Tuesday February 27, 2024
SJV Water —
The controversial Delta Conveyance Project may have bigger problems than legal action over its recently approved environmental impact report.
Who’s going to pay the estimated $16 billion price tag?
The concept, a tunnel to take Sacramento River water beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to thirsty towns and farms further south, relies on the end users footing the bill. But over the decades that the project has languished in various iterations, those end users have become less enthusiastic to open their wallets.
In fact, the single largest recipient of delta water via the State Water Project – and the single largest payer – the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, has committed only $160 million for project planning this time around.