[Released by Restore the Delta]
Today, the Delta Tunnels Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) was released online. This document is not a green light for the Delta Tunnels but rather should be understood as the submission of homework by sponsoring agencies (California Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation) to be evaluated by state and federal regulators who will determine if proposal can meet environmental and water quality standards under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). A feat no previous version of the proposal has achieved, according to Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta.

Whenever Governor Brown wants to make a bold pronouncement on the Delta Tunnels proposal, he turns to his loyal stenographer Dan Morain, editorial page editor at the Sacramento Bee. As he does again today in this story, “Jerry Brown plunges ahead on twin tunnels.”

Governor Jerry Brown told the Sacramento Bee that Delta Tunnels proposal is based on the best scientific thinking. That is simply not true. He left out that fish do worse with the tunnels, and that millions of Delta residents will be left with degraded water that will not meet Clean Water Act standards.

The Governor failed to remember the dangers for Delta residents associated with the project, from toxic algal blooms, to increased boron and selenium in drinking water, to greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 600,000 new cars on the road each year from construction.

This forgetting on Governor Brown's part is reckless and dangerous as he makes his appeal to President-elect Trump to support the project. Governor Brown is supporting a project that will leave Stockton, California, a majority-minority city, and other Delta environmental justice communities with degraded water — all for the benefit of rich water exporters in the San Joaquin Valley, Southern California, and Silicon Valley. Shame on Governor Brown. What dishonest pandering!”