Delta Conveyance Tunnel Project

California tribes have been resisting various delta tunnel projects for decades, saying they would negatively affect their Salmon population and other species and traditional cultural practices, including plants used for medicines and access to sacred sites.

Farmers

Fisheries

Scientists/Environmentalists

Economy

Wildlife & Ecosystem

Indigenous tribes

For ✅

Against ❌

Delta waters is home to the endangered Delta smelt specie, indicating the health benefits of the Delta ecosystem to the wildlife.

Agencies are responsible to follow the California Environmental Quality Act to develop lists of state-listed threatened or endangered species.

Department of Water Resources

For ✅

The Delta Conveyance Project helps maintain California’s $5 trillion economy (the fifth largest in the world).

Tourism

For ✅

Against ❌

For: ✅

Against ❌

General Public

Against ❌

For ✅

The Delta Conveyance Project helps 1,500 disadvantaged communities throughout the state that relies on affordable clean water.

The Delta Conveyance Project helps ensure the continued delivery of affordable, clean water to millions of residents throughout the state, it would minimize impacts to threatened and endangered fish species and is compatible with ecosystem restoration projects.

Against ❌

Toxins from the Algal Blooms are deadly to wildlife, dogs, and human beings, and exposure can cause liver cancer in humans.

Politicians

For ✅

Against ❌

For ✅

Against: ❌

The California Waterfix will improve the way water supplies move through and around Delta, allowing for better water quality and system sustainability and durability.

The tunnels could help cope with the increase of droughts, the tunnels can store water in groundwaters and provide water during drought seasons

Businesses

click to edit

Metropolitan Water District

Against ❌:

For ❎

Modernizes the state's water delivery system and protects future losses

Most cost effective way to manage rates for each region

Provides greater operational flexibility to meet regulatory requirements that are put into place to protect at-risk fish

Decreased water quality for irrigation due to better quality water being sent to southern California cities

Increases the amount of water output from rain instead of relying on snow

The construction of the Delta Tunnels would hasten the extinction of species, such as, the Winter and Spring Run-Chinook Salmon, Central Valley Steelhead, Delta dnd longfin smelt, and imperil salmon and steelhead fisheries.

Water is more affordable as it is a large water source

Erosion of the tribe’s sacred river systems and their viability

Ancestral Lands are put at risk

Bad water quality leading to more harmful algal blooms in the Delta.

The salmon industry is worth $1.5 billion annually alone. Jobs and livelihoods could be lost if native species in the Delta become extinct.

Previous tunnel systems did not benefit Indigenous peoples economically and took over part of their land.

They also say the project would harm burial and village sites along the delta and create ground disturbance.

Communities that depend on subsistence fishing can face food and health insecurities as a result of contaminants and loss in the Delta.

Salmon industry is worth $1.5 billion annually.

The San Francisco's coastal and Pier tourism and recreation depend on Delta fresh water flows for their crab and salmon fisheries, wildlife sighting, boating, and their restaurant economy.

The operation and construction of the Delta tunnels will obstruct and disable navigable water ways and creating conditions of low water flow that will foster invasive aquatic species, such as water hyacinth.

The operation and construction of the Delta tunnels will obstruct and disable navigable water ways for boating, marinas and other types of leisure activities.

Governor Brown Sr. initially proposed project 60 years ago. Project supported by Governor Jerry Brown for twin tunnel system. Governor Newsome now in support but have reduced to one tunnel system.

Lose money

Main arguments coincide with economical efficiency, water distribution, climate change mitigation, and earthquake protection.

diverting water from the delta will change ecosystems

endangered species like the Chinook Salmon will experience habitat loss

Toxins from the algal blooms are deadly to wildlife

The San Joaquin River is an impaired water body for chlorpyrifos, diazinon, diuron, DDT, and Group A pesticides (human carcinogens). Increasing that river’s flow into the Delta will result in more concentrated pesticides reaching central and western Delta water ways from the San Joaquin.

Mercury is a toxic legacy pollutant left-over from the Gold Rush. It continues to lurk in Bay and Delta sediments. Disturbance of sediments can stir up mercury so it enters Delta food webs, causing risks of highly toxic contaminated fishes and risks to human health.

Mercury is present in the Bay and Delta sediments. Disturbance on these sediments can stir up mercury so it enters Delta food webs. Causing fishes to become contaminated and potentially causing health risk by fish consumption.

click to edit

water quality will worsen

Low water flow can increase toxic algae blooms

salt water intrusion and pollutants will build up

Water exported from the Delta via the tunnels would increase the frequency with which irrigation water delivered and applied to agricultural lands in the western San Joaquin Valley lands where the soils have naturally-occurring high levels of selenium. Selenium can become actively poisonous.

The Delta area is one of the most profitable farming areas in the US. Most farms aren't family owned, but rather owned by larger farms or corporations

Disruptive construction makes it harder to send out/receive shipments

Salty water is very harmful to many crops

Ruins the fertile soils

Land loss on farms is possible because they are in the path of the proposed tunnels, just as with many people's homes

Farmers in Southern California would get better quality water

Delta soil is uniquely fertile due to peat, which is why the area is so profitable. That fertile land cannot be replaced, so land loss can be detrimental

Large metropolitan cities such as Los Angeles and San Jose will not receive new water, but will face an increase on water rates or property taxes (opposing resource declares taxpayer will not be paying, but rather will be paid through the help of public water agencies)

Lack of interest/participation by underrepresented and low-income communities.

For ✅

Communities reaping majority of benefits will be for the Delta Tunnel Project, however for the majority of the state's population it is important to explain the impacts of this proposal on the public's lives - this proposal can very easily be explained at surface level as modernization of 1960s waterway construction - but cannot know simply the "what," need to know the "how and why" in order to get a better sense of the politics and science of the issue

Certain communities will reap majority of the benefits - 70% of the Delta's water flows to Big Ag on the south and west side of the San Joaquin Valley - water is often used to grow lucrative sea exports (pistachios, cotton, water-intensive almonds) - note - users only contribute 0.3% to the state's economy

Lack of fresh water will have several devastating effects ecosystem, wildlife, economy - all of which concerns of the public

Economies -
agricultural - Delta farming, $5 billion economy - will be in ruinous state - farmers unable to irrigate or plant crops due to salt water presence - main issue being that tunnels will take majority of fresh water and ruin current Delta's ecosystem - overrun with saltwater
tourism - Delta's $750 million recreation and tourism economy - poor water quality will lead to unsafe recreation, construction of tunnels will block waterways used for boating, recreation, leisure activities, low water flow will lead to arrival of invasive aquatic species