(With expanded coverage of all the Western States)
by Patrick Ruckert
www.californiadroughtupdate.org/California- Water-and-Infrastructure-Report-May-16%2C-2024.pdf
A Note to Readers
While the May weather here in Oakland so far has tended toward the cooler level of the thermometer, much of the rest of the nation has seen some serious storms, flooding and a few areas of hotter temperatures. So, this week, and maybe in the week’s to come I will give more coverage to broader report on the weather, droughts, rain, floods and other climatic and weather phenomenon.
The connection between water for irrigation and the food supply is obvious. But some statistics in the report, below, “California Agriculture: Water and Securing the Nation’s Food Supply,” may surprise you. The article is from the California Farm Water Coalition.
Reports on the topic of the Colorado River, provide updates on the attempt to find agreement with all seven states that receive water from the river, and the role of the Bureau of Reclamation’s role in ensuring the water supply for 40 million people.
I have avoided for a long time any discussion of the Delta-tunnel project. But, one article last week and two today provide an excellent moment for me to weigh in on the topic. I have included in this introduction the entire introduction to the three articles:
The project of moving water from the Sacramento River around or under the Bay Area Delta has had a foothold in the state for fifty years. Until now, it had gone nowhere. But now, the administration of Governor Newsom is fully committed to it and the project has cleared some of the hurdles to begin construction, though that will only actually occur if it survives court and other challenges, for a couple more years, at least, if ever.
While the reason for the building of the project is to allow more water to be pumped to the water agencies, including the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, but also to protect the Delta Smelt and other fish, like Salmon. It should be mentioned that no Delta Smelt have been found in the waters of the Delta for several years, but fanatical environmentalists cannot bring themselves to admit that it is already extinct.
As the article below from the San Francisco Chronicle reports, the projected cost of the project has risen from $15 billion to $20 billion now. That is the estimate of theDepartment of Water Resources (DWR). But, like the bullet train from San Francisco to L.A., now estimated to cost over $100 billion, the actual cost of the Delta project will probably be at least $50 billion.
The first article below I ran last week in this report. This piece, by Edward Ring, I think, makes the case that the tunnel is not only a great waste, but for the $30 billion, or $50 billion it will cost, many times the amount of water it would provide agriculture and cities can be accomplished with other projects, including recycling and desalination. Ring concludes his article with this: “All that time. All that money. All that cement! For nothing.”
