The Department of Water Resources (DWR) released a benefit-cost analysis for the Delta Conveyance Project, finding that it would create billions of dollars in benefits for California communities, including reliable water supplies, climate change adaptation, earthquake preparedness and improved water quality.
Here’s what organizations had to say.
Californians for Water Security (joint statement)
Rick Callender, NAACP California/Hawaii State Conference:“Today’s benefit-cost report reinforces the fact that the Delta Conveyance Project would help provide more clean drinking water for Black and Brown communities across California,” said . “As water managers continue to invest in alternative sources of water, we urge them to keep affordability in mind – and this report shows that water conveyed through the State Water Project continues to be the most affordable source of water in the state. The DCP ensures that those deliveries can continue well into the future to serve our under-resourced communities.”
Jennifer Barrera, California Chamber of Commerce: “The benefit-cost analysis underscores the fact that this project is a real investment in California’s future, potentially bringing billions in economic advantages to the state. California’s economy relies on the success of its private sector businesses and agricultural operations which are dependent on stable, reliable water supplies. Improving California’s water system and its infrastructure through the Delta Conveyance Project is mission critical for California’s economic future.”
Tracy Hernandez, Founding CEO of the Los Angeles County Business Federation, widely known as “BizFed”: “BizFed has enthusiastically supported the Delta Conveyance Project over the years because the businesses, hospitals, energy providers and transportation hubs we unite are all dependent on the flow of clean, safe water. Let’s invest in this project to shore up California’s aging water infrastructure before we’re faced with the cost of doing nothing, which can reach the tens of billions. Today’s report shows that we stand to lose billions in economic activity if we do not move forward quickly to build a more reliable water infrastructure. That’s why the California State Council of Laborers has always been a strong supporter of the Delta Conveyance Project and its goal of helping meet California’s long-term water supply needs,” said Joseph Cruz, California State Council of Laborers. “In addition to the thousands of high-paying union jobs created by this project, modernizing the state’s water delivery infrastructure will support continued construction and union jobs throughout the state.”
Michael Quigley, California Alliance for Jobs: “California’s construction contractors and union construction workers strongly support the Delta Conveyance Project because we know the first hand the economic benefits of improving reliability of our state’s water infrastructure. Today’s cost-benefit analysis is proof positive that our economy relies on improving this system and that there is no time to waste. This project will directly and indirectly create hundreds of thousands of jobs across California.”
Jim Wunderman, Bay Area Council President & CEO: “The status quo in the Delta is broken for all users. It risks breaking our entire economy—either gradually with rising sea levels, or suddenly with a major earthquake. The Delta Conveyance Project is a crucial step towards securing the water future of the Bay Area and other regions across the state.”
Charley Wilson, Executive Director of the Southern California Water Coalition: “The longer we wait to move forward with the project, the more California loses out on the potential benefits it would provide. There’s no time to delay. Upgrading the state’s water delivery system is our best bet for ensuring our water supply keeps pace with climate change. Imported water from the State Water Project is a cornerstone for Southern California, supporting sophisticated approaches such as water reuse and groundwater storage. Our reliance on this supply is reinforced by rigorous water conservation efforts, laying the groundwork for a resilient and flexible water system.”
Food and Water Watch
California Director Chirag Bhakta: “We all want and need a solution to California’s water crisis, but pouring billions of dollars into the expensive and destructive Delta Conveyance Project is not the answer, and, as environmental advocates have been saying for years, it is not the right strategy to deal with our state’s lack of water resilience.
“Not only could this Project have a negative impact on the vibrant and necessary local wildlife habitats and further degrade the Delta’s water quality, but it is not a smart use of funds. Rather than building this unnecessary Project, Governor Newsom and the Department of Water Resources must immediately rein in the water abuses by big agribusiness and fossil fuel corporations. For example, Food & Water Watch reporting has shown that expanded nut crop acres required more than 520 billion gallons more water in 2021 than just four years prior. Meanwhile, alfalfa irrigation guzzles around 945 billion gallons of water per year, mega-dairies use more than 142 million gallons per day and climate-polluting oil and gas operators devoured 3 billion gallons of freshwater between 2018 and 2021.
“The climate crisis is upon us and we don’t have time to wait, especially when Californians are living without access to safe, fresh water. Our leaders must stop the abuse of our state’s water from corporate giants like Big Oil and Big Ag before it’s too late, and the Delta Conveyance Project is not the answer.”
