![]() ![]() It also is designed to ensure that any bonds the department issues won’t be challenged in a court, a contest that could take years to resolve. But a validation action confirms the department has the legal authority to do so, he said. The department’s action is not that unusual and does not make each of the state’s residents responsible for repaying the validated bonds, said Laurence Campling, information officer for the Delta Conveyance Office.ĭWR has legal authority to finance and construct the project under the Central Valley Project Act. 6 with the Sacramento County Superior Court, deals with DWR’s authority to issue revenue bonds to finance the Delta Conveyance Project. The lawsuit, part of a validation or in rem action the department filed Aug. Plaintiff has filed a civil complaint against you,” reads the beginning of the newspaper legal notice surrounding the bond validation action. Using an in-your-face newspaper legal notice, DWR filed a court case seeking public objections to bonds it may issue to finance planning and/or construction of the Delta Conveyance project. And he said he fears the same would happen with the Delta Conveyance. Winn, who chairs the eight-county San Joaquin Council of Governments, has seen construction costs for the high-speed rail continue to soar with no end in sight. Originally budgeted at about $250 million, the new span came in at more than $6 billion when completed. He cited the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge as an example of how state projects are besieged with cost overruns. “The state of California is literally robbing them.” “This is going to affect every single person living in the state one way or another, and they’re putting blinders on,” Strecker said. So for every $1 spent, it would yield only 87 cents. The Delta Conveyance, on the other hand, has a cost-benefit of 0.87 for ag water. The earlier project had a cost-benefit of 1.17 for ag water, meaning every dollar spent would return $1.17. ![]() He compared the current project to a single-tunnel alternative in the 2017 WaterFix estimated to cost $11.1 billion. So far, State Water Project contractors – particularly those from Southern California – have been the tunnel’s strongest cheerleaders although that support is apparently waning with newer cost-benefit numbers.Īn August cost-benefit analysis conducted by Jeff Michael, executive director of the University of the Pacific’s Center for Business and Policy Research, found the Delta Conveyance would cost more than it would yield. According to previous DWR presentations, fees from water districts that purchase water from the tunnel project will pay for it. Strecker said he also remains worried about the tunnel’s statewide impact as well as its $15.9 billion estimated construction costs. Local efforts also tend to be smaller, can be completed in a relatively short time period and carry a much smaller price tag, he said. “Our argument is very simply that local projects, which provide for local jobs, also provide for local benefits and provide local control,” he said.Ī good example, Winn said, is the North San Joaquin Water Conservation Districts partnership with the East Bay Municipal Utilities District to develop a pilot groundwater banking project. Local and regional water projects are nothing new to San Joaquin County as representatives from the five Delta counties have advocated for them for some time, said Winn, District 4 supervisor. DWR is banking on MWD to be the tunnel’s largest water customer. In it, Garcetti highlighted the need for MWD, of which Los Angeles is its largest customer, to focus more on local and regional water supply projects that protect local ratepayers. Winn, who chairs a number of county and regional planning and water committees, pointed to a recent letter from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to Metropolitan Water District Chair Gloria Gray. San Joaquin County Supervisor Chuck Winn agreed, saying his larger concern is the state is not listening to how the proposed project may affect Delta water quality and quantity as well as its economic impacts on the Delta itself. “They’re not listening to anybody, and it’s going to be an uphill battle for us.” “The state has tunnel vision about how they’re looking at this project and how they’re trying to block any avenue for people to discuss it,” said Strecker, who farms row crops in the Delta. San Joaquin Farm Bureau President David Strecker said he remains concerned about the state’s efforts to push through the tunnel project without adequate public input. The California Department of Water Resources continues to fast-track plans to build a single tunnel to move water from north to south under the Delta and recently started efforts to validate potential financing bonds. ![]()
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