State lawmakers opposed to Gov. Jerry Brown's Delta tunnel plan are stepping up calls for greater transparency into the project's finances, as the proposed water delivery system suffered a series of setbacks this fall.
At a Thursday town hall in the Delta town of Walnut Grove, lawmakers representing the region called on the Brown administration to drop the tunnel plan in the absence of greater cost certainty.
“It just seems like you’ve moved this project ahead, not knowing if it’s affordable," Assemblyman Jim Frazier, D-Discovery Bay, said to state water officials. "What happens if it’s not?”
The proposed $17 billion project -- dubbed the Water Fix -- would send water from the Sacramento River south through two giant underground tunnels.
The Brown administration has pushed the tunnels as a way to make the state's water supply more reliable. Central Valley farms and households from the Bay Area to Southern California rely on water from the Delta. The current pumps that draw water from the Delta have threatened local fish, which has forced regulators to slow down water deliveries.