LA Waterkeeper
Bruce Reznik, Executive Director: “Los Angeles can’t afford this Delta tunnel boondoggle. Instead, investing in resilient, multi-benefit local water supply sources like conservation, nature based stormwater capture and wastewater recycling will provide even more benefits to local communities than those highlighted in DWR’s report at a fraction of the cost. If we are going to pay $21 billion for anything, it should be on projects that bring us closer to climate resilience and local water supply that moves us away from imported water sources.”
Metropolitan Water District
General Manager Adel Hagekhalil: “The information released today on the cost estimate and benefit-cost analysis of the proposed Delta Conveyance Project is critical for water agencies across the state, including Metropolitan, to evaluate investment options to ensure our communities have reliable water supplies for generations to come. Metropolitan appreciates Governor Newsom’s commitment to modernize our state’s water infrastructure to meet the challenges of climate change in a transparent way.
“The State Water Project is a vital supply line for Southern California, as we learned all too well during the last drought, when more than 6 million residents in our region struggled to get the minimum supplies they needed for basic human health and safety. Climate-driven risks and other challenges in California, and across the southwest, threaten the ability to ensure reliable water for our region, home to 19 million people and the world’s 11th largest economy.
“The Delta Conveyance Project proposes to address some of these challenges and helps us keep pace with climate change. The questions are, how can this project be implemented, what kind of assurances can we have in the resilience it provides to the Delta and our water supply future, and at what price? Today’s benefit-cost analysis, together with the final EIR, will help inform our climate adaptation master planning process and brings us closer to understanding that equation. The information will help inform our Board of Directors as they make critical decisions on future investments in conservation, storage, reuse, recharge, exchange, conveyance and water quality, through our ongoing Climate Adaptation Master Planning Process (CAMP4Water).”
Restore the Delta
Barbara Barrigan-Parilla, Executive Director: “DWR’s release is nothing more than an elaborate public relations stunt. The benefit-costs analysis is one-sided and incomplete since it only looks at benefits and costs for State Water Project customers. DWR must also analyze and include the impacts to California tribes, Delta communities and economies, the fishing community, and environmental and public safety concerns. Instead of foisting the costs of this boondoggle project onto Californians, the state should invest in sustainable water solutions that promise to restore the Delta ecosystem, not destroy it.”
Sierra Club
Charming Evelyn, Water Committee Co-Chair: “DWR’s Delta Tunnel cost benefit analysis is just another example of the organization ignoring basic scientific facts. DWR claims that the Delta Tunnel would relieve pressure on constrained groundwater sources, however they’ve ignored the reality that surface water and groundwater are intrinsically linked.
DWR claims that the Delta Tunnel will cost the same as water conservation are faulty. Water Conservation actions have frequently shown to be the cheapest way to increase water supply availability. The Tunnel won’t even come online until 2045 the earliest, so California taxpayers will be paying the cost of this environmentally destructive project for decades to come. DWR should instead prioritize local and sustainable solutions to California’s water issues.”
State Water Contractors
General Manager Jennifer Pierre: “If we do nothing to shore up the State Water Project’s aging infrastructure, California’s primary and most affordable water supply faces continued reliability risk and remains vulnerable to increasing weather extremes that could lead to supply disruptions. DWR’s analysis demonstrates that the Delta Conveyance Project’s benefits far outweigh the costs and that investing in the project is more efficient and economical than allowing our current infrastructure and supplies to decline.
In the last few years, we have seen that our wetter months are becoming much wetter, and drier periods are drier and hotter. The Delta Conveyance Project is critical to respond to fluctuating hydrology and weather extremes, increasing our ability to capture, move, and store rainwater in wet periods so we can use it during dry times. In fact, had the project been operational just between January 1 and May 9 of this year, an additional 909,000 acre-feet of water could have been captured and stored while keeping endangered species safe and meeting all water quality requirements in the Delta.
Over the last decade, the Delta Conveyance Project has been downsized, refined, and redesigned to avoid and reduce local impacts and address environmental concerns. As demands on urban water supply increase, the SWP will continue serving as a critical component of each water agency’s overall portfolio of supplies. The Delta Conveyance Project will ensure continued State Water Project reliability of affordable, high-quality supplies.
Today’s updated cost estimate, which accounts for inflation, shows that the project’s costs are holding steady and remain flat compared to 2020 estimates. An estimated $1.2 billion in additional cost-savings are also expected through design refinements.
The project is funded by the participating agencies through local revenues, not the state’s General Fund. Recognizing that State Water Project supplies clearly remain among the most economical sources of water, participating public water agencies will fully fund the project to maintain this critical infrastructure.”
