Final EIR represents significant project milestone, important step toward building California’s resiliency to climate change
Press release from the State Water Contractors:
Today, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) released the Final Environmental Impact Report (Final EIR) for the Delta Conveyance Project – a critical climate adaptation strategy to modernize the existing State Water Project (SWP) infrastructure in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The proposed Delta Conveyance Project’s Bethany Alignment will help the SWP safely capture, move and store water amidst the rapid swings between wet and dry conditions that have become our new normal as the state’s climate changes. This long-considered and exhaustively studied project is necessary to provide increased water security for the 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland that depend on it.
Statement from Jennifer Pierre, General Manager of the State Water Contractors:
“We applaud DWR for advancing the Delta Conveyance Project with the release of the Final EIR and for reaching this critical point in the project’s development. The proposed project is a crucial part of the state’s Water Resilience Portfolio and protects the state against future water supply losses caused by climate-driven weather extremes, sea level rise and earthquakes.
The State Water Contractors and local public water agencies throughout the state have been hard at work building and strengthening local projects and water supplies to serve their customers – all of which rely on foundational water from the SWP. Building local water supply resiliency requires the consistent and stable delivery of SWP water to support recycling, groundwater management, storage and conservation. There is no choosing between the Delta Conveyance Project and additional local supply projects – California can and must do both.
The Delta Conveyance Project represents a golden opportunity to increase the SWP’s ability to move and store water when it’s wet for use when it’s dry and will allow us to be more flexible in response to the state’s changing hydrological conditions. The proposed project is the right approach at the right time to modernize the SWP’s 60-year-old Delta infrastructure, and the Final EIR clearly shows that the project has been downsized, refined, and redesigned to avoid and reduce local impacts and address environmental concerns.
We look forward to seeing the Final EIR certified. We can no longer afford to let this project be delayed any further. Our climate reality requires that we build and adapt, and the Delta Conveyance Project is one of the best opportunities we will ever have to get that done for California.”
