Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $16 billion zombie water project keeps returning to life because of Big Ag’s political influence.
Monday to concede defeat in fast-tracking the Delta tunnel raised hopes that the $16 billion boondoggle was, at long last, dead.This a project that has never penciled out, wouldn’t add a drop of new water to California’s supply and would be an environmental disaster for the largest estuary west of the Mississippi. Yet Newsom, like former governors Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger before him, keeps seeking ways to keep it alive.
Preserving the Delta’s health for current and future generations should be one of the state’s top priorities. Newsom claims to be an environmentalist. But California has, with the governor’s blessing, been pumping so much water from the Delta to irrigate the Central Valley’s almond and pistachio orchards that the estuary’s health is in sharp decline.
The governor’s plan, which would take a projected 20 years to complete, calls for a 45-mile long, 39-foot high tunnel beginning near the town of Courtland and running under the Delta’s wetlands and marshes. It could carry 6,000 cubic feet per second — or roughly enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every 30 seconds.
The better way to improve the Delta’s long-term future involves repurposing some of the Central Valley’s croplands for non-agricultural uses. Ain May said that taking water-thirsty crops out of production and instead investing in clean industries and clean energy, such as solar power generation and battery storage, would provide more and better-paying jobs for the region.
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