The Newsom administration has finalized its plan for a tunnel project through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Department of Water Resources will soon certify the environmental impact report, teeing up the public review process as agencies consider permits—a critical hurdle for any construction project in California.
Replumbing the Delta allows the State Water Project to take bigger gulps during high-flow events. That was a concern last January, when storms unloaded the first big rains on California but the skies cleared for weeks after and many feared a return to drought. Despite the onslaught of atmospheric rivers that followed, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday the state did not have the infrastructure to fully take advantage of the exceptionally wet year.
DWR stressed that Newsom’s single tunnel plan is significantly smaller than the controversial twin tunnel concept developed under the Brown administration. A smaller design means less of an impact to farm fields in the path of construction—dropping it from about 3,500 acres impacted to about 2,400.
The initial idea in the 1980s was to upgrade the conveyance system with a peripheral canal that would have delivered three times the water as Newsom’s plan.
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The governor last summer pressed lawmakers to pass a package of bills to fast track reviews and expedite court battles for major infrastructure projects.
But environmental groups and Stockton area Democrats came out in full force against one of the bills, SB 149. They raised alarms that it would allow the administration to shortcut environmental reviews for the tunnel project. And the strategy worked. Newsom excluded the tunnel in the legislation to get the bills across the finish line.
That means the Sites Reservoir Project has benefited from a streamlined review process, but the tunnel could get mired in years of litigation and bureaucratic red tape. Environmental interests and sportfishing groups on Friday blasted the tunnel as a corporate agribusiness ploy to boost profits at the expense of Southern California ratepayers.
