SACRAMENTO — Potentially triggering another epic battle in California's decades-long water war between the north and the south, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday proposed building two large tunnels roughly the length of the Panama Canal to route water under the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta so that it could be more reliably shipped to farms and cities to the south.
"The proposal we're unveiling today is a big idea," Brown said. "A healthy Delta ecosystem and a reliable water supply are profoundly important to California's future. This is about California's future."
Noting that California has fought over, argued about and studied the issue since the 1950s, Brown said enough science and technology has been developed to make moving forward with a project possible.
"Analysis paralysis is not why I came back," said Brown, who returned to the governor's office last year after a 30-year absence. "At this stage, I want to make stuff happen. We're not going to sit here and twiddle our thumbs and stare at our navel."
Brown's forceful advocacy of the tunnel conveyance system came during a joint news conference with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as they marked the release of a revised Bay Delta Conservation Plan — a planning document that includes a range of proposals that will be subjected to environmental review over the coming months.
While Salazar stopped short of offering full-throated support for any specific tunnel proposal, he said the federal and state governments "are one in moving forward to solve the problems that have bedeviled this state for a long time. It's a real blueprint, and we're dedicated to getting it across the finish line."
State and federal officials said the tunnel proposal would serve both "coequal goals" of the Delta plan — restoring the ecosystem and ensuring reliable exports of water.
Water would be pumped into the tunnels from the Sacramento River about 50 miles north of the southern terminus of the Delta, where massive pumps now divert water into the California Aqueduct. That would not only ensure a more consistent amount of water available for export, officials said, but also greatly reduce the amount of pumping in the south end of the Delta.
"We know those are fish-killing pumps," Salazar said. "It's a problem that has to be fixed."
In recent years, water deliveries from the Delta have been sharply curtailed in an attempt to sustain populations of salmon and other threatened fish.
Water contractors in the Central Valley and in Southern California, notably the Metropolitan Water District, strongly back the idea of a new conveyance system and have pledged that their customers will pay for the entire cost of the project through their water bills. The costs of habitat restoration and other environmental improvements in the Delta would be borne by state taxpayers.
The Southern California Water Committee, a coalition of water agencies, local governments, business and agriculture groups, praised the plan and issued statements from a number of member organizations.
"The longer we wait to invest in this project, the greater the risk. We urge California and federal leaders to move forward," said a statement from the Chambers of Commerce Alliance of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
Several key questions remain unanswered and will be addressed during the environmental review. They include the cost of the project, the size of the tunnels and the amount of water that will be available for diversion. Initial estimates are that the tunnels would cost about $14 billion.
Brown has once before negotiated a proposal to route water around the Delta through a proposed peripheral canal, but that plan was rejected by voters in a bitter referendum in 1982.
On Wednesday, the governor predicted a reprise of that political fight.
"Yes, there's going to be some opposition. It goes with the territory," he said. "It's going to be difficult, but you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs."
About an hour after he made his remarks, residents of Delta communities and Northern California elected officials staged a protest on the Capitol steps.
Rep. John Garamendi, D-Fairfield, said the Brown proposal will trigger a new round of intrastate water wars.
"It's once again making a water grab for Northern California water," Garamendi said. "That's what this is all about. I say to the secretary and the governor: You launch a war, we'll fight the battle."
Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, said the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan has put the cart before the horse, proposing to move ahead with the tunnels before answering critical questions about cost and environmental concerns.
"The governor and interior secretary have put plumbing before policy and asked us to trust them," she said. "The plan stakes the future of the Delta on a wink and a promise. California can't afford a multibillion-dollar gamble based on a wink and a promise."
State and federal officials said that after the environmental impact report is completed planning for the project will likely take additional two or three years and that the earliest the tunnels could begin delivering water would be 2026.
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