Commentary by Tom Zuckerman, a Delta farmer located in Stockton, and Gary Bobker is the Program Director at Friends of the River
Governor Newsom doesn’t trust Californians to make smart decisions about the state’s future water supply.
His push to waive state laws through budget trailer bills — gutting public disclosure, fiscal responsibility and environmental protections — makes clear he thinks he alone knows best. The facts be damned.
California’s current reliance on Central Valley rivers and the Delta is unsustainable. For a century, state and federal agencies have operated the world’s most extensive and complicated system of dams, reservoirs, canals and pumps to divert river water through the Delta for hundreds of miles, mostly to industrial farms of the San Joaquin Valley. This feat of engineering once fueled economic and population growth. But over time, the system has also drained rivers, promoted toxic algal blooms in the Delta and elsewhere, devastated fisheries and fishing communities, driven the fish that make the Delta unique toward extinction, and drawn salty ocean water into the southern and western Delta, diminishing agricultural productivity.
More water has been promised from the Delta’s tributaries than actually flows in them; the state’s existing 1500-plus reservoirs go unfilled during the dry years because the water simply isn’t there; and pumping water south from the Delta is the single largest demand on California’s electrical grid.
The governor’s answer? Build a $60-100 billion tunnel under the Delta to transfer more water from north to south, bypass and hide the costs and impact to fish, wildlife, water-based recreation, sustainable Delta agriculture, and riverside communities so that the catastrophic effects can be ignored. The Governor’s approach won’t make our water supply safe from climate change – it actually makes it more vulnerable and costly.
In 2009 the state legislature recognized that continued reliance on the Delta for the state’s water supplies was unsustainable and adopted a new policy to reduce that reliance and to promote local self-reliance instead. Local water self-reliance projects – including water recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater replenishment, and conservation – will decrease the vulnerability of communities across the state to disruption of water supplies imported from hundreds of miles away. If California doesn’t change course, the potential for supply disruptions will increase as climate change makes runoff less predictable, damages water quality and fisheries, and increases stress on the energy systems needed to move all that water. In the years since the legislature adopted the Delta Reform Act, it’s become increasingly clear that local water self-reliance projects can generate millions of acre-feet of water at a fraction of the cost of the tunnel, and with support from all interests.
Yet, Governor Newsom wants to spend tens of billions of dollars doubling down on long rejected ideas like the Tunnel. The new projects would not only increase our reliance on the Delta and long-distance delivery systems, they’ll also raise water rates dramatically for most Californians. Worse, the Tunnel will remain at least partially empty in most years.
Because Newsom assumes he knows best, he has also proposed legislation, inappropriately tied to the state budget process, that would make it harder for the people of California to review, comment on, and challenge these expensive, damaging and ineffective water projects and programs. His proposed “Healthy Rivers and Landscapes” initiative – a spin doctor’s label for a backroom deal to circumvent state and federal clean water laws – not only lets the big water users off the hook for improving water quality and river flows, but it is the only way that the Tunnel boondoggle can be made to pencil out.
More expensive water. More reliance on already unreliable imported water that will only become less predictable. More toxic blooms and species extinctions. It’s easy to see why the Governor doesn’t want Californians to see his approach for what it is and reject it.
There’s a reason the state has laws requiring public disclosure, fiscal responsibility, clean water, and reduced reliance on Delta water supplies. It’s to protect Californians from expensive and damaging projects like the Delta Tunnel. We should let those laws do their job – if the Governor’s proposed dams, tunnels, and sweetheart deals with big water districts are so good for the state, they should be able to withstand public scrutiny and satisfy longstanding legal requirements.
COMMENTARY: “Father Knows Best” isn‘t a water policy for California‘s future
Commentary by Tom Zuckerman, a Delta farmer located in Stockton, and Gary Bobker is the Program Director at Friends of the River
Governor Newsom doesn’t trust Californians to make smart decisions about the state’s future water supply.
His push to waive state laws through budget trailer bills — gutting public disclosure, fiscal responsibility and environmental protections — makes clear he thinks he alone knows best. The facts be damned.
California’s current reliance on Central Valley rivers and the Delta is unsustainable. For a century, state and federal agencies have operated the world’s most extensive and complicated system of dams, reservoirs, canals and pumps to divert river water through the Delta for hundreds of miles, mostly to industrial farms of the San Joaquin Valley. This feat of engineering once fueled economic and population growth. But over time, the system has also drained rivers, promoted toxic algal blooms in the Delta and elsewhere, devastated fisheries and fishing communities, driven the fish that make the Delta unique toward extinction, and drawn salty ocean water into the southern and western Delta, diminishing agricultural productivity.
More water has been promised from the Delta’s tributaries than actually flows in them; the state’s existing 1500-plus reservoirs go unfilled during the dry years because the water simply isn’t there; and pumping water south from the Delta is the single largest demand on California’s electrical grid.
The governor’s answer? Build a $60-100 billion tunnel under the Delta to transfer more water from north to south, bypass and hide the costs and impact to fish, wildlife, water-based recreation, sustainable Delta agriculture, and riverside communities so that the catastrophic effects can be ignored. The Governor’s approach won’t make our water supply safe from climate change – it actually makes it more vulnerable and costly.
In 2009 the state legislature recognized that continued reliance on the Delta for the state’s water supplies was unsustainable and adopted a new policy to reduce that reliance and to promote local self-reliance instead. Local water self-reliance projects – including water recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater replenishment, and conservation – will decrease the vulnerability of communities across the state to disruption of water supplies imported from hundreds of miles away. If California doesn’t change course, the potential for supply disruptions will increase as climate change makes runoff less predictable, damages water quality and fisheries, and increases stress on the energy systems needed to move all that water. In the years since the legislature adopted the Delta Reform Act, it’s become increasingly clear that local water self-reliance projects can generate millions of acre-feet of water at a fraction of the cost of the tunnel, and with support from all interests.
Yet, Governor Newsom wants to spend tens of billions of dollars doubling down on long rejected ideas like the Tunnel. The new projects would not only increase our reliance on the Delta and long-distance delivery systems, they’ll also raise water rates dramatically for most Californians. Worse, the Tunnel will remain at least partially empty in most years.
Because Newsom assumes he knows best, he has also proposed legislation, inappropriately tied to the state budget process, that would make it harder for the people of California to review, comment on, and challenge these expensive, damaging and ineffective water projects and programs. His proposed “Healthy Rivers and Landscapes” initiative – a spin doctor’s label for a backroom deal to circumvent state and federal clean water laws – not only lets the big water users off the hook for improving water quality and river flows, but it is the only way that the Tunnel boondoggle can be made to pencil out.
More expensive water. More reliance on already unreliable imported water that will only become less predictable. More toxic blooms and species extinctions. It’s easy to see why the Governor doesn’t want Californians to see his approach for what it is and reject it.
There’s a reason the state has laws requiring public disclosure, fiscal responsibility, clean water, and reduced reliance on Delta water supplies. It’s to protect Californians from expensive and damaging projects like the Delta Tunnel. We should let those laws do their job – if the Governor’s proposed dams, tunnels, and sweetheart deals with big water districts are so good for the state, they should be able to withstand public scrutiny and satisfy longstanding legal requirements.
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