action affecting water diversions and reservoir storage. Based on the impact analysis, mitigation measures were determined not to be necessary, and none are proposed, for land use, recreation, agricultural resources, socioeconomics, environmental justice, or transboundary impacts. Implementation of environmental commitments from the CEQA documents relating to actions taken by the QSA parties is the exclusive responsibility of those California parties.