Friends of the River Challenges Delta Tunnel Water Rights Proposal
Massive Risks, Missing Analysis, and No Real Solutions for California’s Water Future
On Friday, July 11, Friends of the River submitted expert testimony in opposition to the California Department of Water Resources petition to permit the construction and operation of the proposed Delta Conveyance Project (Delta Tunnel). The testimony lays out a clear case that the project would cause serious harm to California’s rivers, fisheries, and communities while failing to provide the long-term water supply benefits claimed by proponents.
“This isn’t just about the tunnel itself, concerning as that is. It’s also about reviving an old playbook — a vision that stretches back more than a century — of taking vast quantities of water from Northern California rivers to feed so-called ‘areas of deficiency’ in the south, leaving our rivers, and the fisheries and ecosystems they support, at risk while ignoring water supply alternatives that improve local self-reliance,” said Ron Stork, Senior Policy Analyst at Friends of the River. “We’ve seen this story before.”
Friends of the River’s expert testimony highlights:
How the project sets the stage for new upstream dams and diversions: As Ron Stork’s testimony emphasizes, the Delta Tunnel is not an isolated facility — the additional capacity to export water from the Delta would catalyze further exploitation of Northern California rivers by incentivizing expanded storage and increased water transfers, repeating past patterns of environmental damage without meaningful safeguards.
How local water supply alternatives can better meet water supply needs: As expert Heather Cooley of the Pacific Institute explains, Southern California already has significant opportunities to meet water needs through conservation, water reuse, and stormwater capture — alternatives cheaper, faster, and less damaging than a tunnel whose price tag is $20 billion and whose actual cost will probably be three times as much.
What the long-term consequences are for public trust resources: As environmental scientist Christina Swanson testifies, the project underestimates the effects of climate change and overestimates the effectiveness of the giant fish screens that the tunnel relies on to prevent massive fish kills and impacts to migration, ensuring that impacts to Delta ecosystems and California’s rivers will be far worse than expected, at a time when those ecosystems are already in crisis.
How the project threatens Northern California’s river economies: As Charles Center’s testimony underscores, the Delta Tunnel would fuel new upstream dams and water transfers, degrading rivers and harming recreation-based communities across the upper watersheds.
“The Delta Tunnel won’t solve California’s water challenges — it will just make new ones,” said Gary Bobker, Program Director for Friends of the River. “There are better solutions that don’t sacrifice rivers and fisheries to prop up an antiquated water management system of overallocated water rights and wasteful dams and canals, and that instead result in the more efficient use of our state’s finite water resources. That’s why the State Water Board should accept FOR’s protest, reject the Tunnel petition, and prioritize water management strategies that safeguard rivers, fish, and communities across California.”
