In July 2025, 34 parties who protested issuing water rights for the proposed tunnel under California’s Bay-Delta estuary filed testimony in opposition to the project. The filing of the protestants’ “cases-in-chief” follows two months of testimony by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) in support of the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP).
CSPA filed three pieces of testimony. CSPA Board member Dave Hurley wrote about the magnificent fisheries and fishing opportunities that the Delta has lost and continues to lose. CSPA Board member Dave Fries is also Conservation Chair for the San Joaquin Audubon Society. He wrote about gross underestimates of bird species in the Delta and San Francisco Bay regions. Further, he covered how the DCP would negatively affect birds.
CSPA Executive Director Chris Shutes explained how the State, DWR, and DWR’s contractors will want to change the rules that restrict water appropriations to increase such appropriations if the DCP is built. Deirdre Des Jardins, who is a CSPA Board member, filed a separate piece of testimony in conjunction with Sierra Club California. Her statements regard the effects of climate change. Deirdre explained how the State Water Project, which includes the DCP, has not been adjusted for increasingly hotter, drier conditions.
A drone view of the Dutch Slough Tidal Marsh Restoration Project site in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta near Oakley. Increasing fish populations will require more projects like this, not the DCP. Image: Ken James, California Department of Water Resources
The DCP trailer bill lives on
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s trailer bill to fast-track the Delta Conveyance Project and use it to give more water to Southern California was not included in the 2025-2026 state budget package that went into effect on July 1. Yet the DCP trailer bill is not dead.
The legislature could vote on this bill before the current legislative session ends on September 12. The bill could also come back in special session or in the next legislative session, which begins January 2026.
If passed, the bill would create special rules for the water rights of the State Water Project. It would shorten litigation to delay or kill the DCP. It would also allow the State to immediately begin selling bonds to finance the project.
The Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California, the largest distributor of treated water in the U.S., may be particularly interested in the revenue bond provision in the trailer bill. This would allow the State to issue bonds to fund the DCP. The State cannot currently do so. In 2024, a Sacramento County judge blocked the State from such action. The MWD has taken on millions of dollars of debt in advancing the DCP thus far.
The role of the Delta Caucus
The Delta Caucus is a bipartisan group of legislators who represent counties of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. These legislators have been instrumental in discouraging the DCP from being fast-tracked. Their efforts to showcase the harm that the DCP could cause helped convince the California Senate and Assembly to decide against fast-tracking the
trailer bills by attaching them to the state budget. Members of the Delta Caucus also encouraged the Senate Budget Subcommittee 2 on Resources, Environmental Protection and Energy to reject the proposal for the fast-tracking plan, which it did, before the California Senate and Assembly voted on the matter.
CSPA invites inquiries about the DCP from the media
CSPA welcomes inquiries from news outlets that would like to hear about CSPA’s fight against the DCP. CSPA can provide media outlets with statements from CSPA members and supporters who regularly fish in the waterways from which the DCP would divert flows. CSPA will continue to oppose the DCP as the hearing before DWR continues.
CSPA welcomes your support to fight the Delta Conveyance Project. This project is a theft of water from the Sacramento Delta and San Francisco Bay by southern California. Help CSPA continue to join with other environmental organizations, residents, and Native American tribes to fight the DCP!