Citations
- 43 Cal. 4th 1143
Full opinion text
Opinion
KENNARD, J.
California’s two largest rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers, meet to form a delta (California Delta or Delta) near the City of Sacramento, and their combined waters, if not diverted, flow through the Delta, Suisun Bay, and San Francisco Bay, to the Pacific Ocean. The flow of water through this region, commonly known as the Bay-Delta, forms the largest estuary on the West Coast of the United States. It is also the hub of California’s two largest water distribution systems, supplying drinking water for two-thirds of California’s residents and irrigation water for seven million acres of agricultural land.
Competition for the Bay-Delta’s resources, pollution of Bay-Delta water, draining and filling of tidal marshes and other wetlands, and diversion of Bay-Delta water for urban and agricultural uses throughout the state have, however, resulted in a decline in Bay-Delta wildlife habitat, the threatened extinction of plant and animal species, an increasing risk of failure of Bay-Delta levees, and degradation of the Bay-Delta as a reliable source of high quality water.
In 1994, to address the Bay-Delta’s problems, 18 federal and state agencies formed a consortium, known as CALFED, to design and implement a long-term and comprehensive plan (the CALFED Program or Program), to restore the Bay-Delta’s ecological health and to improve management of Bay-Delta water for the various beneficial uses that depend on it. The CALFED Program was intended to reduce conflicts and provide solutions that competing interests could support. Because of the plan’s comprehensive and long-range nature, CALFED decided to proceed in stages and to begin by preparing a program environmental impact statement/environmental impact report (EIR; together PEIS/R). Under state law, a program environmental impact report is one that “may be prepared on a series of actions that can be characterized as one large project” and are related in specified ways. (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, § 15168, subd. (a).)
Here, we must determine whether, as the Court of Appeal concluded, the final PEIS/R for the CALFED Program (CALFED Final Programmatic EIS/EIR (July 2000)) failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA; Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.) because it did not examine in detail a program alternative requiring reduced water exports from the Bay-Delta; because it did not identify with adequate specificity the potential sources of water required for the proposed projects or analyze in sufficient detail the environmental impacts of taking water from those specific sources; and because it did not provide sufficient detail about the proposed “Environmental Water Account” (a specific project within the CALFED Program). Disagreeing with the Court of Appeal, we conclude that the CALFED program environmental impact report is not legally defective in any of these ways.
I. Facts, Background, and Procedural History
California has a long history of conflict over its water resources. “The history of California water development and distribution is a story of supply and demand. California’s critical water problem is not a lack of water but uneven distribution of water resources.” (United States v. State Water Resources Control Bd. (1986) 182 Cal.App.3d 82, 98 [227 Cal.Rptr. 161].) Approximately 75 percent of the state’s natural water runoff occurs north of Sacramento, while about 75 percent of the net water demand, for both agricultural and urban uses, occurs south of Sacramento. (See ibid.) The Bay-Delta has been the focal point of the most ambitious projects to resolve this mismatch of supply and demand.
The Bay-Delta’s watershed encompasses 37 percent of the state’s surface area, and its average annual inflow is 22 million acre-feet of water, of which 17.9 million acre-feet comes from the Sacramento River region. Covering over 738,000 acres in five counties, the Bay-Delta is a haven for plants, fish, and wildlife, supporting over 750 native and introduced plant and animal species. Home to residential and business communities supported by major transportation networks, the Bay-Delta is also the hub of the state’s major water distribution networks. Currently an average of 5.9 million acre-feet of water is exported south each year from the Bay-Delta, of which about 60 percent is taken for agriculture and the remainder for urban uses. Two-thirds of California households receive at least some of their domestic water from the Bay-Delta, and over seven million acres of highly productive land are irrigated from the same source. (See United States v. State Water Resources Control Bd., supra, 182 Cal.App.3d at p. 97.)
