“DWR tries to wave that all away with magical thinking with tidal marsh restoration. Piping water under the Delta would fix things, proponents say.īackers also claim the harmful effects of taking even more water can be mitigated by restoring habitat. Farmers and cities can’t get all the water they want. Now, as extinctions loom, courts and regulators have slapped restrictions on pumping. The pumps are so strong they reverse the flow of rivers and confuse or “entrain” (grind up) migrating fish. The problem the Delta Conveyance purports to solve involves two giant pumping stations in the south Delta near Tracy. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant, located nine miles northwest of Tracy. Restore the Delta estimates the tunnel will take 300,000 to 500,000 acre feet more a year than presently.īesides, for decades, California governors have used emergency authority given them by the state constitution to ignore environmental restrictions and allow the pumps to keep sucking water. “A huge facility can take a dribble of water,” and a small facility may take the proverbial Big Gulp. “For the health of the Delta, the size of the facility matters much less than how it’s operated,” said Doug Obegi, of the Natural Resource Defense Council. Remember, only one of the Twin Tunnels was supposed to operate at a time the Delta Conveyance tunnel is bigger. The true price is in the cost overruns.ĭespite stories calling the Delta Conveyance “scaled back,” it may suck as much water as the Twin Tunnels-or more. Time to paraphrase Wise Old Willie Brown: the stated price of a major public works project is just a down payment to get the public on board. Though the report doesn’t name a price, officials ballpark around $15.9 billion, which was the cost of the Twin Tunnels. The last proposed to deliver water to both state and federal systems this, only to the State Water Project (SWP) customers. The last called for two tunnels this, only one. This Godzilla differs from the last Godzilla in a couple ways. Salmon are wondrous and essential to certain California tribes the smelt is an essential strand in the Delta’s web of life. The DWR’s own models show that diverting 6,000 cubic feet a second of water from the Sacramento River through a 45-mile underground tunnel significantly reduces juvenile salmon survival throughout the Delta. It’s almost as if some political expert comes in and writes the conclusions.” “Then they write conclusions that do not match the data. “DWR does good research and good reports,” said Barbara Barrigan Parilla of Restore the Delta.
#Twin water conveyance tunnel full#
The 3,000 page document is chock full of scientific data showing the tunnel will be bad for the Delta – and perversely concludes everything will be just fine. Not in the draft Environmental Impact Report released Wednesday by the Department of Water Resources. Where is the Science Patrol when you need them? Now, the monster is back, renamed the “Delta Conveyance.” Like Godzilla attacking Tokyo, the Delta tunnel periodically revives and menaces the Delta and Stockton with destruction. 1 design firm in Water Transmission Lines and Sanitary & Storm Sewers by Engineering News Record.įrom the conveyance and storage of treated and raw water to the collection of wastewater, reclaimed water and stormwater, Jacobs provides a variety of urban conveyance and storage solutions for projects of all sizes, incorporating sustainability and adapting to changing environmental conditions in every project.Feature Photo: The Sacramento River near Freeport, site of the intakes for the proposed Delta Conveyance. Leading major conveyance, storage and tunnel programs around the world, including the Doha South Sewage Infrastructure Programme New Zealand’s largest-ever wastewater project, the Central Interceptor and London’s Thames Tideway Tunnel, Jacobs continues to be recognized as a gamechanger in trenchless technology. Climate change and urbanization place continuing pressure on those systems to perform for future generations. These pipe networks and conveyance systems are the support system for our way of life, transporting safe drinking water to customers and moving wastewater and stormwater to treatment facilities and discharge or reuse.Īddressing aging water infrastructure, meeting regulatory requirements and making these systems more sustainable and resilient is crucial to ensure communities have safe and reliable water, sewer and storm systems. Millions of miles of water, sewer and storm system pipes lie beneath our cities and streets.
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