Nancy Vogel of the Department of Water Resources, posting to a new blog for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) reported on September 26 that “No one can say exactly how much water would be diverted under any of the nine BDCP alternative projects now being studied. That includes the proposal to shift the major Delta diversion point north to the Sacramento River and construct two 35-mile-long tunnels to carry water south to water project pumping plants.
“Will the project yield more or less water than the recent average of 4.7 million acre-feet under the current system?”
According to Vogel, the draft environmental documents that will be released in the next few months will show a potential range of water deliveries for the twin tunnels. (The implication is that any of the other alternatives will yield less water than the tunnels.) Deliveries, she said, will depend first on weather. Other strategies besides pumping restrictions will be in place to protect fish, so that pumping will be “at least as predictable as the weather.”
They seem to be backpedaling a bit here when it comes to assurances.