8/8/2023 0 Comments Twin water conveyance tunnel![]() MORE: Meet the man who killed mountain lion that attacked him “I am skeptical about one tunnel,” she added, but said her organization is willing “to re-evaluate it with fresh eyes.” Newsom is burying the twin tunnels,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla of Restore the Delta, a group that’s opposed the project. 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. 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. “Governor Newsom’s vision can be implemented more quickly.” What’s the latest reaction? “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. Officials in Newsom’s administration said the shift to one tunnel will still help the Delta enormously - and won’t delay the project. MORE: Los Padres National Forest issues ban on target shootingīut 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. Court rulings now limit water pumping when the fish are migrating near the pumps. ![]() 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. 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. So far, just planning it has cost at least twice that. In 2009, the Department of Water Resources announced the project would cost $140 million to plan, design and permit. 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. The Delta tunnels plan began under then-Gov. ![]() The more we push the can down the road, the more exposed we are.” The long path from planning to reality In our view, we run the risk of a Katrina-type event and having a huge disaster for our state. “That’s usually the best way to kill a project. “We’ve been working on this project a long time, and people like to delay projects they don’t like,” Kightlinger said. 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.”īut Kightlinger expressed frustration that the project will be delayed even more. “Having no Delta fix imperils all of California.” “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. Through intermediaries, Metropolitan supplies drinking water to about 75 percent of Ventura County residents. 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. Jerry Brown suggested reducing it to one tunnel as a way of slashing costs. The future of the Delta tunnels has been shaky for months. Such a scaled-back project could cost roughly $10 billion, according to estimates. Wet winter greatly reduces drought conditions in California.El Niño is here, and we'll feel it in Ventura County.That’s why I do support a single tunnel.” ![]() We can build, however, on the important work that’s already been done. “Meaning, I do not support the twin tunnels. “I do not support the WaterFix as currently configured,” Newsom said. 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. ![]() Gavin Newsom’s scaled-down Delta tunnel project, even though it’s been cut in half. Ventura County’s main water supplier supports Gov. ![]()
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