Local Tunnel meeting a time to attend and speak

[mark poulson]

This is from Restore the Delta:


Action Alert:
Attend the Single Tunnel Scoping Meeting
in Brentwood on February 20th!

With the Notice of Preparation for the Delta tunnel, a list of scoping meetings has been announced for public participation component as required by law for proposed new projects.

We see these meetings as a mixed bag. It is essential for our members to share their concerns about the project and to get them into the legal record. So attendance and being prepared to make comments is essential.

DWR has clarified that the meetings will NOT be open house style. Yes, your comments will be taken in by a court reporter, but there will be a short presentation and comments can be made to the entire community. We received incorrect information on open house meetings from a different government source. It was clarified for us yesterday at the Stakeholders Engagement Meeting with the Design Construction Authority.

We also understand that the eastern alignment for the tunnel is the preferred route for the tunnel, so Delta residents need to study the map carefully and think through the impacts associated with this alignment of the project.

Nevertheless, getting your questions, comments, objections and concerns into the record is essential. So we are encouraging our members throughout the state to attend.

Meeting Information:

Brentwood: Thursday, February 20, 2020, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Brentwood Community Center Conference Room, 35 Oak Street

What to Say and Background Reading to Prepare your Comments

Delta area members -- you know the fire drill in terms of impacts. The concerns with two tunnels stand with one super-sized tunnel. What is crucial is for our members to look at the map with the NEW two possible alignments. With the eastern alignment there is a significant number of increased urban impacts for all residents, and huge impacts for residents living near the Port of Stockton. We believe that asking questions at the scoping meeting will be impactful because they will never answer them.
Why are you moving forward with a project when there is no contract between water districts as to who will pay what for the tunnel.
A single tunnel was estimated to be an $11 billion project in 2018. At 5% annual inflation, it is now $12.2 billion. How much will it cost when construction starts? And construction costs are soaring.
As far as reliability for water supply, the tunnel will either not be used half the time, or protections for the Delta will be abandoned and the water just taken. How does that serve the entire state? Where are the real studies on additional exports on water quality for the Delta?
By taking more and more Sacramento River water, the Delta will be left with salty, polluted water, loaded with selenium, borons and bromides. Where is the plan for mitigating Harmful Algal Blooms during construction which will increase in nearby rivers and sloughs as a result of changing flows during construction.
Where will you store the 300 million tons of polluted tunnel muck that will be mixed with chemicals?
What will be the impacts from construction? There will be heavy truck traffic to all the major construction sites, competing on I-5 and Highway 4, and major arteries. Right now 30,000 people commute from Stockton to Sacramento, and 40,000 to the Bay Area. Where are the regional traffic studies. This will hurt, not help our local economies and the few hundred jobs from tunnel construction won't offset this economic hit. And increase air pollution impacts. What will be the air pollution impacts from construction on rural communities, and urban communities near the Port of Stockton.
How much water is going to big ag? Shouldn’t we know that before we pay? There are recent reports that Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has too much water. So why are they leading the charge for the tunnel and making deals that have given west side farmers more water through the operations agreement for the Central Valley Project? Why should urban users pay for the ag tunnel? Especially considering San Joaquin Valley farm jobs are not lifting people out of poverty, and they are belching water pollution back into the Delta.
Local water projects from conservation and efficiency programs make 15-18 jobs for every $1 million spent. The tunnel will only make 4-8 jobs for every 1 million spent, and the jobs won’t offset the jobs lost in local agriculture, industry, and commuter jobs.
To move all this water and to build the tunnel will waste a great deal of energy. Utilities will have to build power lines etc. There will be too much greenhouse gas emissions for no new water, or for water that we will take away from others. Earlier, the plan was to buy carbon offsets outside the region. Yet, local environmental justice communities in Delta urban areas are already heat sinks. What is the mitigation for them?
Noise pollution -- the reductions thus far proposed for reducing pylon driving noise in the Delta are not protective of Delta communities or wildlife, like fish and sandhill cranes. Not enough studies have been done.

We also encourage Delta residents to study our Harmful Algal Blooms handout and think about how tunnel construction and operation will contribute to HABs conditions.

The Notice of Preparation is linked here.
DWR’S NEW Delta Conveyance Project website.
Restore the Delta’s statement on Single Tunnel “Notice of Preparation”

Yours in service,



Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla
Executive Director
Restore the Delta