Three water agencies vote to fund Delta Tunnel as a broad coalition opposes it

SACRAMENTO — Governor Gavin Newsom on November 21 celebrated the votes over the previous week by three water agencies of the next phase of funding for the Delta Conveyance Project, while a diverse coalition of opponents blasted the project as a massive and expensive boondoggle that would hasten the extinction of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt and other fish species and cause enormous harm to Delta and Tribal communities.

The Alameda County Water District, Desert Water Agency, and Palmdale Water District all voted in favor of supporting the Delta Tunnel, according to the Governor’s Office. These follow other water agencies throughout the state that have also voted in favor of moving the next phase of the project forward.

These agencies include the Coachella Valley Water District, Crestline-Lake Arrowhead Water Agency, Mojave Water Agency, San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District. San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District, San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency, Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency and Zone 7 Water Agency. 

“California is going to lose 10% of its entire water supply — doing nothing is not an option,” said Governor Newsom in a statement. “This project, which would ensure clean drinking water for millions of Californians, has been right-sized to one tunnel and is critical to our all-of-the-above strategy to boost water supplies.”

“Since day one, the Governor pledged to right-size this project to one tunnel and embrace an all-of-the-above approach to protecting California’s water access,” the Governor’s Office claimed.

Newsom’s changing of the project from the twin tunnels to the one tunnel took place after Governor Jerry Brown’s twin tunnels plan fell apart in response to massive opposition throughout the state.

“Extreme weather whiplash will result in more intense swings between droughts and floods – California’s 60-year-old water infrastructure is not built for these climate impacts. During atmospheric rivers this year, the Delta Conveyance Project could have captured enough water for 9.8 million people’s yearly usage,” the Office added. 

The 40-plus mile long tunnel would divert water from the Sacramento River at Hood to facilitate the export of water to agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water agencies.

The project is opposed by a big coalition of Tribes, fishing groups, conservation organizations, Delta residents, Delta counties and water districts, scientists and water ratepayers. Opponents say the tunnel, by diverting Sacramento River water before it reaches the Delta, will drive already imperiled Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and other fish species to extinction and have a devastating impact on Tribal, fishing, farming and environmental justice communities.

In response to the Governor’s praise for the recent water agency votes for the tunnel, Gia Moreno, a Chicana and Native American grassroots activist from Hood, the Delta town that sits at ground zero for the project’s construction, said the narrative that California supports this project is a “false one.”

“A majority of Californians don't even know what the project is,” said Moreno. “Of those that do know, most of them are not in support. Whether they are defending wildlife, the environment, water recreation, Delta Agriculture, the Delta as a living entity, the Delta communities, or their own pocketbooks, most people who hear about the project are opposed to it.”

“The project brings no new water to the state,” she emphasized. “It does nothing for water conservation or consumption. All it will do is destroy the Delta and cost Californians more money that we don't have. Instead of focusing on alternatives that cost less and better suit our needs, Newsom and his benefactors are trying to force a project that has already been shot down time and again.” 

Likewise, Kasil Willie, Staff Attorney for Save California Salmon, said the governor is ”misleading the public as to how much support this project has.”

“While some water agencies have voted to move the project forward, it does not mean that the 2.6 million people who the agencies represent are in favor of the project,” Willie observed. “Right now, there are 40 active protests with over 70 protestants in front of the Administrative Hearing Office of the State Water Resources Control Board. Those protesting include tribes, environmental justice communities, environmental conservation groups, fishing groups, cities, other water districts, and more.”

“Additionally, many of the project proponents and funders are from Southern California. The project represents the continued effort to take Northern California’s water for use in Southern California, even as an ecological crisis is happening in the Bay Delta,” she continued.

“While climate change is altering precipitation patterns, a new extractive water project is not going to help. Central Valley watersheds and aquatic species will continue to suffer if water continues to be over allocated and mismanaged. The state must abandon the decades-long crusade to build this project and instead focus on sustainable and equitable water solutions,” Willie said.

Carolee Krieger, Executive Director of the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN), said the water ratepayers are “being sold a boondoggle” by Newsom and the water contractors, noting that 27 million people, 2/3rds of the population, are served by the State Water Project (SWP). 

“The tunnel has no secure water rights as they expired in 2009; no secure construction rights as they expired in 2000; no secure funding as the Department of Water Resources (DWR) lost their bond validation claim in court and worst of all, NO new water as the State Board, in their required Phase 2 Flow Report admits that according to their own water rights records, they have given 5 times more water rights than actual consumptive water exists,” Krieger argued.

“Why would any water agency saddle their ratepayers with a $20 BILLION + overruns debt for a project that can ONLY guarantee HUGE debt? Not water,” she stated.  

Orion Camero, a Delta and Bay Area activist that formerly served on the staff of Restore the Delta, put Newsom’s drive to build the tunnel in the larger context of water privatization.

“Repackaging destructive infrastructure does not change the grave impact of corporate privatization of water, using the same contested strategies as the peripheral canal in the 1980s,” said Camero. “We need to be more imaginative beyond extracting water unsustainably from this fragile ecosystem. There are better solutions.”  

Frank Egger, President of the North Coast Rivers Alliance, noted that the California salmon season, including both commercial and recreational fishing on the ocean and recreational fishing in the Klamath and Sacramento River watersheds, has been shut down for the past two years. A third year closure for 2025 is a possibility, based on the abysmally low numbers of fish returning to the Upper Sacramento River.

