A state court decision has scuttled a $16 billion revenue bond issue that would have financed the controversial plan to tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to bring “surplus” water downstate.

Judge Kenneth Mennemeier of Sacramento County Superior Court ruled Tuesday that the California Department of Water Resources exceeded the authority delegated to the agency by the state Legislature when it defined the project to be financed by the bond issue.

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Joe Dworetzky is a second career journalist. He practiced law in Philadelphia for more than 35 years, representing private and governmental clients in commercial litigation and insolvency proceedings. Joe served as City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia under Mayor Ed Rendell and from 2009 to 2013 was one of five members of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission with responsibility for managing the city’s 250 public schools. He moved to San Francisco in 2011 and began writing fiction and pursuing a lifelong interest in editorial cartooning. Joe earned a Master’s in Journalism from Stanford University in 2020. He covers Legal Affairs and writes long form Investigative stories. His occasional cartooning can be seen in Bay Area Sketchbook. Joe encourages readers to email him story ideas and leads at joe.dworetzky@baycitynews.com.