![]() ![]() They will either be protected outright in the deal-making or waivers will be issued – nudge-nudge, wink-wink.Ĭlimate change is only aggravating the state’s water challenges. The proposed project addresses some of the existing problems but why not fix instead of replacing? Demolition and construction is wasteful of money and material, and leaves scars on the land that will persist for generations unless developers are forced to provide remediation. Will the Delta Conveyance Project reduce energy needed to move water? Or use more? To what extent is the tunnel susceptible to earthquakes? Pumping uphill requires huge amounts of power requiring more dams, more environmental damage and more profit. And demand more power.Ī pumping plant is needed to lift the water from the conveyance system tunnel up to the existing Bethany Reservoir. Over the decades, not only have the existing dams and infrastructure been incredibly environmentally damaging, they also use huge amounts of electricity – all the more profit for power generators and a significant component driving more fossil fuel use.Ĭonstruction will have further impact on our wildlife, natural habitats, and ecological systems up and down the state. Sea level rise is another concern since slow-moving saltwater intruding into the Delta can contaminate the state’s water supply. Then require agricultural concerns to pay closer to market-rate prices to force them to stop their profligate use of water allotments, implement water conservation measures and move to crops more suitable to California’s climate.Ĭalifornia is also overdue for a hundred-year flood it’s been 160 years since the great Flood of 1862 that put the entire Central Valley including the city of Sacramento under six to twenty feet of water: Are we prepared?įor the scope of such flooding in today’s hugely more populated California? For contamination of both agricultural land and the state’s water system? For the inundation and destruction of cities’ infrastructure? It’s simple, we all need to adapt.įirst and foremost, the state should focus on resolving the up to 50% of water lost to evaporation and seepage from open reservoirs, the California Aqueduct and much of the Colorado River system infrastructure. but the greatest demand (and need) is in the summer and fall. If rain and snow fall in the winter and spring. How about making the biggest users accountable – not individuals dependent on wells but Big Ag and Big Oil and mining which are accelerating depletion of California’s water supply and poisoning our groundwater? Hmm… is the true purpose of the much-ballyhooed project to benefit the profiteers themselves – the Stewart Resnicks, as well as mining and fossil fuel interests, and Wall Street investors? One pound requires 1,900 gallons…1.1 gallons per nut. Yes, millions of people in disadvantaged communities depend on the State Water Project as a source of safe and affordable water but the state needs to stop playing the ‘disadvantaged community’ card when it’s not willing to provide education, healthcare, affordable housing, stop gentrification, and restrict polluters that are, in many ways, more serious problems.Īnd what about those who are being forced off their land and out of their houses by demands of corporate profiteers? Who are losing their farms and homes because Big Ag is draining the ground water out from under them for corporate profit and the State refuses to step in and help them.Ĭalifornia dedicates around 10% of its water – over or 80 million gallons annually – to grow almonds. The avowed intent of the Delta Conveyance Project is to modernize the state’s aging infrastructure in the Delta, to address sea level rise and climate change, and to provide clean reliable water to future generations. Local water agencies have always been driven by political insider considerations, historically by agricultural interests, and by cities growing exponentially in near-desert environs. The original systems that moved water throughout California were built as pork approved by folks in Congress to benefit wealthy investors (and the politicians they supported), and as part of a game of brinksmanship between the Army Corps of Engineers, the US Bureau of Reclamation, the State Water Project and a consortium of bought and paid-for politicians at all levels of government. The current iteration is just another in a long line of projects driven by special interests and a hundred years of poor water policies. ACCORDING TO LIZ - First it was the Twin Tunnels and then it was the California WaterFix, and now it’s the Delta Conveyance Project.Īny way you cut it, it’s a boondoggle wrapped up in controversy with significant negative environmental implications. ![]()
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