Over the weekend, ABC 10 published its latest series uncovering the truth about the threats posed by the Delta Conveyance Project to Delta communities, Tribes, and the environment.
The series prominently features our Executive Director, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, and provides a look back at the last decade of the fight to stop the Delta tunnel.
Barrigan-Parrilla revisits how the Delta tunnel project is not a sustainable pathway forward for the future of California, “…When you dig into the details of the environmental impact report, it simply allows for greater exported water during dry periods. And that’s what we can’t sustain.”
She also lays out concerns around the modeling for the tunnel that could essentially be outdated to withstand adverse effects from intense storms and other natural disasters in part due to climate change, “We’re going to put so much money into building it, but yet we’re not building up the infrastructure to actually protect all the people and communities that live behind the levees throughout the Delta.”
Additionally, the project threatens cultural, historical, and environmental resources of Tribes that call the Delta home.
Overall, she emphasizes the need for the order of operations to be right, with the Bay-Delta Plan being updated and implemented first. With a lawsuit against the Delta tunnel with Tribes and fishing and environmental organizations and a Title VI Complaint to move the Bay-Delta Plan forward as a part of the Delta Tribal Environmental Coalition (DTEC), Restore the Delta is working towards shifting the paradigm.
There are better solutions that will bring California closer to water reliance and resilience that don’t forgo communities, Tribes, and the environment, “…We know we’re always going to have to share the water, but there are ways to do it much more cost-effectively, share that water, and protect the estuary,” said Barrigan-Parrilla.
You can read the full series from ABC 10 here.