By Dan Bacher<\/p>\n
As the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers considers making a decision on Gov. Newsom\u2019s controversial tunnel project, Democratic members of Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Congressional Delegation are urging the federal agency to deny its permits.<\/p>\n
Lead by Representative Josh Harder (CA-09), the group of opposing lawmakers includes John Garamendi, Ami Bera, Mark DeSaunier and Doris Matsui. The alliance recently sent a letter that urged the Army Corps to make its final Record of Decision on the tunnel one that protects Delta waterways, local families and the regional economy.<\/p>\n
The Corps\u2019 potential approval of the project comes at a time when the Delta\u2019s ecosystem is arguably in its worst-ever crisis as the smelt fish has become virtually extinct in the wild while Central Valley salmon populations are experiencing their own alarming decline.<\/p>\n
In addition to the Delta\u2019s Washington D.C. coalition, Newsom\u2019s tunnel is also strongly opposed by the governments of eight California counties, as well as numerous tribal governments and virtually every environmental group in the state. Nevertheless, Newsom and the Department of Water Resources keep pushing the tunnel forward, claiming that it\u2019s a \u201cclimate resilience\u201d necessity.<\/p>\n
What Newsom and DWR want to build is a 45-mile, single-bore tunnel they claim would \u201cmodernize\u201d California\u2019s water infrastructure by diverting fresh flows from the Sacramento River to major agribusiness interests in central and southern California.<\/p>\n
Harder and his fellow lawmakers from the region say that would be a disaster.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the largest freshwater tidal estuary on the West Coast which supports irreplaceable agricultural lands, vital flood control infrastructure, and the livelihoods of millions of Californians,\u201d their letter to the Army Corps states. \u201cThe Delta Tunnel would permanently alter this ecosystem through the construction of massive new intakes on the Sacramento River, extensive tunneling in Delta communities, and over a decade of disruptive construction activity. Even with proposed mitigation, the Final EIS acknowledges that the Delta Tunnel Project would result in significant adverse impacts, including permanent degradation of Delta landscapes, conversion of important agricultural lands, and substantial impacts to aquatic resources and habitats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harder further outlined the danger that the tunnel poses to the taxpayers, water ratepayers, Delta farms, tribes and Delta-area cities and communities. Noting that a version of it was first proposed more than 60 years ago, he called Newsom\u2019s tunnel a \u201cmonstrous zombie project with ballooning costs, growing to at least $20 billion in 2024 and potentially as high as $100 billion last year, according to the latest analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harder added, \u201cThat doesn\u2019t even factor in the devastating damages that Delta communities would face \u2013 Sacramento\u2019s own findings revealed $167 million in damages to Delta agriculture, air quality, and infrastructure \u2026 Even preliminary work on the Delta Tunnel would be extreme \u2013 massive trenches, boring holes up to 250 feet deep, and major installation projects would tear up dozens of sites across the Delta \u2026 Today, I\u2019m calling on the Army Corps to deny the permits needed for this boondoggle to ever be completed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harder has also launched legislation to prohibit federal permits necessary for the tunnel to be implemented. Last summer, he further demanded a full audit of the project to ensure transparency for Delta communities that have been cut out of closed-door Sacramento decision-making.<\/p>\n
Morgen Snyder, Director of Policy and Programs at Restore the Delta, is glad to see Harder and other Democratic leaders stepping in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe [tunnel] would have a direct, negative impact on environmental justice communities, Delta farms, commercial and recreational fishing, and Delta ecosystems,\u201d Snyder noted. \u201cThe US Army Corps of Engineers relies heavily on DWR\u2019s incomplete EIR, which is currently subject to litigation, to demonstrate minimal impact to the project area, ignoring the cumulative impacts on an already impacted economy and sensitive ecosystem. If the US Army Corps of Engineers moves forward with the record of decision and associated permitting, Delta communities and ecosystems are facing a decade or more of construction, reduced flows resulting in declining water quality, further degradation of a declining ecosystem, and increased negative impacts to the Delta\u2019s declining river economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vance Staplin, Executive Director of the Golden State Salmon Association, is another person deeply involved in the tunnel battle. He hopes the Army Corps pays close attention to what lawmakers are saying.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Delta is already under immense stress,\u201d Staplin observed. \u201cBuilding a massive water diversion project that doesn\u2019t create new water\u2014but does threaten fisheries, water quality, and family-supporting jobs\u2014is the wrong direction. Salmon need cold, clean, flowing water, not another attempt to export what little remains.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Dan Bacher As the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers considers making a decision on Gov. Newsom\u2019s controversial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[90425,121,123,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-193133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-army-corps-of-engineers-and-delta-tunnel","9":"tag-sacramento","10":"tag-sacramento-headlines","11":"tag-sacramento-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}