California Details Funding Plan For Twin Tunnels

(AP) - State officials say customers of California's proposed twin-tunnel project will have to make billions of dollars in fixed payments each year, even during dry periods when water levels run low.

The State Treasurer's Office on Friday released a financing plan for the $25 billion Bay Delta Conservation Project, and said it would only be feasible if water agencies adopted a set yearly payment plan.

The tunnels at the heart of the project are designed to send water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Central Valley farms and Southern California cities.

Gov. Jerry Brown champions the plan, saying it will ease the delivery of mountain snowmelt to points south.

Environmentalists, delta farmers and the fishing industry, who seek to block the project, say the tunnels would further harm the delta and its water quality.