Metropolitan Water District ready to support scaled-down Delta tunnel plan

Ventura County’s main water supplier supports Gov. Gavin Newsom’s scaled-down Delta tunnel project, even though it’s been cut in half. 

Newsom said Tuesday in his State of the State address that he wants the twin-tunnel project — designed to re-engineer the troubled Northern California estuary that’s the hub of the state’s water-delivery system — reduced to a single tunnel.

“I do not support the WaterFix as currently configured,” Newsom said. “Meaning, I do not support the twin tunnels. We can build, however, on the important work that’s already been done. That’s why I do support a single tunnel.”

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Such a scaled-back project could cost roughly $10 billion, according to estimates.

The future of the Delta tunnels has been shaky for months. At one point a year ago, then-Gov. Jerry Brown suggested reducing it to one tunnel as a way of slashing costs. But with much of Southern California depending on water imported from the north, the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District agreed to double its contribution to the project to $10.8 billion, putting the two-tunnel approach back on track.

Through intermediaries, Metropolitan supplies drinking water to about 75 percent of Ventura County residents.

“While a single tunnel project will not resolve all pumping problems in the Delta and is less flexible for dealing with climate change impacts, it is imperative that we move forward rapidly on a conveyance project,” Metropolitan General Manager Jeffrey Kightlinger said in a statement.

“Having no Delta fix imperils all of California.”

He said the agency intends to work constructively with the Newsom administration on developing a WaterFix project “that addresses the needs of cities, farms and the environment.”

But Kightlinger expressed frustration that the project will be delayed even more.

“We’ve been working on this project a long time, and people like to delay projects they don’t like,” Kightlinger said. “That’s usually the best way to kill a project. In our view, we run the risk of a Katrina-type event and having a huge disaster for our state. The more we push the can down the road, the more exposed we are.”

The long path from planning to reality 

The Delta tunnels plan began under then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It called for building two tunnels, each 35 miles long and 40 feet tall, under the Delta, the vast system of channels and sloughs between the Bay Area and Sacramento where the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers meet before they flow into San Francisco Bay.

In 2009, the Department of Water Resources announced the project would cost $140 million to plan, design and permit. So far, just planning it has cost at least twice that.

The original idea was that the tunnels would take water from the Sacramento River, south of Sacramento, and move it to the huge pumps near Tracy that are part of the State Water Project and Central Valley Project. This would alter how water flows through the Delta and, supporters say, reduce reliance on the pumps and make water deliveries more reliable by protecting endangered salmon, smelt and other fish, which can be killed by the pumps. Court rulings now limit water pumping when the fish are migrating near the pumps.

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But critics called the plan a huge boondoggle that would eventually allow large agribusiness interests in the San Joaquin Valley, as well as urban users in Southern California, to take more water out of the Delta, regardless of what promises are made now.

Officials in Newsom’s administration said the shift to one tunnel will still help the Delta enormously — and won’t delay the project.

“A single-tunnel, smaller project provides the important environmental and water supply benefits California needs,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources, in a prepared statement. “Governor Newsom’s vision can be implemented more quickly.”

What’s the latest reaction?

Many environmentalists and local government officials in the Sacramento area have generally opposed WaterFix, regardless of the number of tunnels, arguing that the project would worsen the Delta’s problems. Delta farmers in particular say the project, by siphoning a portion of the Sacramento River’s flow, would leave the estuary much saltier and less conducive to growing crops.

“We are grateful today that Gov. Newsom is burying the twin tunnels,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla of Restore the Delta, a group that’s opposed the project.

“I am skeptical about one tunnel,” she added, but said her organization is willing “to re-evaluate it with fresh eyes.”

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Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, indicated he continues to oppose the project, tweeting, “One tunnel down, one to go.”

Critics are suing to block the project; they’re also trying to prevent state officials from securing crucial permits from the State Water Resources Control Board.

The project has struggled with another huge hurdle: money. WaterFix is to be financed by the south-of-Delta water agencies that would benefit from its construction. But San Joaquin Valley farmers have refused to pledge any dollars. With the project reduced to a single tunnel, however, the gap in funding could disappear.

Newsom’s announcement left unclear what role the federal government will play. President Donald Trump’s administration has shown little support for the project.

From reports by the Sacramento Bee and San Jose Union Tribune via Tribune Content Agency, as well as The Star staff.