Newsom announces plans to fast-track California's delta tunnel project
The Delta tunnel project is a plan that's drawing bipartisan backlash. It would take water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and move it to Southern California.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is calling for "swift" action to start the Delta Conveyance Project, claiming it's essential to avoiding future water disasters.
But lawmakers from within his own party are pushing back on this, saying it's not a long-term solution to the water crisis and hasn't gone through the proper channels to determine if Southern California can even store the water they want to take.
Democrats like assemblymembers Lori Wilson and Rhodesia Ransom, whose constituents depend on the delta for agriculture and business, are taking a rare stand against the governor, saying this issue is not about political party but equity.
Ransom said the project is a transfer of wealth and water from the delta region to be given to the wealthier Southern California region.
Ransom said the governor's proposal put out on Wednesday is concerning because it undermines the proper channels to vet the impacts of the project. She is now calling for a complete audit of the California Department of Water Resources and the plan.
"This could, like I said, disrupt and threaten farmland productivity. We need to know how that's going to look. We need to know who's going to be hurt by this project, and that is what this audit is about," she said. "The state has the ability to do this, and we want to make sure that when they are telling us that we need to move this water or there's going to be a dire situation there, we wanted them to prove this to us."
Ransom says the project violates the Delta Reform Act, requiring water plants to rely less on water from the delta.
She is part of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. She has already been in contact with the Senate and says this audit will move forward.
In December 2024, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California approved allocating $141.6 million for the Delta Conveyance Project.
The Department of Water Resources says the project would provide clean and affordable water to 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland in the southern part of the state.
The water would be transferred via an earthquake-resistant tunnel system that the DWR says would sit up to 130 feet below ground.
Newsom's plan to fast-track the project came as the governor outlined his nearly $332 billion state spending plan on Wednesday. The governor revealed that California is facing a $12 billion budget deficit.
