Friday September 23, 2022
The Independent —
Calls for more time reverberated throughout the first public hearing for the draft environmental impact report (EIR) of the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP), along with continued pleas to cancel the project in consideration of Bay Delta communities and ecosystems.
While the public review period will end on Oct. 27, many speakers at the Sept. 13 hearing characterized the provided three months as insufficient to digest the EIR, which spans thousands of pages over 39 chapters and touches on topics such as water quality, seismicity, recreation, socioeconomics and tribal cultural resources.
“Given the length of the document and the depth that interested parties want to put into the examination of the EIR documents, allotting 90 days for interested parties to review such an extensive and detailed document is not nearly enough time,” said Kasil Willie, staff attorney for Save California Salmon.
The $16 billion project proposes to build a massive tunnel system to pull water from the Sacramento River into the State Water Project, supplying the Bay Area, the San Joaquin Valley, the Central Coast and Southern California.