As a result of the uneven distribution of water resources in California, the Bay-Delta has long been the focus of competing interests making conflicting demands. As the PEIS/R explains, “conflicting demands have resulted in several resource threats to the Bay-Delta; the decline of wildlife habitat; the threat of extinction of several native plant and animal species; the collapse of one of the richest commercial fisheries in the nation; the degradation of Bay-Delta water quality; the continued land subsidence on Delta islands; and a Delta levee system faced with a high risk of failure.” (PEIS/R, supra, Technical Appen., Phase II Rep., p. 11.) The CALFED Program was developed to address these issues and to reduce conflicts in the system. A brief history of Bay-Delta water use and related legal issues will aid in understanding the CALFED Program and the issues presented here.
A. Historical Background of Bay-Delta Water Use and Related Legal Developments
Due to limited water supplies and rapid population growth, the Southern California area began to experience a need for imported water in the early part of the 20th century. In 1928, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Metropolitan) was created to combine the financial resources of cities and communities in Southern California to import water from distant sources. (Metropolitan Water Dist. v. Imperial Irrigation Dist. (2000) 80 Cal.App.4th 1403, 1415 [96 Cal.Rptr.2d 314].) Metropolitan constructed aqueducts to bring water from the Colorado River to Southern California. (Id. at p. 1417.) In a normal year, California’s rights to Colorado River water are limited to 4.4 million acre-feet. By using Nevada’s and Arizona’s underused entitlements and surplus water, however, California has historically used more than its normal year’s entitlement. Because both Arizona and Nevada are approaching full use of their entitlements, California’s overuse of the Colorado River cannot continue, and the United States Secretary of the Interior has directed California to devise a plan to live within its annual 4.4 million acre-feet entitlement.
In 1940, the City of Los Angeles obtained a permit to appropriate virtually the entire flow from four of the five streams supplying water to the state’s second largest lake, Mono Lake, near the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park. (National Audubon Society v. Superior Court (1983) 33 Cal.3d 419, 424 [189 Cal.Rptr. 346, 658 P.2d 709).) Mono Lake began shrinking due to this diversion. (Ibid.) In 1983, this court found that under the public trust doctrine “[t]he state has an affirmative duty to take the public trust into account in the planning and allocation of water resources, and to protect public trust uses whenever feasible.” (Id. at p. 446.) Accordingly, this court issued a decision effectively limiting the amount of water that can be exported from Mono Lake. (Id. at p. 452.) As a result of that decision, and also to protect affected trout populations (see California Trout, Inc. v. Superior Court (1990) 218 Cal.App.3d 187, 195 [266 Cal.Rptr. 788]), the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) has restricted diversions from Mono Lake’s tributary creeks.
In 1933, primarily to control flooding in the Central Valley, the California Legislature approved the Central Valley Project (CVP), which is the nation’s largest water reclamation project and California’s largest water supplier. (See County of San Joaquin v. State Water Resources Control Bd. (1997) 54 Cal.App.4th 1144, 1147 [63 Cal.Rptr.2d 277].) Originally a state project, the CVP was turned over to the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the CVP under rights granted by the SWRCB. (Ibid.; United States v. State Water Resources Control Bd., supra, 182 Cal.App.3d at p. 97.) The CVP annually exports around 3.5 million acre-feet of water from the Bay-Delta and its tributaries and watershed. In 1992, in what was seen as a victory for environmentalists, Congress passed the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (Pub.L. No. 102-575 (Oct. 30, 1992) 106 Stat. 4706), which elevated fish and wildlife protection and restoration to the status of a primary purpose of the CVP, reserved 800,000 acre-feet of CVP water for environmental and wildlife protection purposes, and prohibited new water contracts.
