California Adds Delta Tunnel to List of Possible Water Solutions

By Collin Sullivan of Greenwire

SAN FRANCISCO — California officials are studying whether a 35-mile tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta might help solve some of the state’s water supply problems.

Teresa Engstrom, chief of the delta engineering branch at the California Department of Water Resources, confirmed that the agency is conducting feasibility studies on an “all tunnel” option that would route water under the Bay Delta from rivers and reservoirs to the north of Sacramento to farms in the south.

The idea to build a tunnel sprang from a handful of public workshops the department held recently on how to approach California’s long-running fight over water rights in the northern part of the state. A tunnel, she said, could theoretically offer a way out of the vexing maze of water supply, endangered species and farming issues facing the state.

“We had a lot of comments that said, ‘Why don’t you go under?’” Engstrom said. “So we thought we would take a look.”

Engstrom stressed that the all-tunnel option has no more weight at this point than competing ideas to build a canal around the delta or new levees along the water’s current route through the middle of the delta region. All are under consideration.

DWR engineers conducting environmental and geotechnical studies expect to have a draft environmental report completed by the end of the year on all three proposals, Engstrom said. A final public draft would then be ready next year.

The new wrinkle comes as lawmakers, farmers, commercial fishers and environmentalists continue to bicker over whether to build major new infrastructure to both protect endangered fish and improve water deliveries to farms in the Central Valley. Pumping through the region is currently restricted to protect endangered delta smelt and salmon, much to the ire of struggling farmers.

Jonas Minton, water policy adviser for the Planning and Conservation League, called the tunnel proposal and the council bad ideas. He estimated that such a tunnel would likely stretch beyond 50 miles, making it “longer than the Chunnel connecting England with France.”

“The Department of Water Resources says it has no idea how much the tunnel would cost,” added Minton, guessing it would easily surpass the $13 billion spent 15 years ago to build the tunnel connecting France and England.

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Source: New York Times