For Immediate Release: November 29, 2016
Contact:
Robert Wright, Friends of the River, 916-442-3155 x207 bwright@friendsoftheriver.org
Brian Smith, 415-320-9384, brian@bpspr.com
Obama Administration Asked to Kill Delta Tunnels Plan
Financial and environmental “nightmare” would become his legacy
Sacramento, CA – On Monday, a coalition of California fishing, conservation, and public interest groups sent a letter to the Obama Administration today explaining why the Delta Tunnels (California WaterFix) proposal should be terminated before the end of President Obama’s Administration.
The groups call the Delta Tunnels proposal “Classic Corporate Welfare Public Subsidy” explaining that:
Every day people would be forking over their hard-earned tax dollars to very wealthy special interests to subsidize the Water Tunnels. And, there will be a disparate impact on low-income communities, both rural and urban, that will bear a disproportional burden through higher water costs for this project.
The coalition shows how the costs exceed the benefits by 4 to 1, and that the $17 Billion projected budget is absurdly low:
President Obama has established a legacy of honesty, scientific integrity and commitment to conservation and protection of our natural resources. The Water Fix project needs to be terminated at this time. It is neither right nor fair that President Obama’s legacy and administration be tarnished in the future with blame for fraudulently inflicting this financial and environmental nightmare on the honest and hard-working taxpayers and ratepayers of America and California.
The letter explains how the Obama Administration will be blamed, if they do not terminate the project:
The California Water Fix– Delta Water Tunnels– represent a financial as well as an environmental nightmare. This administration should terminate this project. Otherwise, down the road, when the obvious financial and environmental catastrophe is recognized by all, the blame will be placed on this administration. The excuse can be foreseen now. “We inherited the Water Fix from the previous administration and presumed that they knew what they were doing and had fully evaluated the project in good faith when they determined it should go forward.”
Read the full letter here.