The Mask Comes Off: Department of Water Resources Reveals the True Purpose of the Delta Tunnel

The Gavin Newsom administration in California has long insisted the primary purpose of the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) – aka, the Delta Tunnel – is to improve water delivery reliability for California ratepayers.

In its Environmental Impact Report for the DCP, Newsom’s Department of Water Resources stated the purpose of the project is to “…restore and protect the reliability of SWP water deliveries …”

“But recent written testimony from a Department of Water Resources engineer submitted to a State Water Resources Control Board hearing on the DCP documents the real intent of the project: maximize deliveries from the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta, accelerating the death spiral of the already beleaguered estuary,” according to a news release from the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN).

The testimony of DWR engineer Amardeep Singh states that the DCP will increase water deliveries from the Delta by 22%. Moreover, during drought periods when fish are already strained by low flows and high temperatures, the DCP would increase deliveries by 24%.  

“This project is a blatant attempt to maximize exports from the Delta for the benefit of large development and agricultural interests in Southern California and Kern County,” said Max Gomberg, a California Water Impact Network board member and Senior Policy Advisor. “Delta communities, tribes, local farmers and our iconic salmon are already suffering from inadequate freshwater flows. Jacking up exports by 22% would be the estuary’s death knell.” 

Gomberg characterized the DCP as a classic “bait and switch.” 

“Governor Newsom and his lieutenants have touted the DCP as necessary to reduce risk to water delivery infrastructure, and that message taps into our fears about water scarcity,” Gomberg said. “But what the project is really about is ensuring the SWP will deliver more – much more – water. And as that fact and the tremendous ratepayer burden becomes clear, opposition to the Delta Tunnel will grow.”

“The Newsom administration is well aware that there are more cost-effective ways to ensure water supply reliability than building a $20+ billion tunnel,” said Gomberg. “But those options do not line the pockets of corporate agriculture and suburban sprawl developers and produce campaign contributions.” 

“State Water Resources Control Board hearings on the Delta Tunnel are expected to run from April through the summer months. The California Water Impact Network will provide testimony in opposition to the project, which would dramatically raise rates, further degrade the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta, and foreclose investments in more sustainable options, including conservation, recycled water, and retirement of marginal agricultural land,” the group concluded.

Newsom’s push for the Delta Tunnel may have something to do with the fact that Beverly Hills Billionaires Linda and Stewart Resnick, owners of the Wonderful Company and the largest orchard fruit growers in the world, are among the largest contributors to Governor Newsom and hosted his 2022 anti-recall campaign in a fundraising letter.

The Resnicks have donated a total of $431,600 to Governor Gavin Newsom since 2018, including $250,000 to Stop The Republican Recall Of Governor Newsom and $64,800 to Newsom For California Governor 2022.

Newsom received a total of $755,198 in donations from agribusiness in the 2018 election cycle, based on the data from www.followthemoney.org. That figure includes a combined $116,800 from Stewart and Lynda Resnick and $58,400 from E.J. Gallo, combined with $579,998 in the agriculture donations category.

But the Resnicks are also huge contributors to the University of California system. In 2019 they made a donation of $750 million to CalTech and in 2022 made a $50 million donation to UC Davis, in addition to contributing millions to UCLA, CSU Fresno and other universities over the years.  

The Resnicks have pushed for increased water exports from the Delta for agribusiness and the construction of the Delta Tunnel for many years.

The Resnicks have donated many millions of dollars to both the Democratic and Republican parties and to candidates for both parties over the years. They were instrumental in the creation of the Monterey Amendment, a 1994 pact between Department of Water Resources and State Water Project contractors, that allowed them to obtain their 57 percent stake in the Kern Water Bank: https://www.watereducation.org/aquapedia/monterey-amendment