Drought Shows Folly of Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels

Drought Shows Folly of Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels

by Dan Bacher

As strange as it sounds, officials from the Westlands Water District, Kern County Water Agency and Metropolitan Water District should be profusely thanking Restore the Delta (RTD), fishermen, environmentalists and Tribal leaders for opposing Governor Jerry Brown's Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the twin tunnels.

Why? Well, in responding to the Bureau of Reclamation's announcement Friday that it will curtail water deliveries to Central Valley Project water contractors both north and south of the Delta, Restore the Delta pointed out how the current drought exposes the "big folly" of the Governor's tunnels plan.

"It is lucky for the South of Delta agricultural Central Valley Project contractors (and Kern County Water Agency) that the tunnels were not already built," said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of RTD. "If so, they would have had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars with no water supply."

"The tunnels would not have provided them with any appreciable additional water," she noted. "With multiple years of no, or very limited water supply, could those water takers afford to keep making their loan payments for the multi-billion dollar tunnels?"

"If the water contractors could not afford to make the payments, would the bond holders foreclose? Even so, the land would not be worth much without water. Plus, rate payers and property tax payers in the Metropolitan Water District and Santa Clara Valley Water District would be stuck with higher taxes and water rates for less water than ever before," she disclosed.

“The continuing drought shows the folly of the Governor’s tunnels," said Barrigan-Parrilla. "In the middle of a prolonged drought, the Governor blindly plans to solve our water scarcity by building massive tunnels, when our water supply is decreasing."

Restore the Delta pointed to findings of the administration’s own analysis showing the “through-Delta” alternative has the highest benefit-cost ratio of all the options. “The Brown Administration has failed to disclose that California families will pay thousands of dollars, yet receive no new water. It’s time to embrace a sustainable water solution that works in dry times as well as normal water years," she concluded.

Don Peracchi, President of the Westlands Water District, made no mention of the relentless efforts of Delta advocates to stop Jerry Brown's tunnel plan that would cost Westlands millions of dollars while delivering no new water during a drought. He did resort to the usual blaming of their predicament on Delta pumping restrictions aimed to protect Delta smelt and winter Chinook salmon. (http://wwd.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/bureau-of-reclamation-allocation-announcement.pdf)

"Today is a very sad day for the people in California and all over the country who depend on food grown by farmers who receive water from the Central Valley Project," said Peracchi. "Today is a very sad day for the workers who will be without jobs because farmers have no water. And today is a very sad day for the environment, which will continue to decline because federal agencies trusted with protecting at-risk fish species are content to tie the hands of project operators whose mission is delivering water for human needs, while these same agencies do nothing to address the numerous factors that limit fish populations."

The Bureau of Reclamation on Friday released its preliminary data on the water allocations for Central Valley Project agricultural contractors. Snowpack and precipitation in the Sierra Nevada are historically low and the snow water content statewide stands at 19% of average for this time of year, according to David Murillo, Regional Director for the Bureau's Mid-Pacific Region.

"Without heavy precipitation over the next few months, NOAA forecasts extreme drought conditions continuing in both the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys," said Murillo.

"Unfortunately, many agricultural water contractors may face a second year of receiving no water from the project – an unprecedented situation," according to the Bureau. "In addition, reduced amounts of water are expected to be available from the CVP for urban uses, although Reclamation anticipates having adequate supplies to provide for unmet health and safety needs for these water users."

For more information, read: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/27/1367456/-Reclamation-releases-Central-Valley-Project-water-allocation)

On the other hand, the Department of Water Resources on Monday, March 2, raised the initial allocation for State Water Project deliveries from 15 to 20 percent.

"Few storms have graced California so far this winter, but those that did – in mid-December and early February – will allow the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to increase water deliveries to most customers of the State Water Project (SWP) by an additional 204,000 acre-feet (AF)," according to a DWR news release.

DRW noted that San Luis Reservoir, a joint Central Valley Project/SWP facility, holds 627,000 acre-feet more water now than it did at this time a year ago. "Water to meet the slight increase in allocation will not come from Lake Oroville in Northern California; DWR seeks to preserve storage in that keystone SWP reservoir to meet demands in late 2015 and next year, should it prove dry as well," DWR said.

"We’re grateful that close coordination among water and wildlife agencies in managing limited runoff this winter will afford State Water Project contractors a slight increase in their supplies,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin. “We’re confident that this water, delivered to local districts around the state, will help offset some economic harm of this extended drought." (http://mavensnotebook.com/2015/03/02/this-just-in-dwr-raises-state-water-project-allocation-to-20/)

Meanwhile, Cowin and other Brown administration officials continue to promote the Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build the twin tunnels, an environmentally devastating project that would create no new water, but would cost the taxpayers and water contractors $67 billion. The project would hasten the extinction of Central Valley salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish species, while imperiling the salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.