George Lindemann Journal
George Lindemann Journal - "California Presses On With Water Project" @wsj by Jim Carlton
California state and federal officials unveiled a final environmental analysis for the Bay Delta Conversation Plan on Monday to dig massive tunnels to divert imported water supplies in the state past an ecologically sensitive river delta. But the $25 billion project faces intense opposition, WSJ's Jim Carlton reports.
A contentious project to divert water supplied to Southern California past an ecologically sensitive river delta moved a step closer to fruition Monday, as state and federal officials unveiled a draft final environmental analysis.
Under the $25 billion plan, which is backed by Gov. Jerry Brown, two 30-mile-long tunnels would bypass the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Northern California. The area often serves as a choke point for water destined for more than 20 million people and farmland in semiarid parts of Southern California and the Central Valley because of pumping restrictions to protect endangered smelt and other fish.
In a nod to environmental concerns, the plan would also create a program to help restore the ecology of the delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast.
At stake is the reliability of one of the largest water-delivery systems in the U.S., whose customers are now vulnerable to shortfalls triggered by drought and the environmental bottlenecks in the delta. Farmers in the Central Valley's Westlands Water District, for example, this year had federally controlled water shipments cut to 20% of their contracted allocation during a drought that is entering its third year. Urban water districts also have been put on notice to expect sharp cutbacks of state-provided water next year, barring an unusually wet winter.
But the so-called Bay Delta Conservation Plan, which has been seven years in the planning, still faces intense opposition, including from environmental groups and farmers in the affected area. No amount of restoration work will offset the disruption of constructing what would become one of the largest infrastructure projects in California history, said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, a coalition of groups that oppose the project.
"The physical construction of the tunnels would turn the delta into a war zone," Ms. Barrigan-Parrilla said. She also believes there would be other unintended consequences from having water bypass the delta, a farming and wetlands area of some 700,000 acres about 70 miles east of San Francisco.
Meanwhile, even some supporters of the project remain wary of its cost. The estimated $16 billion price of the tunnel project would come from water districts south of the delta, but officials of some of those agencies are concerned because a detailed financial plan hasn't been released. The remaining $9 billion would go toward the delta restoration program.
"We have been clamoring for years to find out how this will be paid for," said Dennis Cushman, assistant general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, a big customer of the water that flows to southern destinations via a state aqueduct.
State officials said a discussion of financing is still in the works, adding that the project has been modified from an earlier proposal to lessen the environmental impact. For example, its proposed water-transporting rate has been reduced from 15,000 cubic feet per second to 9,000, and the route of the tunnels has been shifted several miles east to avoid some towns and farmland, said Paul Helliker, a deputy director of the California Department of Water Resources, which is spearheading the project with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Nearly everyone in the debate agrees something needs to be done to safeguard the reliability of the water-delivery system. Besides the environmental constraints, many of the delta's earthen levees—some of which are more than 100 years old—are crumbling and vulnerable to earthquakes, state and federal officials have said. Critics of the tunnel project say a better solution would be to upgrade the levees and existing pumping infrastructure, while encouraging more water conservation.
State officials say a 120-day public comment period begins Friday on the project's draft environmental-impact statement and report, as well as the delta conservation plan. Final state and federal approval of the environmental project is expected by the end of next year, followed by a permitting process that could lead to construction beginning in 2017, Mr. Helliker said.
Write to Jim Carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com