In 1951, the Legislature approved what became known as the State Water Project (SWP), another water storage and delivery system and the other major exporter of Bay-Delta water. (Planning & Conservation League v. Department of Water Resources (2000) 83 Cal.App.4th 892, 898 [100 Cal.Rptr.2d 173]; United States v. State Water Resources Control Bd., supra, 182 Cal.App.3d at pp. 99-100.) Construction of the SWP did not begin, however, until the Legislature passed the California Water Resources Development Bond Act (also known as the Bums-Porter Act) (Wat. Code, § 12930 et seq.) in 1959, and the electorate approved the corresponding bond measure in 1960. (See Metropolitan Water Dist. v. Marquardt (1963) 59 Cal.2d 159, 170 [28 Cal.Rptr. 724, 379 P.2d 28]; Planning & Conservation League, supra, at p. 898; Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency v. Local Agency Formation Com. (1988) 204 Cal.App.3d 990, 993 [251 Cal.Rptr. 593].) The SWP serves the domestic water needs of approximately two-thirds of all Californians, with Metropolitan receiving about half of the SWP’s water delivery. (Metropolitan Water Dist. v. Imperial Irrigation Dist., supra, 80 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1411, fn. 8, 1418; see also State Water Resources Control Bd. Cases (2006) 136 Cal.App.4th 674, 693 [39 Cal.Rptr.3d 189].) Due to environmental concerns, however, construction of the entire SWP project has never been completed, resulting in the annual delivery of only about half of the 4.2 million acre-feet of water projected. (Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment v. County of Los Angeles (2007) 157 Cal.App.4th 149, 152 [68 Cal.Rptr.3d 449].)
The problem of insufficient water supplies was intensified by persistent drought between 1987 and 1992. (Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment v. County of Los Angeles, supra, 157 Cal.App.4th at p. 153; Planning & Conservation League v. Department of Water Resources, supra, 83 Cal.App.4th 892, 900.) In 1991, the state Department of Water Resources organized a drought water bank to relieve shortages. (Planning & Conservation League, supra, at pp. 900-901.) In 1994, the department renegotiated the allocation of SWP water with urban and agricultural water contractors, resulting in an agreement known as the Monterey Agreement. (Planning & Conservation League v. Department of Water Resources (1998) 17 Cal.4th 264, 267 [70 Cal.Rptr.2d 635, 949 P.2d 488]; Planning & Conservation League, supra, 83 Cal.App.4th at pp. 901-902.)
In 1978, the SWRCB adopted a water quality control plan for the Delta and Suisun Marsh, which led to years of litigation that ended in 1986 when the Court of Appeal decided that “the Board failed to carry out properly its water quality planning obligations.” (United States v. State Water Resources Control Bd., supra, 182 Cal.App.3d at p. 120.) In 1987, the SWRCB began holding hearings to revise the plan, resulting in a report that was criticized by both the northern and southern regions. In 1991, after revisions were made to address those criticisms, the SWRCB issued a final report that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected. It was not until 1995 that the SWRCB adopted a final water quality control plan for the Delta. (See State Water Resources Control Bd. Cases, supra, 136 Cal.App.4th at pp. 699-701.)
By 1993, two fish species—the winter-run Chinook salmon and the Delta smelt—were listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.), resulting in further restrictions on the operations of the CVP and the SWP and the amount of water exported from the Delta. (O’Neill v. U.S. (9th Cir. 1995) 50 F.3d 677, 681.) In 1994, the federal EPA concluded that during the preceding 20 years, largely as a result of water diversions by the CVP and SWP, the Bay-Delta’s fish and wildlife resources had “deteriorated drastically.” (60 Fed.Reg. 4665 (Jan. 24, 1995).) The California Department of Fish and Game reached the same conclusion.
B. The CALFED Program
As noted, in 1994, against a backdrop of mounting concerns over water shortages, the ecological deterioration of the Bay-Delta estuary, the decline in water quality, and the risk of levee system failure, eight state agencies and 10 federal agencies with management or regulatory responsibility over the Bay-Delta formed CALFED to develop a long-term solution to the Bay-Delta’s problems.
In June 1994, the CALFED agencies signed an agreement, known as the Framework Agreement, in which they pledged to coordinate the operation of the SWP and the CVP, to coordinate implementation of water quality standards, and to develop a process to establish a long-term solution to the problems of ecosystem quality, water quality, water supply reliability, and levee system vulnerability. In December 1994, the CALFED agencies signed a statement of “Principles for Agreement on Bay-Delta Standards” (the Bay-Delta Accord), which contained detailed interim measures for environmental protection and regulatory stability in the Bay-Delta.
