For Immediate Release: 12/21/23
Contact: Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, 209-479-2053, barbara@restorethedelta.org
SACRAMENTO – Today, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) published the Notice of Determination (NOD) for the Delta Conveyance Project. The NOD is the administrative record requirement for a finalized document for a proposed project by the lead agency, which in this case is the Department of Water Resources. The Department of Water Resources published the final Environmental Impact Report for the Delta Conveyance Project on December 8, 2023,
The publishing NOD begins the 30-day clock for the public to file litigation against the proposed Delta Conveyance Project Plan and Environmental Impact Report under the California Environmental Quality Act.
The Delta Conveyance Project still requires numerous other state and federal permits to advance, and also requires the completion of documents under NEPA, federal environmental policy.
Executive Director for Restore the Delta, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla issued a statement:
“We and our broad coalition of partners will engage in all necessary processes, and when necessary litigation, to stop the Delta Conveyance Project once and for all. Sadly, the Newsom Administration is continuing to waste public dollars and time advancing a project that Californians have rejected for decades and that will not solve our climate water challenge or protect the Bay-Delta estuary. We are disappointed in the Newsom Administration’s recycling of failed ideas from past generations.
“To this end our attorneys at the Mills Legal Clinic at Stanford Law School sent a letter to US EPA on behalf of the Delta Tribal Environmental Coalition (Buena Vista Rancheria, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Little Manila Rising, and Restore the Delta) reaffirming that our Title VI complaint, which has been accepted for investigation, and our petition or rulemaking for protective flow standards for the Delta must advance rapidly. One of our primary requests for relief to US EPA is that a completed Bay-Delta Plan must be set in place, with protective science-based standards for estuary health, before any tunnel or major infrastructure project advances.
“The Newsom Administration has the order of operations backwards. The Bay-Delta Plan, along with a state water inventory of supply and demand, must be completed before wasting money and more time on wasteful infrastructure planning.
“We are confident that ultimately this project will die from its own bloated costs. Until then, we will continue to advance real solutions for California water management, like broadscale floodplain restoration in the Central Valley, water quality protections, and robust funding for river and Sierra wetland restoration, along with urban water resiliency projects.”