Stockton, CA – Restore the Delta gleaned essential findings from the recently released State Auditor Report on the CA WaterFix (Delta Tunnels) and condensed them into a fact sheet.
Upon review of the Auditor’s 97 page report, Restore the Delta policy analyst Tim Stroshane said:
“The State Auditor finds a Department of Water Resources that thinks it’s a law unto itself planning for Delta Tunnels. DWR took $80 million from the Bureau of Reclamation to plan the project, violating the “beneficiary pays” principle. It engages in cronyism in hiring its project manager. Now it has amassed a $300 million slush fund of surplus revenues from its water contractors. The State Legislature needs to ‘adaptively manage’ DWR’s priorities for its slush fund to mitigate all environmental impacts of the State Water Project on the Delta and elsewhere, and to shield low-income ratepayers from costly and unfair rate hikes. This agency needs to be reined in to restore the public’s trust in state water management, especially coming on the heels of the Oroville Dam spillway fiasco last winter.”
Restore the Delta executive director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla added:
“Metropolitan Water District’s Roger Patterson actually explained at the October 5,2017 Central Basin Water District Board of Directors meeting that the state audit was evidence of why Metropolitan Water District needs a new Joint Powers Authority to handle WaterFix. Yet, MWD management refuses to share copies of the Joint Power Authority agreements with the MWD of Board of Directors. The audit shows the influence of MWD over the poor decisions made by the Department of Water Resources. Why would anyone believe that secret JPA negotiations will repair the broken WaterFix?”
To read Restore the Delta’s press release on the State Auditor Report, click here.
To read the full State Auditor Report, click here.
For Immediate Release: October 9, 2017
Contact:
Nora Kovaleski, 408-806-6470, nora@kovaleskipr.com
Tim Stroshane, Restore the Delta, 510-847-7556, tim@restorethedelta.org