Delta smelt survey boat in the Sacramento Delta in 2010, when survey boats were still capturing Delta smelt. Credit: Peter Johnsen, USFWS
Last month, the California Department of Water Rights (DWR) concluded the presentation of its case-in-chief for the hearing on the water rights petition for the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP). The next portion of the hearing involves the submittal and presentation of testimony by entities protesting the DCP, or protestants. They will offer testimony about how the project will cause harm to fish, people, and the natural environment. Written testimony from the protestants is due July 11. The protestants will present their testimony and stand for cross examination in hearings from early August through mid-October.
CSPA plans to offer testimony as a protestant in the DCP hearing this summer. It will be joined by other environmental, fishing, and environmental justice organizations, as well as by tribal representatives.
Local governments and agencies, and farm and business interests from communities in and around the Delta, including entities in Sacramento, Yolo, Contra Costa, and San Joaquin counties, will also present testimony. For over a decade, individuals and officials from these counties have described the harm that a tunnel or tunnels under the Delta would do to their communities.
The DCP would be a $20+ billion mistake that could mean over a decade of bone-jarring, dusty construction along the Sacramento River. Once completed, it would divert enormous amounts of water from northern California to southern California. The project would degrade water quality, disrupt fish migration, and damage ecosystems throughout the Bay-Delta environment.
Meanwhile, Governor Newsom wants to change the rules to make the tunnel easier to build
Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed two “trailer bills” for the state budget. These fall outside the normal legislative process for policy matters. These bills would change the rules for DWR, especially as they relate to the DCP. Four important changes would be:
- Fast-tracking litigation relating to the DCP;
- Allowing DWR access to private lands that courts have previously denied;
- Allowing DWR to sell bonds for the tunnel even though courts have said that is premature; and
- Eliminating the time limit for DWR to put water to use under water rights permit. DWR’s time to establish maximum annual use of water expired in 2009.
“It’s complicated, but it’s also very simple. DWR wants special rules. When it doesn’t follow the rules or get what it wants under the rules, the state tries to change the rules,” said Chris Shutes, Executive Director of CSPA.
The proposal for this specific project leads to questions about what other state water-related projects that could harm fish would get a “free pass.”
Further, enacting changes for DWR for this project would open the door to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation requesting its own exemptions to the rules. Like DWR, the Bureau of Reclamation manages dams and water delivery infrastructure throughout California.
“Reclamation’s water rights are even more convoluted than DWR’s,” said Shutes.
Below is a table showing the differences between the maximum amounts of water that DWR could export from the Delta to points south each year, without the DCP in place (“Updated Baseline”) and with the DCP in place (“DCP ITP”).
The table shows the amounts without the 2009 limitation (middle column) and with that limitation (right column). The “DCP Yield” row shows the difference in DWR’s exports. This is an average annual gift of 319,000 acre-foot without the tunnel and almost half a million acre-feet if the tunnel is built.
Guide to the terms in the table:
- Thousands of Acre-Feet (TAF): thousands of acre-feet, a measurement of water volume. An acre-foot is the equivalent of one acre covered in water one foot deep, or about 326,000 gallons.
- Incidental Take Permit (ITP): a permit issued by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to protect species listed as threatened or endangered under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA). An ITP is issued to an entity undertaking a project that could result in the taking of threatened or endangered species, such as some species of Chinook salmon and smelt.
- State Water Project: the statewide multipurpose water storage and delivery system managed by DWR.
This table is from one of DWR’s exhibits in the hearing, presented by DWR in response to a supplemental information request. DWR’s consultants arrived at the numbers in this table by using the outputs from modeling for the ITP.
Links to the two trailer bills proposed by Gov. Newsom:
Trailer Bill – Delta Conveyance Project
Trailer Bill – Bay Delta Plan CEQA Recirculation
Please support CSPA as a leader in the fight against the state-sponsored transfer of water and wealth from northern to southern California. Help CSPA defeat the Delta tunnel today!