(a) Guided by the approved priority list developed pursuant to Section 12313, the department shall develop project plans to accomplish the needed flood protection work in cooperation with the local public agency, the public beneficiary, and the Department of Fish and Game.
(b) The plans shall be subject to the approval of the appropriate local public agency or agencies and subject to any cost-sharing agreement the department may have entered into under Section 12312. Project plans may include, or be a combination of, the improvement, rehabilitation, or modification of existing levees, and the conveyance of interests in land to limit or to modify land management practices which have a negative impact on flood control facilities.
(c) Project plans shall include provision for the protection of fish and wildlife habitat determined to be necessary by the Department of Fish and Game and not injurious to the integrity of flood control works. The Department of Fish and Game shall consider the value of the riparian and fisheries habitat and the need to provide greater flood protection in preparing its requirements, and shall not approve any plan which calls for the use of channel islands or berms with significant riparian communities as borrow sites for levee repair materials, unless fully mitigated, or any plans that will result in a net long-term loss of riparian, fisheries, or wildlife habitat.
(d) After the memorandum of understanding required pursuant to Section 12307 is amended as required by Section 78543, the Department of Fish and Game shall also make a written determination as part of its review and approval of a plan or project pursuant to this section and Section 12987 that the proposed expenditures are consistent with a net long-term habitat improvement program and have a net benefit for aquatic species in the delta. The memorandum of understanding in effect prior to the amendments required by Section 78543 shall remain in effect with regard to levee projects and plans until the memorandum of understanding is amended.
(Amended by Stats. 1996, Ch. 601, Sec. 7. Effective January 1, 1997.)