“Fishers are losing their boats and their livelihoods, hundreds of millions of dollars in commerce and sales will be lost annually,” Egger stated. “The significant adverse impact of the Delta Tunnel on California's fisheries is similar to the previously proposed Peripheral Canal. Instead of going around the Delta, the Tunnel would be constructed under the Delta.”

“Having been a locally elected public official with responsibility for dealing with water use and wastewater treatment and discharge, I fully understand where these water agencies are coming from. They are in the business of ‘selling water;’ the more water they can sell, the more staff they can hire and then find more water to sell. It's like a dog chasing its tail, they can never catch up no matter how much water they are given,” he explained.

Egger also exposed the ties between the Delta, Sites Reservoir and the proposed 18-½ foot raise on Shasta Dam that incoming Donald Trump administration is expected to push.

“The Delta Tunnel creates no new water,” he noted. “In fact, the linchpins of the Delta Tunnel are the Sites Reservoir and the 18 & 1/2 foot dam raise on Shasta Dam. Chinook and Coho Salmon are teetering on extinction. Extinction is forever.”  

In a similar vein, TB Sletteland, Founder and Executive Director of the Sacramento River Council, said the tunnel “is a boondoggle which is not needed and would come at an exceedingly high price to the environment. The extirpãtion of the winter and spring runs of Chinook salmon will not be allowed and will be a good cause for litigation.”

Dr. Jeanine Pfeiffer, ethnoecologist and Tribal consultant, asked, “Where is the much-needed emphasis on water conservation in the face of increased climate-change induced droughts?”

“We have not seen any mention of more efficient water use and recovery anywhere in any of the State’s press releases about the Delta Conveyance Project. We could be investing in cutting-edge water recovery, recycling, and purification facilities instead of wrecking aquatic ecosystems and the endangered fishes that depend on them,” she concluded.   

Niria Alicia Garcia, organizer with the Winnemem Wintu Run4Salmon, talked about the bigger picture of the tunnel within the context of the destruction of Mother Nature.

"Humans belong to a larger ecosystem of life that’s interconnected with many other species,” Garcia stated. “We can't continue destroying Mother Nature without considering the negative impacts this will have on the more than human world. The aquifer of the Delta would be completely destroyed and that can't ever be replaced. The destruction to the Delta is unconscionable. The salmon need the natural springs to survive, along with all the other water beings who need the Delta to be restored, not destroyed.”

“We need to learn to live within the means instead of continuing to destroy nature for our societal exponential growth,” she concluded.  

Again, the Delta Conveyance Project is the latest version of a massive water infrastructure project that would divert water from the Sacramento River at Hood and Courtland — and put it in a 40+ mile tunnel for use by State Water Project contractors.  

Water Board Will Hold Hearing On Delta Tunnel Project in February and March 2025  

In other Delta Tunnel news, the State Water Resources Control Board Administrative Hearings Office (AHO) will hold a public hearing about the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP), AKA Delta Tunnel, on February 18 and March 25, 2025.

The hearing will be held at the Joe Serna CalEPA Building, Sierra Hearing Room, Second Floor, 1001 I Street, in Sacramento starting at 9 a.m. People can participate both in person and via Zoom.

The hearing will address the water right change petitions filed by the Department of Water Resources (DWR or Petitioner) that propose to add two new points of diversion (PODs) and rediversion (PORDs) to water right Permits 16478, 16479, 16481, and 16482 (Applications 5630, 14443, 14445A, and 17512, respectively) (State Water Project Permits).

“The purpose of the hearing is to gather evidence that the State Water Board will consider to determine whether to approve the petitions and, if so, what specific terms and conditions the Board should include in the amended SWP Permits,” according to a notice from the Water Board. “The hearing will begin on February 18, 2025, with the presentation of oral policy statements by interested persons or entities and discussion of outstanding procedural issues. The hearing will continue on March 25, 2025, with presentation by the Petitioner of case-in-chief testimony. The AHO will conduct a third pre-hearing conference on December 16, 2024.”

“The purpose of this hearing is to develop an evidentiary record on which the State Water Board will rely in acting on the petitions to change the SWP Permits to authorize operation of the proposed Delta Conveyance Project. This hearing will necessarily be highly complex — procedurally, factually, and legally. But the hearing is made even more complex because the time period for the Petitioner to perfect beneficial use of its water rights under the SWP Permits has expired,” the Board stated.

“The Petitioner has not perfected the full amount authorized to be appropriated under the SWP Permits but filed these petitions for change without filing companion petitions to extend the time allowed to complete beneficial use. As a result, the Board must consider and act on the change petitions without knowing whether the Board will, at some future time, grant any petitions for extension of time yet to be filed by the Petitioner or whether the Board will revoke a portion of the SWP Permits,” the Board concluded.

Parties Appeal Certification for Delta Tunnel Geotechical Activities

In more Delta Tunnel news, the Delta Stewardship Council reports that the following parties have appealed the California Department of Water Resources Certification of Consistency (C20242) for the 2024-2026 Proposed Geotechnical Activities for the Delta Conveyance Project, which was submitted to the Delta Stewardship Council on October 8, 2024:

C20242-A1 – San Francisco Baykeeper, Winnemem Wintu, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, California Indian Environmental Alliance, Friends of the River, Center for Biological Diversity, Save California Salmon, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Golden State Salmon Association and Restore the Delta.

C20242-A2 – South Delta Water Agency

C20242-A3 – County of Sacramento, Sacramento County Water Agency, Sacramento Area Sewer District, City of Stockton

C20242-A4 – County of San Joaquin, Central Delta Water Agency, Local Agencies of the North Delta

The effective date for the appeals is November 7, 2024 (23 Cal. Code Regs. § 5022, subsection (d)(2)).