It's the Christmas Season - and the Battle to Stop the Delta Tunnel and Sites Reservoir Continues
The Delta Tunnel is a zombie project that keeps getting resurrected from the dead by California governors.
It’s the Christmas Season 2024 — and the battle by Tribes, fishermen, environmentalists, Delta Region Counties, family farmers and Southern California ratepayers to stop the ecosystem-destroying Delta Conveyance Project (Delta Tunnel) continues as imperiled salmon and Delta fish species are in their worst-crisis ever.
As I’ve stated so many times, the Delta Tunnel is a zombie project that keeps getting resurrected from the dead by California governors. The previous incarnation of the project, the peripheral canal, was overwhelmingly defeated by the voters in 1982. Then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger resurrected the project in 2007 as the twin tunnels under the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
Governor Jerry Brown continued and expanded Schwarzenegger’s planning for the twin tunnel project, renaming it the California Water Fix, during his third and fourth terms from 2011 to 2019. When Governor Gavin Newsom took office in 2019, he transformed the twin tunnel boondoggle into the single tunnel boondoggle, the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP).
In the latest episode in this long struggle, the SF Baykeeper, the Golden State Salmon Association (GSSA) and coalition partners, including Tribes, environmental groups and fishing organizations, appealed the Department of Water Resources’ (DWR) consistency determination for its 2024-2026 geotechnical activities related to the Delta Tunnel.
“On December 19, a public hearing was held in Sacramento where our coalition challenged DWR’s strategy of fragmenting the Tunnel’s impacts into narrow segments to bypass the legal requirement for a comprehensive analysis under the Delta Reform Act,” reported Scott Artis, Executive Director of the Golden State Salmon Association (GSSA).
“This approach by DWR obscures the Tunnel’s potential harm, disregards the clear intent of the law, and seeks preferential treatment from the Delta Stewardship Council, violating the statutory and regulatory obligations all parties must follow,” said Artis. “DWR’s submission was criticized as incoherent, asserting that a minor component of the project qualifies for consistency determination under the California Environmental Quality Act, even while claiming that the action has no impact on the Delta Reform Act’s coequal goals or the policies of the Delta Plan.”
In case you’re not familiar with it, the proposed 40-plus mile long underground tunnel would divert water from the Sacramento River at Hood to facilitate the export of water to agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water agencies.
The parties filing the appeals include the following organizations, tribes, water agencies and counties:
C20242-A1 – San Francisco Baykeeper, Winnemem Wintu, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, California Indian Environmental Alliance, Friends of the River, Center for Biological Diversity, Save California Salmon, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Golden State Salmon Association and Restore the Delta.
C20242-A2 – South Delta Water Agency
C20242-A3 – County of Sacramento, Sacramento County Water Agency, Sacramento Area Sewer District, City of Stockton
C20242-A4 – County of San Joaquin, Central Delta Water Agency, Local Agencies of the North Delta
The December hearing followed a “California Jobs First” press event on December 10 in Colusa County where Governor Gavin Newsom appealed to President-Elect Donald Trump to support his campaign to build Sites Reservoir and the Delta Tunnel. At first, he discussed his “streamlining” of the process to build Sites Reservoir.
”We did a new judicial process as it relates to just concluding the process,” said Newsom. “Let us know yes or no. Can we move forward? And the first project that won under the framework that was established under SB 149 was Sites.”
“And what could have taken quite literally and was intended by those that oppose Sites years and years took only months because of that streamlining. It worked. We now want to expand that streamlining, and this is what you heard from Karla (referring to Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth) to groundwater replenishment as well,” Newsom stated.
“And we’re gonna get Sites done and we’re gonna continue to advocate for federal resources. Donald Trump this is your kind of project (chuckles). We’re gonna continue to advocate for local water agencies to enthusiastically embrace this,”
Then the Governor launched into his appeal to build the Delta Tunnel, in the process comparing Delta Tunnel opponents to flat earth proponents.
"The Delta. I know it’s controversial. I know not everybody here is, you know, agrees the world is round (laughter) or flat. So I respect the difference of opinion. I have a strong opinion. I think the Delta Conveyance is the most important climate adaptation project in the USA."
The project is opposed by a big coalition of Tribes, fishing groups, conservation organizations, Delta residents, Delta counties and water districts, scientists and water ratepayers. Opponents say the tunnel, by diverting Sacramento River water before it reaches the Delta, will drive already imperiled Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and other fish species to extinction and have a devastating impact on Tribal, fishing, farming and environmental justice communities.
Niria Alicia Garcia, organizer with the Winnemem Wintu Run4Salmon, points out the big picture of what the tunnel would do in the context of the destruction of Mother Nature.
"Humans belong to a larger ecosystem of life that’s interconnected with many other species,” Garcia stated. “We can't continue destroying Mother Nature without considering the negative impacts this will have on the more than human world. The aquifer of the Delta would be completely destroyed and that can't ever be replaced. The destruction to the Delta is unconscionable. The salmon need the natural springs to survive, along with all the other water beings who need the Delta to be restored, not destroyed. “
