Thursday October 17, 2024
Sacramento News and Review —
The struggle by tribes, environmental organizations, fishing groups and California residents to stop construction of the controversial Delta Conveyance Project, or Delta Tunnel, just heated up with the submission of a formal statement to the State Water Resources Control Board that highlights the “fundamental flaws” in the process.
The Delta Tribal Environmental Coalition, or DTEC, represented by the Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School – along with the California Indian Environmental Alliance, San Francisco Baykeeper and Golden State Salmon Association – put forward the statement that claims to expose the flaws of the hearings concerning petitions submitted by the Department of Water Resources in February 2024. DWR had asked the State Water Board to modify water rights permits issued back in 1972, and change them in a way that would allow DWR to use them now to construct and operate the Delta Tunnel.
“In August, DWR also quietly added a request to extend the construction deadline for water storage and conveyance facilities under those permits by fifty-five years, from 2000 to 2055,” the Delta Tribal Environmental Coalition said in a statement. “The permits DWR is requesting to use for [the tunnel] expired decades ago and cannot be resurrected. The group calls on the State Water Board to hold DWR to the same policies and processes as other water users, requiring them to submit an application for a new water right – allowing the public to provide comments and the State Water Board to sufficiently analyze whether there is sufficient water available for this unprecedented water export project.”