Giant tunnels that Gov. Jerry Brown wants to build to haul water across California are economically feasible only if the federal government bears a third of the nearly $16 billion cost because local water districts may not benefit as expected, according to an analysis that the state commissioned last year but never released.
By East Bay Times editorial board
August 4, 2017 at 7:05 am
Gov. Jerry Brown’s cheerleading squad was in high-spirits recently with the latest news that his twin tunnels project in the Delta inched a step closer to reality.
The state Department of Water Resources gave its approval to the tunnels by certifying the environmental reviews for the project. Really, what did you expect? The DWR answers to Brown and Brown wants to build those four-story tunnels to funnel north state water from the Sacramento River, under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, to farmers and cities in the south.
The governor is not swayed by the $17 billion price tag or public opinion. In fact, he’s doing all he can to avoid a public vote on the topic, working all the back doors.
He has many enablers helping him.
Minutes after the decision by Brown’s DWR, which obviously knows how to keep the boss happy, there were a slew of press releases from groups like the DWR’s public affairs office, the State Water Contractors (who will benefit from the project) and a government creation grandly named “Californians for Water Security.”
This barrage of opinion is all part of the spin game, an attempt to convince Californians that draining the Sacramento River and the Delta is somehow healthy for the ecosystem.
Brown’s cheerleaders refuse to mention tunnels, instead calling it the “California WaterFix” and begin with the premise that the government is doing us all a favor by fixing some problem.
In reality, government is poised to make a problem worse.
As we’ve said before, those tunnels would have the potential to drain Lake Oroville in seven months, and could take more water out of the Sacramento River than is actually flowing downstream much of the year.
The best solution for fisheries and Delta farms and riverside communities is not to take more water out of the river.
There are many who see the folly in the twin-tunnels plan, unfortunately they live in the northern part of the state and the Delta corridor. They are outnumbered by the bottom half of the state, and Brown is trying to leave them out of the decision-making equation.
All we have on our side is time and litigation.
Restore the Delta, a group of Delta farmers and environmentalists, says it plans to file lawsuits over the tunnels.
Another hope is that water districts that have to pay for the tunnels will realize this big-pipe dream isn’t worth the expensive gamble. That’s unlikely, though. Those groups don’t care about the ecosystem. They just want the water.
Brown seems hell-bent on getting this project irrevocably under way — much like high-speed rail — before he leaves office next year.
Our hope is that a lawsuit delays work just enough to allow another governor to take office, one who isn’t so focused on decimating the river and Delta.
Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.
Mr. Brown is a politician with responsibilities for the people of California. Most of them live in a DESERT ! ! ! He must find water somehow. Remember, in Western USofA, whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting.
Speaking of no boundaries on hypocrisy . . . the so-called environmentalists who will put an expensive drop in the bucket to reduce CO2, but drink water from Hetch Hetchy and then drain (more) of the water out of the delta.
Burning Petard wrote:Mr. Brown is a politician with responsibilities for the people of California. Most of them live in a DESERT ! ! ! He must find water somehow. Remember, in Western USofA, whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting.
snailgate
In Montana they would say, you can steal a man's wife, but don't you dare steal a man's water!
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
Long Run wrote:Speaking of no boundaries on hypocrisy . . . the so-called environmentalists who will put an expensive drop in the bucket to reduce CO2, but drink water from Hetch Hetchy and then drain (more) of the water out of the delta.
Environmentalists are mostly against the tunnels and in favor of maintaining water flows through the delta. Try again.
I don't know why Brown is so fixated on this. In most respects his environmental record is very good.
One purpose for the state water project is to move and store water in wet years to alleviate drought years which is why Diamond Valley Lake was built. Maybe that is more the intent here.
In any case the voters have pretty consistently opposed the peripheral canal as well as this. And if it takes billions in Federal money its a dead duck for the time being.