The CALFED Program, which was to be administered over the next 30 years, arose out of the Framework Agreement and the Bay-Delta Accord. The PEIS/R describes the CALFED Program as “a general description of a range of actions that will be further refined, considered, and analyzed for site-specific environmental impacts as part of second- and third-tier environmental documents prior to making a decision to carry out these later actions.” (PEIS/R, supra, p. 3-5.) The Resources Agency serves as the lead agency under CEQA. The Program is divided into three phases.
1. Phase I
During phase I, which ran from May 1995 to August 1996, CALFED used a series of public workshops to define the Bay-Delta’s problems and to develop a range of potential alternative solutions. This process resulted in CALFED’s adoption of a mission statement, program objectives, and solution principles, which CALFED used to create and then to narrow a list of program alternatives.
The Program’s mission statement reads: “The mission of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program is to develop a long-term comprehensive plan that will restore ecological health and improve water management for beneficial uses of the Bay-Delta system.” (PEIS/R, supra, at p. 1-5.)
CALFED identified these four primary objectives for the Program: “(1) 'Ecosystem Quality—Improve and increase aquatic and terrestrial habitats and improve ecological functions in the Bay-Delta to support sustainable populations of diverse and valuable plant and animal species.’ HO (2) ‘Water Supply—Reduce the mismatch between Bay-Delta water supplies and the current and projected beneficial uses dependent on the Bay-Delta system.’ HO (3) ‘Water Quality—Provide good water quality for all beneficial uses.’ HO (4) ‘Vulnerability of Delta Functions—Reduce the risk to land use and associated economic activities, water supply, infrastructure, and the ecosystem from catastrophic breaching of Delta levees.’ ” (PEIS/R, supra, at p. 1-5.)
CALFED determined that “[ejach of the four primary objectives for the Program . . . must be met to achieve the project purpose.” (PEIS/R, supra, p. 1-6.) To this end, each of the alternatives that CALFED examined in the PEIS/R was “designed to meet these objectives in a comprehensive, integrated manner.” (Ibid.) The PEIS/R states: “The purpose of the Program is to develop and implement a long-term comprehensive plan that will restore ecological health and improve water management for beneficial uses of the Bay-Delta system. To practicably achieve this program purpose, CALFED will concurrently and comprehensively address problems of the Bay-Delta system within each of four resource categories: ecosystem quality, water quality, water supply reliability, and levee system integrity. Important physical, ecological, and socioeconomic linkages exist between the problems and possible solutions in each of these categories. Accordingly, a solution to problems in one resource category cannot be pursued without addressing problems in the other resource categories.” (Id. at pp. 1-6 to 1-7.)
CALFED’s six solution principles were adopted to “provide an overall measure of the acceptability of alternatives and guide the design of the institutional part of each alternative.” (PEIS/R, supra, p. 1-5.) The solution principles are: “Reduce conflicts in the system. Solutions will reduce major conflicts among beneficial uses of water, Be equitable. Solutions will focus on solving problems in all problem areas. Improvement for some problems will not be made without corresponding improvements for other problems. [j[] Be affordable. Solutions will be implementable and maintainable within the foreseeable resources of the Program and stakeholders. [j[] Be durable. Solutions will have political and economic staying power and will sustain the resources they were designed to protect and enhance, [f] Be implementable. Solutions will have broad public acceptance and legal feasibility, and will be timely and relatively simple to implement compared with other alternatives. [][] Pose no significant redirected impacts. Solutions will not solve problems in the Bay-Delta system by redirecting significant negative impacts, when viewed in their entirety, within the Bay-Delta or to other regions of California.” (Ibid.)
Fifty categories of potential action, including hundreds of individual actions within these categories, were identified to achieve the Program’s objectives. (PEIS/R, supra, p. 1-13.) These “action categories” became the building blocks of the alternatives—that is, each alternative was a combination of action categories reflecting differing approaches to achieving Program objectives. (Ibid.) To narrow the alternatives, CALFED defined approaches “to resolve four ‘critical conflicts’ among beneficial users: fisheries and diversions, habitat and land use/flood protection, water supply availability and beneficial uses, and water quality and land use.” (Id., pp. 1-13 to 1-14.)
