Three Experts Worth Hearing Regarding Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels

Three Experts Worth Hearing Regarding Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels

by Dan Bacher

Stockton – Governor Jerry Brown continues to fast-track his California Water Fix project to build the Delta Tunnels, in spite of mounting resistance to this government boondoggle that will cost taxpayers and ratepayers up to $68 billion and result in the destruction in the largest estuary on the West Coast of the America.

In a letter sent last week to the Santa Clara Valley Water District, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, recommended the inclusion of three independent experts to appear before the Board to assist them in their consideration of continued financial support for the Delta Tunnels (California WaterFix), according to an RTD news release. (http://restorethedelta.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=06887fa70084fef8e939fef63&id=068560ca9e&e=120d0c2b69)

The three experts Barrigan-Parrilla recommends are Dr. Jeffrey MIchael, Dr. Christina Swanson, and John Herrick:

ECONOMICS
- Jeffrey Michael Ph.D., Director of the Center for Business and Policy Research, University of the Pacific – On the Cost vs. Economic Benefit of the Tunnels Plan

In a recent op-ed in the Sacramento Bee, Cost of Delta tunnels doesn’t add up, Dr. Michael said: “…the economic benefits of the tunnels to the water exporters total about $5 billion of its $15 billion cost, and the benefit-cost ratio is even worse when the negative impacts to the Delta and risks to the environment and upstream interests are considered.”

In his blog Valley Economy, Dr. Michael has tracked the economics of the BDCP/WaterFix/Delta Tunnels for years and finds that each new version of the plan seems to reduce economic benefits for water exporters, Bay-Delta residents, the environment, and the state as a whole.

CLIMATE CHANGE
- Christina (Tina) Swanson Ph.D., Director of the Science Center at Natural Resources Defense Council on the Sacramento River Watershed and Climate Change

At a 2015 State Legislative hearing on the Tunnels, Swanson explained, “The Sacramento River Basin is the area projected to be more effected by climate change with regard to loss of snowpack and volatility of water supply.” [We need to fully examine what effects climate change has on] “the year-to-year reliability of the water supply available for export from the Delta.”

Dr. Swanson is also an expert on fresh water needs for a healthy San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary.

OPERATIONS MODELING
- John Herrick, Counsel and General Manager of the South Delta Water Agency on the lack of “full model runs” in the Tunnels DEIR/DEIS

In a February 2, 2016 letter to the State Water Resources Control Board, Herrick details the lack of “full model runs” for the Delta Tunnels (WaterFix) preferred alternative (4A). The lack of proper modeling “…means that neither the SWRCB nor the public has any real data on which to judge the impacts to third parties of the environment.” He urges the board to delay any decisions on the Tunnels’ Point of Diversion permit because, “There is literally nothing for the parties to evaluate or about which to testify.” In addition, the lack of full model runs calls further into question the reliability of the water supply for exporters.

“After spending roughly a quarter of a billion dollars and ten years of time, the water exporters cannot tell bond funders for the project with confidence how much water they will receive via the Delta tunnels. The lack of complete, accurate modeling makes the tunnels a high risk endeavor for funders, investors, and the ultimate financial backers – the people of California,” Barrigan-Parrilla adds.

Delta Tunnels are just one of Brown's many anti-environmental policies

While the Delta Tunnels plan is a financial and ecological nightmare, it is just one of Governor Brown’s terrible environmental policies. While Brown gushed about his “green energy” and carbon trading policies at the Paris Climate Conference in December and other photo opportunities throughout the year, he continued to enthusiastically support the expansion of fracking in California, rejecting calls to ban fracking from a coalition of over 200 environmental and public interests groups.

The other abysmal environmental actions of Brown include: water policies that have brought Delta smelt, longfin smelt, winter-run chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead and other fish species to the edge of extinction; support for carbon trading and REDD policies that indigenous leaders say could potentially lead to genocide; waiting for months to declare a state of emergency in the Aliso Canyon Gas Leak disaster; and firing two top officials from the Department of Conservation and the executive director of the Coastal Commission, Charles Lester, because they insisted on actually doing their jobs of enforcing environmental laws.

For more information, please read my article unveiling the Cold, Dead Fish Awards for 2015: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/04/1480082/-Cold-Dead-Fish-Awards-For-2015