Environmental groups have sued the California Department of Water Resources for approving a plan to divert water from the environmentally sensitive Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta to Central and Southern California.
The lawsuit says the water agency failed to consider ecological and wildlife harms in giving the go-ahead for the giant tunnel known as the Delta Conveyance Project taking water from Northern California.
Advocates say the project will modernize the state’s aging water system, which is currently not equipped to capture water amid climate change conditions. Opponents say the tunnel would divert billions of gallons of water from the Sacramento River, harming delta smelt, Chinook salmon and other imperiled fish.
“The last thing California needs while fighting the climate emergency is a gigantic tunnel wreaking havoc on a sensitive ecosystem and the communities that rely on it,” said John Buse, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Instead of doubling down on this disastrous project, the state needs to take a hard look at groundwater storage, water conservation and other alternatives that don’t leave a trail of environmental destruction.”
The Delta Tunnel, known by a variety of names over the decades, would construct two water intakes in the North Delta and one underground tunnel. The system would pull water from the Delta and connect it to the Bethany Reservoir on the California Aqueduct, before delivering it to homes and farms in Central and Southern California. The single-tunnel project replaces the twin-tunnel California Water Fix project, which was abandoned in 2019.
The tunnel will have the capacity to carry about 6,000 cubic feet of water per second, or about a third of the average Sacramento River flow at the point of diversion.
Under the state’s assessment, climate change is expected to profoundly alter snowpack and reduce the freshwater flows available for diversions. California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot explained that the state will get more and more of its water from winter storms and atmospheric rivers than it has in the past.
When the Department of Water Resources released its final environmental impact report last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom called the project essential in the effort to update California’s water system for millions of residents.
“Instead of doubling down on this disastrous project, the state needs to take a hard look at groundwater storage, water conservation and other alternatives that don’t leave a trail of environmental destruction.” John Buse, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity
“Climate change is threatening our access to clean drinking water, diminishing future supplies for millions of Californians — doing nothing is not an option,” Newsom said in a statement Dec. 8.
While the project still requires further approvals from other regulatory agencies before construction can begin, the DWR’s December approval was that body’s final decision.
The project proposal will now move ahead for approval from the California State Water Resources Control Board, along with various federal agencies, such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
‘Profoundly deficient’
On Friday, the Center for Biological Diversity joined more than a dozen other groups in the lawsuit filed in Sacramento Superior Court. Environmentalists say the DWR violated the California Environmental Quality Act when it approved the project’s final EIR in December.
“The Department of Water Resources’ environmental impact report is profoundly deficient,” said Robert Wright, an attorney for the Sierra Club. “Perhaps the most astonishing of these deficiencies is the report’s acknowledged omission of the changes to surface water resources that will undoubtedly result from the tunnel project.”
Chris Shutes, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, said his group is suing the DWR to stop its tunnel project from destroying one of the world’s greatest estuaries.