The conflict between fisheries and diversions results primarily from fish mortality attributable to water diversions, including direct losses at pumps, reduced survival when young fish are drawn out of river channels into the Delta, and reduced spawning success of adult fish when migratory cues are altered. The conflict between habitat and land use or flood protection arises because Bay-Delta wildlife habitat has been destroyed by land development and the construction of flood control facilities to protect developed land, and because the needs of wildlife habitat now constrain both land development and levee maintenance and sometimes require that agricultural land be dedicated to habitat. The conflict between water supply availability and beneficial use reflects both increased competition among beneficial users and increased conflict between in-stream and out-of-stream needs at particular times within the annual hydrological cycle. Water quality and land use conflict because water returned to the Bay-Delta after urban and agricultural use contains pollutants and contaminants that degrade water quality. (PEIS/R, supra, pp. 1-13 to 1-14.)
The process of narrowing alternatives yielded 32 approaches for resolving these conflicts, which resulted in a list of 100 alternatives that were later reduced to 10. (PEIS/R, supra, pp. 1-14 to 1-15.)
To assess the 10 alternatives, CALFED held eight public meetings, one workshop, and a meeting of the Bay-Delta Advisory Council. Through this public process, CALFED staff identified four common components (water quality, levee system integrity, ecosystem quality, and water use efficiency) and two variable components (storage and conveyance) and determined that each alternative should include each of these components. The staff further determined that the four common components “were necessary in each of the alternatives to achieve the Program’s purpose and needed to be composed of the same actions in all alternatives.” (PEIS/R, supra, p. 1-16.) Accordingly, the alternatives were structured around the variable components of storage and conveyance, with the description of the common components not varying among the alternatives.
In alternative number one (existing system conveyance), the Delta’s channels would remain in their existing configuration with the addition of some new facilities in the South Delta, including a new pumping station and an inter-tie connecting the SWP and CVP facilities. In alternative number two (modified through-Delta conveyance), North Delta channel modifications, including a diversion facility from the Sacramento River to the Mokelumne River and widening the Mokelumne River channel, would be added to the South Delta alterations contemplated by the first alternative. In alternative number three (dual-Delta conveyance), in addition to many of the modifications contemplated by the first and second alternatives, a new canal or pipeline would be constructed connecting the Sacramento River north of the Delta to the SWP and CVP south of the Delta.
2. Phase II
During phase II, which ran from August 1996 to December 2000, two additional program elements (watershed and water transfer) were added to each alternative, a preferred program alternative was identified, the PEIS/R and the federal Record of Decision (ROD) were certified, and a plan was developed for the ensuing seven years.
In March 1998, CALFED released a first draft PEIS/R evaluating 12 variations or configurations of the three basic alternatives. In June 1999, after further study and public input, CALFED released a second draft PEIS/R that analyzed a preferred alternative employing a through-Delta conveyance with specific facility improvements, and three other alternatives (each with and without additional water storage) that involved few or no facility improvements or sent water around the Delta, and also a “no action” alternative. CALFED held 15 workshops on this draft PEIS/R at which 760 individuals testified, and it considered several thousand letters and postcards.
In July 2000, CALFED issued the final PEIS/R. The preferred alternative and the other alternatives were generally as described in the second draft PEIS/R. On August 28, 2000, the Resources Agency certified that the final PEIS/R complied with CEQA. The CALFED agencies then adopted the ROD for the Program.
3. Phase III
During phase III, the preferred program alternative identified in the final PEIS/R is to be fully implemented. The first seven years of implementation are referred to as “Stage 1 actions.” Among the planned Stage 1 actions is implementation of “an Environmental Water Account that acquires water for critical ecosystem and species recovery needs, substantially through voluntary purchases in the water transfer market in its first few years and developing additional assets over time.” (PEIS/R, supra, Technical Appen., Implementation Plan, p. 2-8.)
