Tunnels would bring water from Delta to Southern California

by Brian Leubitz

The Delta tunnels have the support of Governor Brown as a critical infrastructure project, but they are hardly without controversy. In particular, Delta Senator Lois Walk has been fighting any sort of grand water transfer system since she walked into the Assembly years ago.

But the California Alliance for Jobs, a group composed of construction firms and labor, is pushing the project as “education” and also to gain a little leverage over the negotiations surrounding the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.

The ad campaign is notable because of the high-stakes battle being fought out — mostly out of public view — between environmentalists and governmental agencies working on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the blueprint for the $23 billion tunnel project. The Brown administration is set to release more details of the plan Wednesday at a Milpitas news conference.

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The ads, he said, aren’t necessarily designed to win votes or even to have voters call their legislators to seek their support. Instead, he said, they are to educate a public that rarely makes the connection between infrastructure needs and the economy.

“It’s more linked to negotiations on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan,” Earp said. “We are definitely for this project, so we’ll advocate for it.” (Steve Harmon / BANG)

With the possibility of the bond ranging from $6 Billion to $11 Billion, there is a lot at stake here. And these tunnels will mean a lot of money will be flowing to the construction sector. Even if the tunnels are completed around their low estimates, you are still talking about billions of dollars for this project alone.

While environmentalists have been critical of the proposal, there is also a pretty big fight between the regional agricultural interests. Delta farmers are very concerned that transporting that much water will present huge long-term risks to their own crops. On the flip side, Central Valley farmers, especially those in and around the Westlands Water District face some pretty tough times under most climate models unless they get some surety of a consistent water source.

Back in the 1980s, California voters rejected a peripheral canal at the ballot. We are unlikely to see anything so direct anytime soon on our ballot, as leaders have indicated that it wouldn’t go directly to the ballot. However it happens, we could definitely use more transparency and more attention on an issue that will impact the state for at least a hundred years.