South Delta Exchange Authority

The South Delta Exchange Authority would coordinate development along the South Delta’s sloughs and Old and Middle Rivers.

The poor water quality, insufficient quantity, and the flood threat that “choke points” create suggest two key infrastructure improvements must be made to these sloughs and rivers.

First, the SDEA would create a broader flood plain enclosed by new levees, a process that would also produce many new cutoff islands. New development parcels along the levee frontages and these valuable channel islands would be owned by those whose land would be taken to create the wider channels.

Second, the SDEA would construct a system of permanent weirs to replace the temporary barriers now being used to control water quality and the migrations of confused and endangered fish species. These facilities would create tourism and recreation development opportunities.