Save the California Delta Alliance (STCDA)

After multiple failed attempts to get the Delta tunnels built since 2006, the state Department of Water Resources (DWR) came out with yet another report touting the supposed benefits of the tunnel. On May 16, DWR released their “Benefit-Cost Analysis”, stating “billions in benefits.”

Cost benefit NOT there

According to CalMatters reporter Rachel Becker, “The new estimate for the Delta tunnel project — which would transform the massive water system that sends Northern California water south to farms and cities — is $4 billion higher than a 2020 estimate.”

(The article pictured above appeared in CalMatters on May 16, 2024).

The article quoted Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Pacific Institute, who pointed out, “This project gets more expensive every single time a new version is proposed, and this type of project has never been brought to completion under budget,” he said. “Water conservation and efficiency improvements are far cheaper than the Delta project.” 

Dr. Jeffrey Michael, professor of Public Policy of McGeorge School of Law and Univerasity of the Pacific, commented after the DWR’s outrageous “Benefits-Cost Analysis” came out, pointing out the fallacious benefits claimed by DWR in their report. He points out: “How do we get from $20 billion to $33 billion urban water supply value, especially when the new project has a lower increase in water deliveries?  In other words, this report shows 50% more value from 50% less water.”

The report is more of the same sugar-coated false claims by DWR to try to push the destructive tunnel project through.

Energy Inefficient and Environmentally destructive

DWR’s stated purpose for the Delta Conveyance Project “is to restore and protect the reliability of water deliveries…” Yet there are many more cost effective and reliable ways to achieve that purpose than building a tunnel that will cost at least $20,000,000,000 and probably much more, pulling water from the Delta region. There are many more cost effective ways to achieve that basic purpose that also have multiple benefits and less environmental impact. Yet the only alternatives studied are a tunnel under the Delta.

The “Delta Conveyance Project” – the new name DWR gave the tunnel project after multiple failed attempts, due to widespread consensus against the tunnel from farmers, Delta communities and environmentalists – will continue the gargantuan task of pumping billions of gallons of water over a mountain range, the Tehachapi mountains, to Southern California. That is the most energy intensive way to supply water imaginable!

Additionally, the Delta watershed supports about 80% of the state’s commercial salmon fishery, which was cancelled this year for the second time in a row because of plummeting populations. Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Association, said in a recent statement, “Bravo, Governor, for turning healthy rivers and estuaries into a punchline that harms tens of thousands of families, businesses and employees across California and Oregon.” He points out, “What better way to address declining salmon populations than by draining their homes?”

Threatens fresh water supplies in the Delta

Rising sea levels will require that more water be allowed to flow through the Delta in order prevent salinity to maintain the fresh water balance in the Delta. Yet no alternative was studied that would address salt water intrusion by strengthening the levies and operating the SWP in the way it was designed to be operated: to repel salt water from the Delta. DWR says they will move the intakes upstream. Moving the intakes upstream to address salt water intrusion abandons the Delta to salt water!

Reducing exports by phasing out deliveries south of the Tehachapi Mountains would provide more available water to devote to environmental flows and at the same time would make deliveries to central valley farmers more reliable. Studies show that the City of Los Angeles can wean itself entirely off of imported water at the latest by 2050, and probably earlier.

Harmful to communities

The “alternative” tunnel intakes that DWR has analyzed are ALL destructive to communities along the Delta. They are now planning the intake station in the small and historic community of Hood, located in near Sacramento. The Hood Community Council and Hood community members objected repeatedly to DWR’s placement of the intakes at Hood during DWR’s planning process. DWR refused to meet with Hood representatives and refused to discuss Hood’s grievances about intake site selection.

Frustrated and appalled, Hood Community Council Chairman Mario Moreno organized a door-to-door campaign in September 2021 gathering signatures on the Hood Declaration of Protest Against the Delta Conveyance Project by the People of Hood. The Hood community, in cooperation with local elected officials, organized a community meeting in Hood on December 6, 2022, to air concerns over the Project; including the disparate impacts on Hood. DWR was invited to attend. DWR refused to attend the meeting. The meeting was well attended, with over one hundred people participating.

The Hood Declaration of Protest, endorsed by the 104 households of Hood, stated:

Your engineers ignore the plight of our community and insist on locating two gigantic intakes a few hundred yards from the heart of our tiny town. Our pleas to your engineers to move the intakes to anywhere else among hundreds of miles of riverbank fall on deaf ears; they insist we must suffer the impacts of six or more years of heavy construction activity, the daily invasion of thousands of construction workers, that we must breathe the pollution of tons of diesel exhaust from thousands of trucks, the noise, the dust, the blockage of our roads—we cannot survive this onslaught and our town will become a ghost town.

Jon Rosenfield, science director of San Francisco Baykeeper, called it “just the latest version of a plain old water grab.” 

Take action!

Make your voice heard by writing a letter or email to Governor Newsom demanding they end the Delta Conveyance Project and work toward REAL solutions to provide water for Californians!

Send in Comments

• Email the Governor online at: www.gov.ca.gov/contact/
• Mail:
  • Governor Gavin Newsom
    1021 O Street, Suite 9000
    Sacramento, CA 95814