Newsom’s Delta Tunnel Comment Period Ends
Baykeeper statement: Death Sentence for SF Bay’s Fish
Today, San Francisco Baykeeper and 13 partner organizations filed comments with the California Department of Water Resources on the draft environmental impact report for Governor Newsom’s Delta conveyance project (“Delta tunnel”). The organizations represent a wide range of conservation, Indigenous, fishing, and Delta community interests.
Like the two failed proposals that came before it, Governor Newsom’s latest conveyance plan would divert water from the Sacramento River through a tunnel bored under the Delta. A similar tunnel project proposed by Newsom’s predecessor, Governor Jerry Brown, was withdrawn in 2018 following intense criticism of the cost and negative effects on the environment.
Baykeeper Science Director, Jon Rosenfield, PhD, issued the following statement:
“If constructed, the Delta Conveyance would be a death sentence for our region’s fisheries and for communities that rely on those fish for food, recreation, and cultural practices. Despite overwhelming evidence that the San Francisco Bay estuary’s water quality and fishes are declining fast—and that more flows from Central Valley rivers need to reach San Francisco Bay to avert an ecological disaster—Governor Newsom’s tunnel proposal will decrease flows to the Bay.”