Jerry Brown to water tunnels critics: ‘Shut up’

By David Siders and Dale Kasler
dsiders [at] sacbee.com

Gov. Jerry Brown said Wednesday that critics of his twin tunnels water diversion plan should “shut up” until they’ve spent as much time as the state has studying the plan.

“Until you’ve put a million hours into it,” said Brown, estimating the amount of staff time devoted to the project, “shut up.”

Brown’s remarks come less than a week after he announced major changes to his controversial plan to build two tunnels to divert water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the south.

The administration, while moving forward with a $15 billion conveyance, dramatically reduced the amount of habitat restoration originally proposed.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, said in a prepared statement Wednesday that Brown “has his fingers in his ears and will not listen” to criticism.

She said, “We will not go away, and we will not shut up.”

The viability of the project remains uncertain, but the high stakes for Brown are clear. He has made a Delta conveyance a priority of his administration since he was governor before, from 1975 to 1983.

The Democratic governor’s earlier Sacramento River diversion plan, the peripheral canal, was defeated in a referendum in 1982.

Californians for Water Security, a group that includes the California Chamber of Commerce, farm and labor organizations, said this week that it released TV and radio ads supporting the tunnels project. A spokeswoman declined to specify how significant the ad buys were, except to say the group was spending “well into the six figures” on TV, mostly in the Bay Area.

Brown, speaking at a meeting of water agencies in Sacramento, joked that if the current version does not go forward, “I’ll just have to come back and run for governor 40 years later.”

Brown is pursuing his tunnels plan amid heightened concern about water in the state’s fourth year of drought. On Tuesday, the State Water Resources Control Board approved rules for achieving Brown’s 25 percent cutback for urban water use.

Local water officials from across the state have balked at the order, arguing the restrictions are overly burdensome and, in some cases, impossible to meet.

Brown sympathized with the officials, saying he was “sure glad you’re the ones who have to carry all of this restriction and restraint forward.”

“We just kind of launch the missile, and then you particularize and talk to your neighbors and get them to do it,” he said. “And I really want to thank you for that.”

Brown said the state was “here to back you up.”

Meanwhile, Brown’s administration spent Wednesday pushing back against local resistance. Before Brown spoke, Felicia Marcus, the chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board, told reporters in a conference call that the targets are attainable.

Urban water agencies will have to achieve savings of anywhere from 8 percent to 36 percent in order to reduce overall urban consumption by 25 percent. The tiers are based on existing usage patterns, and inland regions such as Sacramento are getting hit the hardest.

But Marcus noted that the expected savings are based on 2013 usage figures. That means the urban water agencies that already took conservation steps last year are ahead of the game, she said. For instance, a water district that faces a 36 percent cutback but has already achieved savings of 18 percent is halfway home.

“Those cities...are already well along the way,” Marcus said. “Anyone who’s done something can rest a little easier.” She said several agencies in the Sacramento area are among those that have made decent strides already.

Marcus said the cutbacks will help ease the strain if the drought continues for another year or two. The situation will be “even worse to come if we don’t take action now,” she said, adding that it’s time to move from voluntary to mandatory programs.

“We’ve been encouraging folks to conserve for a long time,” she said. “With the end of the rainy season, or the so-called rainy season, it’s time to get real.”

Call David Siders, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1215. Follow him on Twitter @davidsiders.