C. The Litigation-
In September 2000, a petition for writ of administrative mandate was filed in Sacramento County Superior Court alleging, as here relevant, that the CALFED PEIS/R did not comply with the requirements of CEQA. Filing the action as petitioners were Regional Council of Rural Counties (RCRC), a nonprofit corporation representing 28 (now 30) rural counties; the Central Delta Water Agency, a public agency; the South Delta Water Agency, also a public agency; and three owners of agricultural land in the Delta (R. C. Farms, Inc., Zuckerman-Mandeville, Inc., and Rudy Mussi). Named as respondents were the State of California, the state Resources Agency, the California Environmental Protection Agency, and the secretaries of those agencies. Named as real parties in interest were the United States of America, the state Department of Water Resources, and various heads of federal agencies.
In December 2000, a petition for writ of mandate was filed in Fresno County Superior Court also challenging the CALFED PEIS/R for noncompliance with CEQA. Filing the action as petitioners were the California Farm Bureau Federation (Farm Bureau; a nonprofit corporation representing local farm bureaus, individual farmers, and others with agricultural interests in the state) and three owners of agricultural land in San Joaquin County (Don Laub, Debbie Jacobsen, and Ted Sheely). Named as respondents were the Governor and various CALFED agency officials.
In April 2001, these two actions were coordinated in Sacramento County Superior Court under the title Bay-Delta Programmatic EIR Cases (JCCP No. 4152). (Code Civ. Proc., § 404 et seq.) In April 2003, the trial court ruled that the CALFED PEIS/R satisfied the requirements of CEQA. Separate judgments were then entered denying both petitions. The petitioners in each action appealed, and the Court of Appeal consolidated the appeals.
D. Court of Appeal Opinion and Petitions for Review
In a 224-page opinion, the Court of Appeal reversed the judgments and remanded the matter to the trial court with directions to grant the petitions for writ of mandate vacating both the certification of the PEIS/R and the adoption of the ROD. Although it rejected most of the CEQA challenges, the Court of Appeal concluded that the PEIS/R was defective (1) in failing to discuss an alternative to the CALFED Program requiring reduced water exports from the Bay-Delta, (2) in failing to adequately discuss the environmental impacts of diverting water from various potential sources to meet the Program’s goals, and (3) in failing to include certain information relating to the Environmental Water Account.
Four petitions for review were filed, and this court granted each petition.
II. Standard of Review
“Section 21168.5 [of the Public Resources Code] provides that a court’s inquiry in an action to set aside an agency’s decision under CEQA ‘shall extend only to whether there was a prejudicial abuse of discretion. Abuse of discretion is established if the agency has not proceeded in a manner required by law or if the determination or decision is not supported by substantial evidence.’ As a result of this standard, ‘The court does not pass upon the correctness of the EIR’s environmental conclusions, but only upon its sufficiency as an informative document.’ [Citation.]” (Laurel Heights Improvement Assn. v. Regents of University of California (1988) 47 Cal.3d 376, 392 [253 Cal.Rptr. 426, 764 P.2d 278], fn. omitted; see also id. at p. 407.) “We may not set aside an agency’s approval of an EIR on the ground that an opposite conclusion would have been equally or more reasonable.” (Citizens of Goleta Valley v. Board of Supervisors (1990) 52 Cal.3d 553, 564 [276 Cal.Rptr. 410, 801 P.2d 1161] (Goleta).)
“An appellate court’s review of the administrative record for legal error and substantial evidence in a CEQA case, as in other mandamus cases, is the same as the trial court’s: The appellate court reviews the agency’s action, not the trial court’s decision; in that sense appellate judicial review under CEQA is de novo.” (Vineyard Area Citizens for Responsible Growth, Inc. v. City of Rancho Cordova (2007) 40 Cal.4th 412, 427 [53 Cal.Rptr.3d 821, 150 P.3d 709].)
