A controversial new plan,
developed by California's Governor Jerry Brown in conjunction with
various state agencies, offers a potential solution. Dubbed the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP),
it suggests boring two massive tunnels to subvert the levees entirely,
while simultaneously attempting to help endangered species through
large-scale habitat restoration. Critics of the plan say it throws small
Delta family farms under the bus by cutting off their freshwater
supply, and, in fact, further imperils the estuary's tottering ecosystem
in order to satisfy the needs of big ag in the Central Valley. But
supporters say it's the best solution to a problem that, if not
addressed, could severely impact the state's $1.8 trillion-economy and
leave up to 25 million people in the state without drinking water. What
both sides agree on is that something must be done before it's too late.
A diagram of how the
BDCP would transform California's water infrastructure. The proposed
tunnels are shown in green. (Bay Delta Conservation Plan)
Once upon a time, the Delta was
a big, impassable tidal marsh. It was fed on one end by ocean water,
via the San Francisco Bay, and on the other by the confluence of the
state's two largest rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin. Chinook
salmon ran along its waterways, and the area was rich in native species
that flourished in its unique saltwater–freshwater habitat.
When gold was discovered in the
Sierras in 1849, new settlers dredged much of the Delta to make
farmland to feed the miners. Chinese immigrants, who had moved in to
build the Transcontinental Railroad, constructed levees to confine the
water to a maze of canals that still exists today.
Reachable only by small
highways, the Delta, which extends from about an hour northeast of San
Francisco all the way to Sacramento, has a sleepy, run-down,
stuck-in-time feel. Agricultural land gives way to hundreds of miles of
murky channels and small islands that are underwater at high tide,
covered in wavering tule reeds. It's referred to by some as the "Redneck
Riviera", popular with water-skiers and bass fishermen, and lacking in
any of the Bay Area's bourgeois trappings. In the handful of tiny towns
along its banks, you won't find Starbucks or cute bed and breakfasts.
There is, however, a spam festival, a crawdad festival, and a meth problem.
A spam festival, a crawdad festival, and a meth problem
Currently, water flows through
canals in the Delta before it's diverted to Silicon Valley, the Central
Valley, Los Angeles, and the surrounding areas via pumps at the
southern end of the Delta. The BDCP would instead siphon off a majority
of the estuary's freshwater supply earlier — directly out of the
Sacramento River and at the northern end of the Delta — then run that
water underground for some 35 miles in twin 40-foot diameter tunnels.
From there, the water would enter holding reservoirs, then be pumped out
towards central and southern California. The estimated cost of the BDCP
is $25 billion, which will supposedly be covered by the residential and
agricultural customers who'd consume the water.
"The great fear is if for
whatever reason, flooding or earthquake, you get multiple islands that
flood in the central Delta from levee collapse, and that creates a
sucking in of salt water from the bay," says Nancy Vogel, director of
public affairs for the California Department of Water Resources. This
would be bad, because it would mean the water would be contaminated by
salt, and the pumps would have to be shut down. "If you have a system
that takes water from the Sacramento River and North Delta and it's
underground and seismically safe, you don't risk the disruption."
"This would be bad."
There are 300 species of
wildlife in the Delta, 29 of which are threatened or endangered. The
plan makes additional provisions for 145,000 acres of habitat protection
and restoration, and construction of new fish screens that will keep
salmon and smelt and other creatures from being sucked into the intakes
and reservoirs the way they currently are. It includes reconnecting
floodplains and rivers, and restoring riverbanks to a more natural
state.
Not surprisingly, however,
locals aren't exactly embracing the idea of 90 percent of the Delta's
freshwater supplies being siphoned off. Seven members of Congress
representing Delta districts oppose the plan, as does much of the local
farming community, which stands to lose the most. Although not as big
and productive as the Central Valley region, Delta farmers supply
significant amounts of certain crops such as wine grapes and asparagus.
Opponents have protested Brown's plan — "Stop the Tunnels" has become
their rallying cry.
"It's a horrible concept — absolutely horrible," says Tim Neuharth,
a Delta farmer whose ancestors have been growing in the area since the
Gold Rush. "If the Delta's already in a bad way, I don't see how taking
more water out of the system before it even gets to the Delta is going to improve the health of the Delta."
"It's a horrible concept — absolutely horrible."
Proponents say the plan is
better than the current water system, which artificially maintains a
high proportion of freshwater in the estuary, compared to what it was,
say, 100 years ago. Although that freshwater is better for Delta farms,
salmon and smelt populations have suffered and are now at historic
lows. "The way we pull the water through the Delta now is really bad for
the ecosystem — it's really unnatural," says Ellen Hanak, a senior
fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, a non-partisan
think-tank that has studied Delta water policies. "We do that to
maintain a much more stable water quality in the Delta than you would if
it was more naturally flowing."
Despite ongoing controversy
over the BDCP, this plan is only the latest in a series of ideas to
better extract water from the Delta. Most recently, a plan to build what
was known as the Peripheral Canal, literally a long canal that syphoned
off freshwater from the Delta and circumvented the troubled region, was
defeated by voters in 1982.
"If you can just build a big enough project, you can solve it."
"Tunneling technology over the
last 10 years has really taken off," says Gordon Enas, principal
engineer for the California Department of Water Resources. "Several
years ago, when we first embarked on this project, we hadn't really
considered it."
The BDCP, which runs over 40,000 pages, has been released to the public
for comment until April. If the plan goes into effect as is, it'll take
an estimated 50 years to implement — not that such a lengthy process is
thwarting Californians backing the project. "There is an obsession that
Americans in general and California in particular have about
technological solutions," says Matthew Booker, an associate professor of
history at North Carolina State University who's written a book on the
Delta. He cites Elon Musk's Hyperloop project,
which would transport riders from San Francisco to LA in 30 minutes via
pneumatic tube, as just one example. "Here is this unbelievable, maybe
unsolvable, problem of the Delta. And if you can just build a big enough project, you can solve it."
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