California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a new Delta tunnel plan Wednesday to reroute water that comes into Northern California during rainstorms down to Southern California, which is known to suffer from long droughts that scientists predict will get worse due to climate change.
The revamped proposal, which is expected to cost billions of dollars, aims to provide relief to millions of people down south and farmlands via a 45-mile-long underground tunnel that would feed into California’s main aqueduct that further transports water. The proposal is the latest endeavor by state administrations to modernize the state’s water management system and has drawn some concerns.
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“It is a conundrum to be able to manage the Delta in a way that protects the environment, respects the communities that live there and provide for the water supplies for a large portion of the state,” Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, told the Associated Press.
Some are worried such a tunnel would operate as a freshwater grab for Southern California and harm the environment near the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Construction of the tunnel would require the removal of 71 buildings, including homes. It could also hurt the Delta smelt and the local endangered salmon, but the government would attempt to help mitigate the damage, according to a report from the Department of Water Resources released Wednesday.
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Administrations have been proposing ways to modernize the water system since the 1960s, but no administrations have reached an agreement. Newsom nixed former Gov. Jerry Brown’s two-tunnel proposal when he took office but ordered an examination of the efficacy of one tunnel. The project is expected to cost at least $16 billion based on previous estimates, according to AP.
The publishing of the environmental report was the next step in advancing the state’s water agenda. The report is now open for a 90-day public comment period that will conclude on Oct. 27, 2022. The route for the tunnel must also be finalized during a permitting period before the tunnel can be approved. Also, Crowfoot said there would likely be legal issues that will take time to resolve but noted the state is moving as quickly as possible, according to the North Coast Journal.
Because of the anticipated slowdowns, the state will not likely break ground on the new tunnel until 2028, and construction is expected to take at least a decade, according to Carrie Buckman, the environmental program manager for the project.
