The Tunnel Project is Destructive to Communities and the Environment, Expensive & Doesn’t Solve Our Water Problem.

We need real solutions, not a political boondoggle.

What’s at Stake & Why It Matters to You.

An Interview With Senator Christopher Cabaldon

State Senator Christopher Cabaldon discusses the Delta Tunnel Project and its implications for the Delta region and Southern California ratepayers. Listen or download the transcript.

From the Non-partisan Legislative Analysts Office (LAO):

LAO Bottom Line: We recommend deferring action on both proposals, without prejudice... Deferring action would allow the Legislature more time and capacity for sufficient consideration of the potential benefits, implications, and trade-offs.

Huge price tag.
Too little benefit.

A ballooning price tag & residents on the hook

  • The Department of Water Resources (DWR) says $20 billion is the final cost for a project that would start in at least 20 years and take 14 more years to complete. Anyone who manages their own home budget knows that’s an impossible claim to make for something so far in the future. Can you even imagine what the cost will be by the end of the project?

  • We have seen the costs on other state projects skyrocket. The Governor’s trailer bill bypasses property rights, financial and environmental protections, and community input. We have no way to contain costs.

  • There is no mechanism to limit water rate and property tax assessment increases, how many increases are allowed, or the amount of those increases. If, as is likely, this project goes over budget—ratepayers in Southern California will pick up the tab!

A tunnel doesn’t solve the problem

  • The tunnel project is an expensive, outdated plan that would not address our state’s water needs. Even tunnel proponents admit it’s not a silver bullet.

  • The Department of Water Resources says it would only operate during high-water periods. Climate science tells us that water availability from the Sierra snowpack and Delta watershed will continue to decline, so if this is true, the project would sit unused for extended periods, the most critically dry and drought-stricken times.

  • If DWR actually were to use the tunnel during droughts and low flows, that would have different and devastating impacts on water quality and fisheries that should be disclosed now, not sprung on the public later.

The massive impact on communities & habitat

  • This 45-mile project would take about 15 years to complete and requires massive intakes on the river and digging over 100 feet underground for 45 miles. The destructive and permanent impact on fragile ecosystems and the small communities in its path will be devastating.

  • The trailer bill is the mechanism the governor has proposed to change numerous laws, including long-standing water laws, private property, public finance, and environmental protections, to advance one of California's most controversial and costly infrastructure projects.

Our unique Delta encompasses five counties. It is a refuge for hundreds of species, home to thousands of California residents, and a source of clean water for over four million people locally, as well as up to 27 million people in other areas of the state.

  • The Delta is a unique habitat and offers the opportunity to create critical solutions for multi-use benefits and win/win solutions as we deal with climate change.

  • The Delta region provides a critical stopover on the Pacific Flyway for migrating birds. The next north/south flyway is east of the Mississippi.

  • We don’t need to destroy communities & a fragile ecosystem to solve our water challenges.

  • Preserving the Delta ecosystem is essential to managing climate change impacts.

  • The massive impact on communities & habitat.

Alternatives haven’t even been considered

  • Alternatives and options have been presented, but none have been seriously considered. The Bay-Delta system (Bay-Delta Plan) water quality standards were last meaningfully updated in 1995 and are woefully inadequate to protect communities and the ecosystem. 

  • California deserves a climate-smart water policy, ecologically responsible, and accountable to the communities it impacts, not shortcuts that favor the powerful few at the expense of the many.

Visit our Resources Page for Fact Sheets and a downloadable poster that can be printed on your home computer.
This massive project will cost us all—and we will still have to pay to implement solutions to solve the problem. Let’s stop it now.

What People are Saying:

  • "The tunnel’s costs would have to be shouldered by ratepayers who are already overburdened by skyrocketing utility bills."

    Jerry McNerney, State Senator and California Legislative Delta Caucus Co-Chair

  • "I’m disappointed to see this proposal to override legal protections and statutes to violate both water and property rights, Let’s be real- this is a $20 billion water grab that shifts wealth from the San Joaquin Delta to wealthy Southern California interests. This would steal our water and harm the Central Valley’s Delta."

    Rhodesia Ransom, State Assemblymember

  • "The tunnel doesn’t create any new water. It’s not magic... the tunnel would only function during portions of the year anyway and not in the portions of the year when the water is needed the most in Southern California."

    Christopher Cabaldon, State Senator

  • "This approach threatens the livelihood of our local communities and undermines the sustainability of our regional economy."

    Lori Wilson, State Assemblymember

  • "Because powerful and wealthy industries support the DCP, it’s easy to understand the political calculus that drives Governors to push for it: as always in California, water flows toward money."

    Max Gomberg, California Water Impact Network Senior Policy Advisor

  • “The state auditor's report says it all. It validated everything that was in our comments regarding the Delta tunnel project.”

    Barbara Barrigan-Parrill, Restore the Delta Executive Director

  • “I’m disappointed to see this proposal to override legal protections and statutes to violate both water and property rights. Let’s be real- this is a $20 billion water grab that shifts wealth from the San Joaquin Delta to wealthy Southern California interests. This would steal our water and harm the Central Valley’s Delta.”

    Rhodesia Ransom (D-Tracy), State Assemblymember

  • “In other words, doing nothing is more expensive.”

    David Sunding, UC Berkeley Emeritus Environmental Economics Professor

  • “What better way to address declining salmon populations than by draining their homes?"

