Delta Tunnel, Habitat Proposals Now Public
By Ben Adler
Thursday, March 14, 2013

CPR photo/Ben Adler
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Two water tunnels underneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, 200 biological goals for habitat restoration and more than 2,000 pieces of paper. That’s the Bay Delta Conservation Plan released Thursday by Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown's administration.

Of everything in this draft plan, the tunnels are getting the most attention.  They'd be 30 miles long and 40 feet wide, and they'd carry water to Central and Southern California.  Mark Cowin with the state's Department of Water Resources says the project is critical.  "The storm systems have dried up and it looks like we're headed towards a relatively dry year, and we could have avoided a lot of that if this plan was in place," Cowin says.

But Bob Wright with the group "Restore the Delta" calls the plan fatally flawed.  He says such a large and controversial project deserves a fair cost-benefit analysis and a look at potential alternatives, "and it's not getting that.  It's getting a stacked deck.  And that's an outrage to the taxpayers and the ratepayers of the state of California."  Wright's group wants the habitat restoration done - without the tunnels.




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