While the audit on the plan to ship water from Northern California to Southern California didn’t secure approval on Wednesday, it’s expected to get another chance at a vote this summer.
By Alan Riquelmy, Courthouse News Service
Golden State officials have said the Delta Conveyance Project will pump 3,000 cubic feet of water per second, strengthening water resources in Southern California.
To Malissa Tayaba, it’s a project that will desecrate her ancestors’ graves.
Tayaba, vice chair of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, spoke Wednesday outside of the California Capitol against the project that’s been estimated to cost $20 billion. However, that’s an old number and one opponents say must be updated.
That’s why they pushed that day for an audit of the project before the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.
“Our cultural resources, sacred sites and the resting place of our ancestors will be desecrated,” Tayaba said, adding moments later: “It’s time to see how all of our money is being spent.”
The committee on Wednesday didn’t have enough members present to approve the audit, leading Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom — who serves on the committee and requested the audit — to ask for reconsideration. It’s expected the committee will again examine the issue in July or August.
Costs continue to rise and the $20 billion price tag for the project is incorrect, Ransom said.
“We’ve asked more than once how this project has somehow become inflation proof,” Ransom said, adding later, “Who is going to pay and how much are they going to pay?”
Bill Wells, executive director of the Delta Chambers & Visitors Bureau, described the delta region as a triangle with Stockton, Sacramento and the Bay Area as its three points. Within that triangle are 100 marinas, 10,000 boat slips and an additional 10,000 boats brought in by trailer.
There’s also $250 million in business each year.
Officials have said the project would install a 36-foot-wide, 45-miles-long tunnel. Sacramento facilities would pump water through the tunnel from the Sacramento River to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, bolstering drinking water resources. It’s expected to take over 10 years to build.
Wells remembers when the project featured two planned tunnels under former Governor Jerry Brown. Current Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan calls for one.
“Gavin Newsom decided we’ll only do that half as bad, so we’ll do one tunnel,” Wells quipped. “They can suck the river dry if they want to.”
Speakers at the press conference alternated between arguing against the delta project and urging for passage of the audit.
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director and cofounder of Restore the Delta, pointed to a series of legal stumbles the project has had in court, including issues with geotechnical drilling.
“This project isn’t ready for prime time,” she said.
Ransom noted that though the project’s been audited, it occurred almost a decade ago. Construction costs and tariffs are affecting prices, necessitating the need for a new audit.
“Millions spent on planning,” Ransom added. “We’re spending a million dollars a day.”
According to Ransom, Newsom added the project to a budget trailer bill — a kind of end-run around the usual legislative process. Legislators this month opted against including that trailer bill when passing the state budget, which hasn’t yet been signed by the governor.
The Assembly member said the state Department of Water Resources has pegged spending so far at $300 million, though she estimated it at closer to $700 million — another reason an audit is needed.
The department has pushed back against the claims made by Ransom and others.
In a Monday letter, and in comments made before the committee Wednesday, Director Karla Nemeth said the audit is asking questions with answers already known. Her department is regularly audited financially and operationally, she says. Additionally, a 2017 audit for that the project showed it had received no general funds.
Pointing to claims made by audit supporters, Nemeth wrote that planning, public engagement and conceptual engineering hasn’t reached $300 million, disputing the claim that $700 million has been spent.
Additionally, the department in May 2024 stated that an updated cost estimate showed the project’s price tag at $20.1 billion in 2023 dollars. In 2020, it had an estimate of $16 billion, essentially the same amount when inflation is considered.
SEE ALSO: Outcome of Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearing on the Delta Conveyance Project audit has both sides claiming victory, from Maven’s Notebook
