Today at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) Bay-Delta Committee meeting, General Manager Jeff Kightlinger and Assistant General Manager Roger Patterson revealed that Governor Brown, the State Water Contractors, and the Department of Water Resources (DWR) have been part of discussions to move forward with the first tunnel of the phased-in CA WaterFix...Read More
STOCKTON – Documents acquired by Restore the Delta from a recent a public records act request to Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) confirm that newly appointed California Department of Water Resources Director (DWR) Karla Nemeth was a MWD employee from 2009 to 2014, earning over $900,000 in total compensation. During her MWD tenure,...Read More
STOCKTON, CA – Today, the State Water Resources Control Board issued a ruling that restarts California WaterFix hearings despite a change in the project for the proposed Delta tunnels (link to ruling to here). Recent motions to stay the hearing included intense criticism from Delta cities, counties, farmers, and environmental groups (protestants). The protestants had...Read More
STOCKTON – Environmental and public interest nonprofit Restore the Delta thoroughly examined the state’s recently released cost-benefit analysis of the newest phased-in version of the Delta Tunnels project. The study by UC Berkeley Economist David Sunding, was released this Tuesday to justify construction of a single tunnel even though the Department of Water Resources...Read More
A ‘water grab’? Southern California water agency eyes possible control of Delta tunnels project – Sacramento Bee “‘It would certainly raise a lot of concerns to have Metropolitan controlling the Delta tunnels,’ said WaterFix critic Doug Obegi, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. ‘Management of the Delta is supposed to be by the state...Read More
Today, California WaterFix staff released a cost-benefit analysis of the new phased-in tunnels project. However, the analysis is incomplete, as it only examines the initial phased-in tunnel and states that analysis for the second tunnel would need to be completed in the future. Restore the Delta will release additional responses to the document in the...Read More
Yesterday, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) General Manager Jeff Kightlinger reported to MWD Board Members on the Water Planning and Stewardship Committee that the new phased-in tunnels project would require a $5.1 billion contribution and that MWD would receive the same amount of water with operation of the first 6,000 cfs tunnel, as...Read More
STOCKTON – Today, the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released an official joint statement confirming a new phased approach to the Delta Tunnels project. The announcement follows months of statements about changes to the project by Metropolitan Water District General Manager Jeff Kightlinger after project proponents failed to secure...Read More
“I find a former partner of Resnick. He doesn’t know about the pipeline. What he knows is that Wonderful is buying up to 50,000 acre-feet of water a year in a series of hidden deals. The sellers include farmers in the Tulare Lake basin who are pumping so much water out of the ground that...Read More
STOCKTON – Yesterday, Restore the Delta, represented by Earthjustice, joined a motion to stay for part two of the CA WaterFix hearing before the State Water Resources Control Board, initially filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife, and The Bay Institute. The motion to stay explains that continuing with the CA...Read More
