The Lower Yuba River Accord (Yuba Accord) concludes a 20-year California
controversy, and enables the Yuba County Water Agency to successfully operate
the Yuba River Development Project (FERC 2246, 362 MW) for hydropower,
irrigation, flood control, recreation and fisheries benefits – all in an
innovative manner that surpasses the project's original requirements. As a
settlement agreement, the Yuba Accord is the final product of nearly three years
of intense negotiations among 17 stakeholders, including local irrigation
districts, state and federal resource agencies, and conservation groups. Based
upon the success of two one-year pilot programs (2006/2007), the State of
California approved the agreement in 2008, and it is now fully operational. The
Yuba Accord is unprecedented in that it combines increased instream fisheries
flows – for wild, native salmon and steelhead – with increased supplemental
water supplies for California cities and farms, while preserving all of the
project’s clean, renewable hydropower generation capacity. The Yuba Accord also
reaffirms the water rights of the Yuba County Water Agency and its member
irrigation districts. The Yuba Accord represents a nexus of smart engineering,
collaborative partnership and strategy development in the pursuit of a
sustainable solution to a complex controversy.