In a push to provide more water for agribusiness and residents of southern California, Governor Jerry Brown has proposed a pair of 40 mile tunnels to move water from the Sacramento River Delta to the town of Tracy, a project with a price tag anywhere from $24 to $50 billion in construction, conservation and operational costs. The tunnels are the centerpiece of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, a program designed to balance the water needs of communities and ecosystems around the Bay with those of southern California.
Whether water needs actually will be balanced remains to be seen. The southern California water gorilla demands ever more water as does Central Valley agriculture. The health of the Sacramento Delta is at risk. Also to be determined is where the billions to build the tunnels will come from, especially considering that the State of California is broke and this project will not pay for itself.