Valley Water District will vote on additional $9.69 million for Delta Tunnel project on Jan. 14

San Jose — On Jan. 14, 2025, the Valley Water District — formerly the Santa Clara County Water District — will decide whether to continue funding an additional $9.69 million for planning and design work for the controversial Delta Conveyance Project (DCP).

The vote follows the vote by the Metropolitan Water District’s Board of Directors on Dec. 11 to fund an additional $141.6 million for planning and design work for the Delta Tunnel.  Valley Water District is one of 18 agencies participating in the proposed Delta Conveyance Project.  

The project is opposed by a large 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.  

In a statement, Valley Water says “it relies on water delivered through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for approximately 40% of its water supply. However, the Delta water system is aging and becoming less reliable due to climate change and stricter regulations aimed at protecting fish species such as the Delta Smelt, Chinook Salmon and Steelhead.”

“The Delta Conveyance Project aims to modernize California’s water delivery system,” the District says, echoing the justification for the project by Governor Gavin Newsom and the Department of Water Resources. “The project will protect against future water supply losses caused by climate-driven weather extremes, sea level rise, levee failures and earthquakes. It will modernize the water distribution system to capture and move water from big but infrequent storms so we can save more water to use during extended dry periods. The project could start providing water supply benefits as early as 2045.” 

“If the project is approved, it will install two screened intakes along the Sacramento River, using them only when flows are high to reduce impacts to fish and water quality. The water would then travel 45 miles through an underground tunnel along the eastern edge of the Delta and connect to the existing State Water Project infrastructure at Bethany Reservoir,” the District states.

The District says the project is estimated to cost $20.12 billion, though tunnel opponents note that the actual cost would greatly exceed this amount when interest, inflation and rising construction costs are considered.

“The Board will vote on Jan. 14, 2025, to keep funding the project’s planning and design phase. This vote does not commit Valley Water to fully participate in the project,” the District says. 

“Through the Water Supply Master Plan, Valley Water staff have evaluated 18 possible projects, including the Delta Conveyance Project, purified water, storage projects, groundwater recharge, and pipelines. The Delta Conveyance Project is part of the lower-cost and diversified investment portfolios that were presented to the Board in June 2024,” the District states.

Jon Rosenfield, Senior Scientist for the San Francisco Baykeeper, said the Delta Tunnel would doom salmon, sturgeon, steelhead and Delta and longfin smelt in California.

“Governor Newsom’s multi-billion-dollar Delta tunnel will divert excessive amounts of water from the Bay, and make matters worse for the fish and communities that depend on this ecosystem. The science clearly demonstrates that fish need increased river flows to survive, but state agencies are ignoring it,” argued Rosenfield.

“California diverts more than half of the water flowing through Central Valley rivers to serve industrial agriculture and big cities. Because of excessive water diversions, the list of fish native to San Francisco Bay and its watershed that are verging on extinction continues to grow, and our fisheries are increasingly shut down,” he stated.

During the Board meeting on Jan. 14, staff will update the Board and discuss the decision to allocate $9.69 million for their share of the planning and design costs for 2026-27.

Community members who want to learn more can attend in person at Valley Water Headquarters Building Boardroom, 5750 Almaden Expressway, San Jose, CA 95118, at 1 p.m. or join remotely via Zoom: https://valleywater.zoom.us/j/84454515597.

People are urged to speak against the additional funding for the Delta Tunnel either in person or via Zoom.

On Christmas Eve, the Delta Conveyance Authority (DCA) released a "refined" tunnel route plan.

The DCA claims that they have "identified a way to construct 45 miles of tunnel with only two launch sites, each including two launch shafts, that are strategically located to minimize impacts. Tunnel Boring Machines would launch in both directions from each launch shaft site." Read more here: https://bit.ly/3OpTjWq  

Tunnel opponents weren’t impressed with the ‘refined’ tunnel route.

“The new ‘refined’ tunnel route is more of the same giant boondoggle and needs to be stopped,” said Bill Wells, Executive Director of the California Delta Chambers & Visitor's Bureau. “Moving the tunnel a mile or so East does nothing to help the citizens of Hood who are at ground zero for the tunnel intakes. It does nothing for the fish populations that will be destroyed or the people in the Delta whose lives will be disrupted.”    

Carolee Krieger, Executive Director of the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN), said the water ratepayers are “being sold a boondoggle” by Newsom and the water contractors, noting that 27 million people, 2/3rds of the population, are served by the State Water Project (SWP).

“The tunnel has no secure water rights as they expired in 2009; no secure construction rights as they expired in 2000; no secure funding as the Department of Water Resources (DWR) lost their bond validation claim in court and worst of all, NO new water as the State Board, in their required Phase 2 Flow Report admits that according to their own water rights records, they have given 5 times more water rights than actual consumptive water exists,” Krieger argued.

“Why would any water agency saddle their ratepayers with a $20 BILLION + overruns debt for a project that can ONLY guarantee HUGE debt? Not water,” she stated.