California Delta Leaders Blast Newsom’s Push to Fast-Track $20 Billion Water Tunnel

Updated at 2:58 pm

Less than a week after Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed fast-tracking a controversial tunnel project to send more Northern California water south, a group of lawmakers, tribal leaders and environmentalists is calling on the Legislature to reject the idea, calling it “a broken process that silences local voices.”

Members of the Legislature’s Delta Caucus on Tuesday said that the project will cost more than $20 billion and that Californians will ultimately foot a mounting bill because of inflation and tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. They also accused Newsom of favoring agricultural interests and Southern California over the needs of Northern California communities, and said the project will harm fish species, the environment and local economies.

“This project will devastate the delta’s ecosystem and place an enormous financial burden on ratepayers at a time when Californians are already struggling with the cost of living,” said Assemblymember Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City, who represents communities throughout the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

In an email Tuesday afternoon, the Newsom administration disputed the caucus members’ comments, saying they demonstrate “why this fast track is necessary, as it is clear that misinformation will continue to delay and obfuscate this critical project.”

Officials said that not all taxpayers will pay for the project, which they noted will serve more than 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland. Public water agencies in the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California that receive water from the State Water Project and have signed onto the project will fund it, they said.

The Delta Conveyance Project has been through many iterations and decades of debate by California lawmakers, going from a proposed canal to two tunnels and now a single tunnel.

As part of his revised budget proposal last week, Newsom laid out in an announcement and trailer bill how he wants the Legislature to accelerate the 45-mile-long tunnel through the delta by taking action to simplify permitting and land acquisition, confirm that the Department of Water Resources has the authority to issue bonds to cover the project’s cost, prevent unnecessary litigation delays and support construction.

Newsom argues that the tunnel is imperative for adapting the state to a hotter and drier climate that could result in 10% less water by the 2040s.

“We’re done with barriers — our state needs to complete this project as soon as possible, so that we can better store and manage water to prepare for a hotter, drier future,” he said in a release.

The Delta Caucus agreed with Newsom that California’s current water system is outdated and unprepared to handle the storms or dry periods of the future. However, its members said that other solutions, including water recycling and fortifying delta levees, are better options to cure the state’s ongoing water woes.

“Robbing water from the north and drying out the north just to water the south doesn’t make it better at all,” said Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen, D–Elk Grove. “We need to have a balanced approach and go back and invest in water recycling and storage.”

But the administration called the caucus’ calls for other solutions “simplistic” and said they “ignore the practical realities and complexities of serving 27 million Californians.” The state needs an all-hands-on-deck approach that includes “modernizing the State Water Project while also advancing local solutions like recycling and desalination,” officials wrote.

Malissa Tayaba, vice chairperson of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, whose ancestral lands include the delta, said her tribe would be “irreparably harmed” by the project.

“We will not only lose access to our homelands that we have cared for and stewarded for time immemorial, but we will also lose our delta estuary, already in crisis,” she said. “More importantly, the Delta Conveyance Project would destroy and desecrate the resting place of our ancestors.”

Ashley Overhouse, water policy adviser for Defenders of Wildlife, said that the tunnel would undermine Southern California’s efforts to promote water resilience on its own and that Newsom needs “to end his obsession with the tunnel.”

Instead, she said Newsom should “start working more closely with Southern California communities” instead of “trying to force the tunnel down our throats” and work with delta communities on “a collaborative approach” that “everyone can get behind. It’s not too late.”

However, the Southern California Water Coalition commended Newsom’s proposal, calling it a “bold initiative” that would enhance “water resiliency and reliability for Southern California.”

“This initiative is vital for the 85% of Southern Californians who recognize the need for a secure water future,” said Charley Wilson, the group’s executive director.