III. Reduced Exports Alternative
The Court of Appeal concluded that the CALFED PEIS/R was defective for failing to discuss an alternative to the CALFED Program requiring reduced exports of Bay-Delta water. The Court of Appeal explained: “CALFED appears not to have considered, as an alternative, smaller water exports from the Bay-Delta region which might, in turn, lead to smaller population growth due to the unavailability of water to support such growth. Taking an assumed population as a given and then finding ways to provide water to that population overlooked an alternative that would provide less water for population growth leaving more for other beneficial uses.” The Court of Appeal declared that a reduced exports alternative “would also appear to be feasible, at least in the long term as population growth adjusts to the new realities of water availability.” Although it conceded that a planned reduction of water exports was inconsistent with the Program’s water supply objective, the Court of Appeal agreed with the parties challenging the PEIS/R (the objecting parties) that “CALFED’s rejection of a reduced exports alternative is premised on the false assumption that, for an alternative to be feasible, it must meet all of the Program’s goals.”
For the reasons set forth below, we conclude that the Court of Appeal erred.
The purpose of an EIR is to give the public and government agencies the information needed to make informed decisions, thus protecting “ ‘not only the environment but also informed self-government.’ ” (Goleta, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 564.) The EIR is the heart of CEQA, and the mitigation and alternatives discussion forms the core of the EIR. (Ibid.)
The basic framework for analyzing the sufficiency of an EIR’s description of alternatives is set forth by the Legislature in CEQA, by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research in the CEQA Guidelines (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, § 15000 et seq.), and by this court in Goleta, supra, 52 Cal.3d 553. CEQA requires that an EIR, in addition to analyzing the environmental effects of a proposed project, also consider and analyze project alternatives that would reduce adverse environmental impacts. (Pub. Resources Code, § 21061; see also id., §§ 21001, subd. (g), 21002, 21002.1, subd. (a), 21003, subd. (c); Goleta, supra, 52 Cal.3d at pp. 564-565.) The CEQA Guidelines state that an EIR must “describe a range of reasonable alternatives to the project . . . which would feasibly attain most of the basic objectives of the project but would avoid or substantially lessen any of the significant effects of the project. . . .” (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, § 15126.6, subd. (a).) An EIR need not consider every conceivable alternative to a project or alternatives that are infeasible. (Ibid.; see also Goleta, supra, at p. 574.)
“In determining the nature and scope of alternatives to be examined in an EIR, the Legislature has decreed that local agencies shall be guided by the doctrine of ‘feasibility.’ ” (Goleta, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 565.) CEQA defines “feasible” as “capable of being accomplished in a successful manner within a reasonable period of time, taking into account economic, environmental, social, and technological factors.” (Pub. Resources Code, § 21061.1; see also Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, § 15364.)
“There is no ironclad rule governing the nature or scope of the alternatives to be discussed other than the rule of reason.” (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, § 15126.6, subd. (a).) The rule of reason “requires the EIR to set forth only those alternatives necessary to permit a reasoned choice” and to “examine in detail only the ones that the lead agency determines could feasibly attain most of the basic objectives of the project.” (Id., § 15126.6, subd. (f).) An EIR does not have to consider alternatives “whose effect cannot be reasonably ascertained and whose implementation is remote and speculative.” (Id., § 15126.6, subd. (f)(3).)
The process of selecting the alternatives to be included in the EIR begins with the establishment of project objectives by the lead agency. “A clearly written statement of objectives will help the lead agency develop a reasonable range of alternatives to evaluate in the EIR and will aid the decision makers in preparing findings .... The statement of objectives should include the underlying purpose of the project.” (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, § 15124, subd. (b).)
Here, CALFED identified four objectives and an underlying purpose for the CALFED Program. (See ante, p. 1157.) The four objectives are “(1) ‘jEcosystem Quality—Improve and increase aquatic and terrestrial habitats and improve ecological functions in the Bay-Delta to support sustainable populations of diverse and valuable plant and animal species.’ [f] (2) ‘Water Supply—Reduce the mismatch between Bay-Delta water supplies and the current and projected beneficial uses dependent on the Bay-Delta system.’ [