DELTA CONVEYANCE PROJECT: Delta Counties Coalition responds to Metropolitan Water District Board’s approval of $141 million for Delta tunnel

From the Delta Counties Coalition:

In response to Metropolitan Water District Board’s (MWD Board) approval of $141 million in additional funds to continue planning for the controversial and harmful Delta Tunnel Conveyance Project (DCP), Pat Hume, Chair of the Delta Counties Coalition (DCC), made the following statement on behalf of the five jurisdictions that would be most negatively impacted:

“This proposal is as inconsistent with the goals and priorities of the Bay Delta Plan as its twin tunnel predecessor. The DCC will continue to reject a project that deprives the area of origin protections promised when the State Water Project was authorized. It is disappointing that we continue to throw good money after bad on an ill-fated boondoggle, rather than work together on forward-thinking solutions.

The Delta Tunnel would uproot our local communities, the aquatic and terrestrial environment, and further endanger fish and wildlife. Short-term construction and long-term operational effects will destroy the Delta’s remarkable recreational opportunities and devastate the Delta, its residents, and economy. It would prove to be the breaking point of a fragile ecosystem that is already under tremendous strain. It also disregards environmental and economic impacts to the Delta, fails to address real climate-resilient water solutions, engenders more conflict, and would move the state farther away from effective solutions to meet California’s future water needs.

The DCC and many other organizations warned the MWD Board that a vote in favor of this funding was based on faulty assumptions regarding the costs and benefits of the Delta Tunnel in comparison to other alternatives that the state refused to explore. Unfortunately, these warnings were ignored.

Our local communities depend on reliable water supplies and a healthy environment. The Delta Tunnel would burden our infrastructure and communities with over a decade of unbearable construction, and ultimately increase water salinity and harmful algal blooms, and cause the Sacramento River to flow backwards at times.

The DCC will continue its fight to protect the Delta and advocate for ways to strengthen levees, repair existing infrastructure, protect Delta water quality, recharge groundwater, and improve regional self-reliance across the state to strengthen California’s water supply system. We are disappointed that MWD and its member agencies have, at least for now, declined to work together on these shared solutions that would both enhance the Delta and improve water supplies for MWD’s member service areas.”