Say what?
The “Central Corridor” tunnel route goes through the largest natural gas field in California, the Rio Vista gas fields. At the Stakeholder Engagement Committee Meeting on Wednesday, February 12, Karen Mann, South Delta Local Business representative, asked the Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Authority (DCA) engineer about how they tunnel through gas fields.
She asked, “Don’t you build a tunnel in a straight line?”
Kathryn Mallon, lead DCA Engineer, answered, “Yes that is what we like to do.”
Karen then asked, “What happens if you accidentally pierce a gas or water pocket underground.”
The engineer presenting the slides replied that the gas was 1,000 feet underground so no worry.
Really?
Rio Vista Gas Fields
DCA is an organization established by the water contractors, primarily Metropolitan Water District (MWD), assigned to work on the design of the Single Tunnel project.
MWD has a history of ignoring risks. MWD ignored warnings of gas fields when tunneling the Sylmar Tunnel from the Castaic Reservoir (which is Delta water) to L.A. First came the smell of gas, then the blast that killed 17 miners deep beneath the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Sylmar.
MWD is again ignoring the risk.
For more details on tunneling through gas fields, please see California Water Research’s report on Tunnel Construction and Gas Wells
Save the California Delta Alliance (STCDA) 
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