    Scott Artis, Golden State Salmon Association Executive Director

  • "The farther upstream they divert the water, the lower our water quality will be.”

    Harvey Correia, Delta Farmer 

  • “We’re small, we’re an easy target.”

    Gia Moreno, Clarksburg Resident

  • "It’s our only means of livelihood right now, we’re really unsure about the future.” 


    Michelle Mota, Hood Restaurant Owner 

  • “The injurious impacts of mismanagement in the Bay-Delta can no longer be endured by Tribes and Delta communities.”

    Malissa Tayaba, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians Vice Chair

  • Bravo, Governor, for turning healthy rivers and estuaries into a punchline that harms tens of thousands of families, businesses and employees across California and Oregon.”

    Scott Artis, Golden State Salmon Association Executive Director

  • "Restore The Delta was really earnest when it participated with the Design Construction Authority for two years. We didn't like the project, but we figured, okay, we're going to sit at a table, we're going to explain our water quality concerns around harmful algal blooms and salinity, and around air pollution during construction. Those were the big pieces for us, and they weren't addressed.”

    Barbara Barrigan-Parrill, Restore the Delta Executive Director

  • "This will make our town uninhabitable, there will be so much heavy equipment and traffic and people going through town that the locals will be driven out."

    Dan Whaley, Hood Business Owner

  • "At the end of the day, this proposal is a nail in the coffin of California’s once mighty salmon runs, a stake in the heart of the Delta, and a raid on the pocketbooks of the people of Southern California and Silicon Valley."

    Scott Artis, Golden State Salmon Association Executive Director

  • "It’s a misuse of the budget process—bypassing legal requirements and undermining the public processes that are fundamental to our democracy."

    Cintia Cortez, Restore the Delta Policy Program Manager

  • "Governor Newsom is pushing the Delta Conveyance Project, which would destroy the remaining life in our Delta watershed and eco-cultural estuary."

    Malissa Tayaba, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians Vice Chair

  • "We know there are solutions that will restore and protect our sacred waterways and allow our people to maintain our culture and traditions while providing sufficient water for Southern California, instead of pursuing those solutions."

    Malissa Tayaba, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians Vice Chair

  • "The proposed trailer bill is a blatant attempt to codify illegal provisions to advance the Delta Tunnel."

    Cintia Cortez, Restore the Delta Policy Program Manager

  • “We won’t even be here to benefit from any of the things they’re offering.”

    Gia Moreno, Clarksburg Resident

  • “The growing opposition to the governor’s Delta Tunnel proposal is impossible to ignore, with organizations from across California standing together in solidarity. This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s not North versus South. It reflects real, statewide concern rooted in environmental justice, public accountability, fiscal responsibility, and the protection of our communities.”

    Lori D. Wilson, State Assemblymember; Delta Caucus Co-Chair

  • "But even folks in Southern California, they’ve said, well, we’re not sure we want to pay for such a gigantic boondoggle. You say it’s $20 billion, but that number is from a couple of years ago. If you still believe that, then maybe there’s a high-speed rail project I should tell you a little bit about."

    Christopher Cabaldon, State Senator

  • "Rather than focusing on local programs that could provide new, sustainable sources of clean water and improve local resilience, Newsom is choosing to advocate for streamlining review of projects that could negatively impact local communities and ecosystems."

    Scott Webb, Resource Renewal Institute Director of Advocacy

  • “The LAO’s report confirms what we’ve been saying all along: this is a dangerous attempt to push a deeply flawed project through the back door.”

    Pat Hume, Sacramento County Supervisor; Delta Counties Coalition Chair

  • “For too long, attempts to modernize our critical water infrastructure have stalled in the endless spin cycle of the governor’s expensive projects, while burdening the people of California with growing costs."

    Jann Dorman, Friends of the River Executive Director

  • “Let’s be crystal clear: Californians are being asked to divert billions of dollars to benefit small, wealthy interests — jeopardizing the freshwater ecosystems that support our communities, fisheries and biodiversity. It is disappointing that Governor Newsom repeatedly goes against the will of most Californians by undermining our judges and legislators and attacking the Bay-Delta and our rivers.”

    Ashley Overhouse, Defenders of Wildlife Water Policy Advisor

  • "This deeply flawed and fiscally irresponsible initiative risks becoming one of the most expensive and ecologically destructive infrastructure boondoggles in California history."

    Delta Counties Coalition (Contra Costa, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano, Yolo Counties)

  • "[The tunnel project] will cause irreversible harm to water quality, salmon, communities, and the fragile Delta ecosystem while providing marginal, and unreliable, benefits to the rest of the state."

    Regina Chichizola, Save California Salmon Executive Director

  • “The California Delta Chambers & Visitor’s Bureau strongly opposes the Delta Conveyance Project to divert much of the flow of the Sacramento River around the Delta starting at the tiny town of Hood. To solve California’s water problems, we need to create new fresh water, not reallocate it from one area to another, creating winners and losers in the process."

    Bill Wells, California Delta Chambers & Visitor's Bureau Executive Director

Sign On Letter to OPPOSE Delta Tunnel Trailer Bills

We, local governments, environmental justice organizations, conservation groups, fishing communities, and water advocates, strongly oppose the May Revision trailer bill proposals that seek to fast-track the Delta Conveyance Project (Delta Tunnel) and sabotage the Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan (Bay-Delta Plan) through the state budget process.

There are Alternative Ways

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