By Lois Henry, SJV Water
The Kern County Water Agency voted Thursday to pony up its $32.6 million share of planning and pre-construction costs for the so-called delta tunnel after its member districts gave a somewhat grudging go-ahead.
This phase of the tunnel is expected to cost $300 million, a tiny fraction of the eventual cost, estimated at $20 billion by the Department of Water Resources but closer to $50 billion by environmental opponents.
“The decision was not easy for us. There were a lot of thoughts and discussion about dropping out entirely or lowering our participation level,” said Sheridan Nicholas, General Manager of the Wheeler Ridge-Maricopa Water Storage District. The district ultimately voted at its March 12 meeting to continue funding the tunnel but sent a letter to the agency with contingencies.
Several other agricultural districts that receive water through contracts held by the agency also sent letters outlining concerns about the tunnel’s affordability, among other issues, and urging the agency to operate with greater transparency and collaboration before decisions are made on the final funding agreement.
The stakes are high for the districts, including the Semitropic Water Storage District whose share in this funding round will be $917,000 in 2026 and $1.375 million in 2027.
That’s on top of $38.9 million paid by Kern districts from 2021 through 2024, not to mention the $13 million they spent for studies and planning on the original twin tunnels proposed by then Gov. Jerry Brown.
Kern ag districts want more direct participation in the process and some basic operational information, according to the raft of letters sent to the agency prior to Thursday’s vote.
Of particular concern is how Article 21 water will be handled using the tunnel, known as the Delta Conveyance Project. Article 21 refers to excess water in the system after all contractors have received their full allotment and there is more precipitation in the forecast.
Currently, Article 21 water is delivered to State Water Project (SWP) contractors through the California Aqueduct, which all contractors help pay to maintain and operate.
Not all SWP contractors are paying for the tunnel, however. So, districts are asking who has priority if Article 21 water is moved through the tunnel?
Agency Board President Eric Averett said the agency would make sure that question and others are answered before the districts, called “member units” in the agency, are tapped for more money.
“Our commitment is to make sure the member units are making informed decisions and that you guys are part and parcel to this so we make sure as we move forward, we’re doing it in lockstep,” he said.
The ag district letters also addressed several non-tunnel, long-standing issues with the agency, including seeking a more liberal policy for out-of-county water transfers.
The letters came from Wheeler Ridge, the Cawelo Water District, Semitropic and Rosedale-Rio Bravo water storage districts and the Westside Water Authority, made up of the Belridge Water Storage District and Lost Hills, Berrenda Mesa and Dudley Ridgewater districts.
Kern County is the second largest contractor on the SWP, making its continued funding of the tunnel critical. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the largest SWP contractor, already committed to $144 million of that.
The Department of Water Resources, which operates the SWP, has said the tunnel won’t bring contractors any “new” water. Its function is to create greater reliability in the system as climate change and ecological conditions in the delta are expected to reduce exports by 570,000 acre feet a year by 2070.
Its greatest benefit, according to DWR, would be during the winter months and under conditions, such as the presence of endangered species, that prevent pumps from moving water out of the delta.
Even during the extreme drought of 2022, DWR calculated the tunnel could have moved an extra 236,000 acre feet to contractors had it been in operations, according to Craig Wallace, the agency’s SWP representative.
