CA Reps introduce bill in Congress to block the water-stealing Delta Tunnel

  • Published on September 21st, 2022

Yesterday, Representative Josh Harder (D CA-10) introduced a bill in Congress to prohibit the Army Corps of Engineers from issuing a federal permit necessary for the State of California to build the Delta Conveyance Project, AKA the Delta Tunnel. His bill, the Stop the Delta Tunnels Act, is co-sponsored by Representative John Garamendi (D CA-3).

Despite massive public opposition and global pandemic, California barrels forward with its water-stealing Delta Tunnel plan
DCA proposed Delta Conveyance project

By Dan Bacher

Rep. Harder said he is a longtime opponent of the Delta Tunnel project, first voicing his opposition in 2018.

“The Delta Tunnel is a zombie project. Every time we kill it, the Governor brings it back. My bill will put an end to this $16 billion boondoggle once and for all and make sure every drop of Valley water stays right here where it belongs,” said Rep. Harder.

“This is a choice between watering a family farm right here in the Valley, and watering someone’s manicured green lawn down south. I’ll do what’s right for the Valley every single time,” he explained.

The proposed 45-mile-long tunnel would divert water from the Sacramento River before it reaches the Delta, and then ship it south.

This morning, KCRA3 News called Rep. Harder’s bill, “the strongest step yet to stop the state’s proposed giant water tunnel from gaining ground.”

The California Department of Water Resources, or DWR, recently released the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Delta Tunnel Project“The Delta Tunnels doesn’t modernize anything,” Harder told KCRA 3. “All it does is build a giant tunnel to take the water that our community depends on and sends it down to Los Angeles. I don’t call that modernization, I call that theft.”

Read the bill online here.

The California Department of Water Resources, or DWR, recently released the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Delta Tunnel Project for public review and comment. The public comment period will end on Oct. 27, leaving less than six weeks for Californians to get their comments in.

The State’s Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the Delta Conveyance Project is available here.

You can sign the Save California Salmon petition, “No More Water For Profit: Stop California’s Delta Tunnel,” here.

About the Author

Dan Bacher is an environmental journalist in Sacramento who focuses on California's water issues, a healthy environment for the salmon fishery of the Northwest, and the attempts by big agriculture and big oil to hog all the water.