After MWD vote, Delta Counties Coalition vows to continue fight against Delta Tunnel

On Dec. 10, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Board approved $141.6 million in additional funding for the Delta Conveyance Project, despite opposition by a broad coalition of California Tribes, fishing groups, conservation organizations, environmental justice organizations, family farmers, Southern California ratepayers and elected officials. 

The Delta Counties Coalition (DCC), consisting of Contra Costa, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano and Yolo Counties, issued a statement expressing their disappointment with the Board’s approval of $141.6 million for continued planning of the “controversial and harmful” Delta Tunnel.

The DCC vowed to “continue its fight to protect the Delta and advocate for ways to strengthen levees, repair existing infrastructure, protect Delta water quality, recharge groundwater, and improve regional self-reliance across the state to strengthen California’s water supply system.

Here is the full statement: 

In response to Metropolitan Water District Board’s (MWD Board) approval of $141 million in additional funds to continue planning for the controversial and harmful Delta Tunnel Conveyance Project (DCP), Pat Hume, Chair of the Delta Counties Coalition (DCC), made the following statement on behalf of the five jurisdictions that would be most negatively impacted:

“This proposal is as inconsistent with the goals and priorities of the Bay Delta Plan as its twin tunnel predecessor. The DCC will continue to reject a project that deprives the area of origin protections promised when the State Water Project was authorized. It is disappointing that we continue to throw good money after bad on an ill-fated boondoggle, rather than work together on forward-thinking solutions.

The Delta Tunnel would uproot our local communities, the aquatic and terrestrial environment, and further endanger fish and wildlife. Short-term construction and long-term operational effects will destroy the Delta’s remarkable recreational opportunities and devastate the Delta, its residents, and economy. It would prove to be the breaking point of a fragile ecosystem that is already under tremendous strain. It also disregards environmental and economic impacts to the Delta, fails to address real climate-resilient water solutions, engenders more conflict, and would move the state farther away from effective solutions to meet California’s future water needs.

The DCC and many other organizations warned the MWD Board that a vote in favor of this funding was based on faulty assumptions regarding the costs and benefits of the Delta Tunnel in comparison to other alternatives that the state refused to explore. Unfortunately, these warnings were ignored.

Our local communities depend on reliable water supplies and a healthy environment. The Delta Tunnel would burden our infrastructure and communities with over a decade of unbearable construction, and ultimately increase water salinity and harmful algal blooms, and cause the Sacramento River to flow backwards at times.

The DCC will continue its fight to protect the Delta and advocate for ways to strengthen levees, repair existing infrastructure, protect Delta water quality, recharge groundwater, and improve regional self-reliance across the state to strengthen California’s water supply system. We are disappointed that MWD and its member agencies have, at least for now, declined to work together on these shared solutions that would both enhance the Delta and improve water supplies for MWD’s member service areas.”

Background: Central Valley salmon and Delta fish are in worst-ever crisis

Governor Gavin Newsom’s campaign to build the Delta Tunnel comes as Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations are in their worst-ever crisis.

The Delta Smelt, an indicator species that was once the most abundant fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, is virtually extinct in the wild, due to massive water exports to agribusiness and other factors over the past several decades. Zero smelt have been caught over the past six years in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Midwater Trawl Survey.

The ocean and river salmon fishing seasons have been closed for the past two years, due to the collapse of Sacramento River and Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon populations. Meanwhile, endangered winter and spring-Chinook salmon populations are moving closer to extinction. Butte Creek, once the stronghold of spring run Chinook, saw a record low of 100 fish return to spawn last year and an even lower number of fish this year.

The Delta Tunnel will divert Sacramento River water before it reaches the Delta when what imperiled fish populations need is more water flowing through the Delta, not less.