![]() ![]() “Every time we kill it, the Governor brings it back. “The Delta Tunnel is a zombie project,” Harder said. Gavin Newsom, while he eliminated one of the two tunnels proposed by his predecessor Jerry Brown, backs the single tunnel approach that essentially inflicts the same damages on the Delta. Harder has been on record against the tunnel since 2018. It was soundly rejected by voters statewide in 1982 when it surfaced as the Peripheral Canal. Los Angeles and big farm interests want the tunnel to improve the security and quality of water deliveries.īy diverting the water south of Sacramento into a tunnel and dumping it into the Clifton Court Forebay that feeds the California Aqueduct pumps northwest of Tracy, it means the water won’t be used for fish flows or ecological purposes before it is taken out of the local water basin and pumped to the south.īy reducing water flows it will also cut into riparian water rights of Delta farmers.Ī delta conveyance was first proposed 60 years ago. The other counties are Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano and Yolo.Īlmost all of the farms expected to be severely impacted - as well as hundreds of miles of river ecological systems - are within Sacramento and San Joaquin counties. The next county with the most area impacted is Sacramento which Garamendi represents. The Delta is within San Joaquin County that Harder is seeking to represent in Congress in the 9th District race on Nov. “The state’s long-term plan for running the State Water Project just hides its determination to close the spigot.“By the state’s own draft environmental impact report, this project would lead to “unavoidable” impacts to delta farms – that’s a danger to our community,” Harder said Monday. “Salmon, Delta smelt, farmers and towns all depend on the continued flow of fresh water into the Delta,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla with Restore the Delta. The Department of Water Resources has subsequently pursued a single tunnel project, but the smaller project still threatens further damage to salmon and other fish runs and the health of the Delta. Gavin Newsom announced that he was abandoning the California WaterFix project, which would have created two 35-mile long, 40-foot wide tunnels to carry water south without passing through the Delta and nourishing its ecosystems. “But it’s completely absurd for the agency to separate the long-term operation of the State Water Project from the tunnel project, which it’s actively promoting as part of that long-term operation.” “It’s bad enough that the department thinks the State Water Project has no environmental consequences,” said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California. Although the tunnel would be part of the State Water Project, the department failed to consider the tunnel and its effects from water diversion in its environmental review. Just weeks before the department approved the long-term operation of the State Water Project, it announced that it was pursuing the “One-Tunnel Delta Conveyance Project,” the latest version of the enormous tunnel that could increase the siphoning of Delta water. ![]() The Department of Water Resources can’t pretend that diverting even more water under this project would be benign.” “We need increased freshwater flows to restore the Delta. “It’s time for the state to be honest about the damage being done to the Delta ecosystem and our native fish by the unsustainable water diversions of the State Water Project,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. Today’s lawsuit, brought by the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Restore the Delta, and Planning and Conservation League, challenges the agency’s implausible conclusion that the project, which starves the San Francisco Bay-Delta of freshwater flows and has devastated most of the Delta’s native fish populations, will have no environmental consequences. The project approval also failed to analyze the environmental harms of building a new diversion tunnel to send water south. SAN FRANCISCO- Four environmental groups sued the California Department of Water Resources today over its approval of the long-term operation of the State Water Project, the massive system of dams, pumps and aqueducts responsible for siphoning water from Northern California to Southern California. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |