FOR Takes a Stand Against the Dreaded Delta Tunnel
Nurse Slough, located in Suisun Marsh, part of the Bay-Delta ecosystem. The Tunnel would further reduce freshwater flows through the Bay-Delta at a time that scientists are calling for more flows to prevent extinctions and ecosystem collapse. Photo taken September 16, 2022. Credit: Ken James, CA DWR
On February 22, 2024, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) submitted a water rights petition for change in point of diversion for the proposed Delta Tunnel(1) to the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board). The Delta Tunnel, also known as the Delta Conveyance Project, is a water export project that would take about a third of the average Sacramento River flow at the point of diversion (up to 6,000 cubic feet of water per second). Earlier this month, Friends of the River, in collaboration with others, filed two formal “protests” to the water rights application.
The first protest was submitted with a coalition of environmental groups, including Sierra Club California (2)(3). We argued that the project's environmental impact analysis was not adequate and does not consider the full scope of potential harm, especially to rivers tributary to the San Francisco Bay-Delta (Bay-Delta). We also highlighted the project's potential to exacerbate water demand, putting additional pressure on California's rivers and ecosystems, and thus to increase pressure to build more dam and export projects to meet that demand.
The second protest was submitted together with a coalition of recreation groups and small businesses in upstream communities – those that rely on tributary rivers for livelihood and quality of life. This protest focuses on the threats that the Tunnel poses to the economic value of upper watersheds, as well as recreational and public trust resources.
Here are some key arguments made in one or both protests:
DWR has not yet analyzed or disclosed how the Tunnel would impact surface water resources. The Tunnel is a water project that involves massive new intakes and a long underground tunnel that would decrease freshwater flows in the Sacramento River and Delta. Impacts of major diversions on surface water are inevitable, yet the public has been left in the dark.
The Tunnel will increase pressure for projects that dam and divert north-state rivers. As we stated in the protest, “If built, the Tunnel will remove the bottleneck that currently limits water exports – operational and ecological constraints in the Delta – and thus will remove a major barrier to new dams and diversions. Previously uneconomic or otherwise infeasible projects will become more attractive because they may pencil out with increased delta export capacity.” This includes projects like the proposed Sites reservoir, and Shasta Dam raise.
The Tunnel would decrease inflow and outflow in the Bay-Delta. The Bay-Delta ecosystem is experiencing ecological collapse. Some endangered species are on the brink of blinking out, once-viable commercial salmon fisheries are closed, and toxic algae is polluting Bay-Delta waterways. The Tunnel is being expedited at a time that scientists and agency staff are calling for more flows through the Delta, not less.
The Tunnel would tend to increase water prices and represents a tremendous arbitrage risk. The most recent cost estimate of the Tunnel is $20 billion dollars. A previous analysis, assuming only $16 billion total cost, found that servicing this debt could cost Southern California $450 million per year. Additional projects like Sites Reservoir would further increase debt and water prices.
The Tunnel could negatively impact rivers tributary to the Bay-Delta, and the communities and local economies that rely on them. Indirect impacts of the Tunnel, such as changes in water management, or building more dams and diversions, will directly impact recreational and economic values in tributary communities. Further, volatile water prices during times of scarcity can result in local water agencies exporting water for profit, even though, “the value of water in its own watershed can far exceed the value to ship it away,” as stated in our protest. As an example, the Upper American River Watershed provides $14.9 billion dollars per year in goods and services delivered globally (An Incentive to Invest: Understanding the Economic Value of the Upper American River Watershed, El Dorado Water Agency (March, 2024)).
The Tunnel is the latest in a long line of (bad) ideas to increase the ability to export more water south. This was true for proposed water projects such as the Trans-Delta System (imagined in the 1957 California Water Plan), the Peripheral Canal (defeated by taxpayers), California WaterFix (the twin tunnels project abandoned by Governor Newsom), and remains true for the now-single-tunnel solution, the Delta Tunnel.
The cover of the 1957 Bulletin No. 3, The California Water Plan. It visually summarizes the policy and infrastructure ideas contained within it: move water from north to south.
The State Water Board hearings on the proposed Delta Tunnel will likely begin in early 2025. Friends of the River plans to be an active participant and voice for rivers, and will continue working to steer California toward a sustainable water future. The Delta Tunnel, Sites Reservoir, and the Voluntary Agreements are not 21st century solutions to our water challenges.
Quotes from Protesting Organizations:
Keiko Mertz, Policy Director of Friends of the River said, “Just as building new lanes on the highway will induce demand and cause more traffic, so too will the Delta Tunnel induce more water demand. This will place further pressure on North State rivers for more dams and export projects to feed this demand. Even worse, some backers of the proposed Sites Reservoir and Shasta Dam Raise projects have stated on record that the Tunnel is needed to make those projects more feasible. These are outdated, 20th-century ‘solutions.’ Their real impact will be less water in rivers and the Delta, further exacerbating California’s aquatic extinction crisis.”
Bob Wright, Counsel for Sierra Club California, said of the project: "Despite repeated requests from environmentalists, tribal groups, and local communities, the Department of Water Resources has refused to consider any sustainable alternatives to the environmentally destructive Delta Tunnel. Sierra Club California and our allies have pointed out time and time again that the Delta Tunnel will further reduce freshwater flows through the already badly impaired Delta, and urged the state to instead prioritize local, effective water solutions including conservation, recycling, and other modern measures. All the Delta Conveyance Project amounts to is a scheme to transfer billions of dollars from California homeowners and renters to the contractors who would build the massive, destructive, and expensive water tunnel project. We have opposed this project since day one, and will continue to advocate for the Water Board to deny the Department’s Petition as being contrary to the public interest, law, and common sense."
