By Dan Bacher

Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom celebrated the recent votes by three water agencies for the next phase of funding for the proposed Delta Conveyance Project. Better known as “the Delta Tunnel,” the project is opposed by a diverse coalition who have deemed it a massive and expensive boondoggle that would hasten the extinction of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt and other fish species while causing enormous harm to Delta towns and California 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. The other supporters 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,” Newsom said 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.”

His office added in its press materials, “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.”

Newsom’s changing of the project from “the twin tunnels” to a single tunnel took place after Governor Jerry Brown’s version of the project lost steam because of massive opposition throughout the state.

“Extreme weather whiplash will result in more intense swings between droughts and floods,” the Governor’s Office claimed this week. “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 proposed 40-plus mile long tunnel would divert water from the Sacramento River at the Delta town of Hood to facilitate the exports to agribusinesses in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water agencies, including to special interest groups who have spent big on Newsom’s campaigns.

The tunnel is opposed by a large coalition of California indigenous tribes, fishing organizations, conservation and environmental groups, Delta residents, regional county governments and water districts, independent 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. It could also cause many Delta businesses and farmers to permanently lose their livelihoods while robbing Northern California tribal communities their cultural resources (again).

In response to the Governor’s praise for the recent water agency votes, Gia Moreno, a Chicana and Native American grassroots activist from Hood – the Delta town that sits at ground zero for the project’s construction – stressed 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,” Moreno went on. “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.”

Willie added, “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.”

Carolee Krieger, Executive Director of the California Water Impact Network, 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. 

“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 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 five-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.”

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.”  

Niria Garcia, organizer with the tribal 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 reflected. “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.”