California Senate Rejects Governor Newsom's Plan to Fast-Track Delta Tunnel in Budget

In a significant victory for Tribes, fishing communities, family farmers, the environment and the people of California, the State Senate Budget Subcommittee on Tuesday rejected Governor Gavin Newsom’s Delta Conveyance Project trailer bill package.

The Subcommittee also reversed $351.7 million in proposed funding for the controversial Voluntary Agreements, backed by corporate agribusiness, as the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is going through its worst-ever ecological crisis.

The vote by the Senate Budget Subcommittee 2 on Resources, Environmental Protection and Energy followed a recent decision by leadership in the Senate and Assembly to reject the governor’s tunnel fast-tracking plan in the Legislature’s official 2025-26 budget plan. 

“The vote today by Senate Budget Subcommittee 2 to reject the tunnel proposal will prevent significant harm to the Delta region, a substantial portion of which would be devastated by the 45-mile-long, $20-plus billion water tunnel project. This is a signal that big policy proposals should not be fast-tracked through the budget process,” said Sen. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, a member of Senate Budget Subcommittee 2 and co-chair of the California Legislative Delta Caucus,” in a statement.

“Thank you, Senate President pro Tempore Mike McGuire, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, Senate Budget Chair Scott Wiener, and Assembly Budget Chair Jesse Gabriel, for not including the tunnel fast-tracking proposal in the Legislature’s 2025-26 budget plan. The destructive and unaffordable Delta Tunnel Project should be shelved permanently,” McNerney said.

“This was yet another reckless attempt to push through a deeply flawed and environmentally harmful project without proper oversight or community input, and once again, the Legislature wisely said no,” echoed Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson, D-Suisun City, co-chair of the Delta Caucus. “I thank Speaker Rivas, Senate President pro-Tem McGuire, and our Budget Chairs for standing with Delta communities and protecting ratepayers at a time when we should be prioritizing affordability.”

As the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) put it, ‘the administration has not provided sufficient justification’ for this rushed proposal and failed to demonstrate that fast-tracking the Delta Tunnel is either necessary or fiscally responsible. The Legislature made the right call.” 

The full Senate Budget Committee is scheduled to vote on the Legislature’s 2025-26 budget plan, minus the fast-tracking proposal, on Wednesday. Both the Senate and Assembly are scheduled to vote on the Legislature’s budget plan later this week, according to McNerney.

The Subcommittee voted 3-0-1 to reject the controversial tunnel fast-tracking proposal and refer it to the regular legislative process, rather than including it in the budget.

“The Subcommittee’s vote today followed a recent report from California’s independent Legislative Analyst’s Office that raised serious red flags about the tunnel fast-tracking proposal and urged the Legislature to pause the governor’s plan to provide lawmakers with more time to examine the proposal’s wide-ranging impacts,” McNerney noted.

“The tunnel fast-tracking proposal also has been met with widespread opposition. The broad bipartisan coalition against the fast-tracking plan includes more than 100 legislators; cities, counties, and public agencies; good government groups; environmental and tribal organizations; and nonprofits and local businesses,” McNerney said.

The Delta Caucus has urged the governor and Legislature to “pursue alternatives to the Delta Tunnel Project that would cost far less and would safeguard California’s main water supply system without inflicting major harm to it, such as fortifying Delta levees and increasing water recycling, water efficiency, and groundwater storage,” according to McNerney. 

Delta advocates celebrated the vote to reject the Governor’s trailer bill language, but noted that the Delta Tunnel proposals may return in policy committees later this year.

“This decision reflects growing concerns among legislators about the costs, legality, and rushed process behind the tunnel plan,” said Restore the Delta in a statement.   “It’s a strong signal that the Legislature will not allow environmental protections, public input, or fiscal responsibility to be cast aside for a massive, unworkable project.”

“This is a huge win for the Delta, for California’s rivers, and for democratic process,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta. “Legislators rightly stood up for public process, environmental review, and fiscal responsibility.”

“Restore the Delta thanks the many thoughtful legislators who raised red flags, our supporters and partners including the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Golden State Salmon Association, San Francisco BayKeeper, Sierra Club CA, Resources Renewal Institute, Friends of the River, Defenders of Wildlife, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and others who mobilized quickly, and our staff who worked tirelessly to expose the risks buried in the trailer bill language,” Barrigan-Parrilla added.

“While we know these proposals may return in policy committees later this year, today we celebrate a crucial victory in the fight to protect the Bay-Delta and all Californians who depend on it,” she concluded.

On May 20, the California Legislative Delta Caucus had urged leaders of the California Senate and Assembly to reject Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to fast-track the Delta Tunnel Project in the 2025-26 state budget.

In a letter to Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, Senate President Pro-Tempore Mike McGuire, Assembly Budget Chair Jesse Gabriel, and Senate Budget Chair Scott Wiener and Gov. Gavin Newsom, all of the Delta Caucus’ 15 members noted that the costly and destructive Delta Tunnel Project “is opposed by every city and county affected by it.” 

A copy of the Delta Caucus’ is here: Delta Caucus Letter - Budget TBL 5.20.25.pdf

The Delta Caucus is a bipartisan group of legislators who represent counties of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The caucus members are Senator McNerney (D) (co-chair), Assemblywoman Wilson (D) (co-chair), Senator Roger Niello (R) (co-vice chair), Assemblymember Heath Flora (R) (co-vice chair), Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D), Senator Jesse Arreguín (D), Senator Angelique Ashby (D), Assemblymember Anamarie Ávila Farías (D), Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D), Senator Christopher Cabaldon (D), Senator Tim Grayson (D), Assemblymember Josh Hoover (R), Assemblymember Maggy Krell (D), Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen (D), and Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom (D).  

While the trailer bill language has been rejected for the time being, the Governor will probably try to reintroduce similar language fast-tracking the Delta Tunnel and slashing environmental regulations in the legislative policy process.

Background: San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem in unprecedented collapse

The Senate Budget Subcommittee’s rejection of Newsom’s trailer bill language takes place as the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary is in its worst-ever crisis, as evidenced by the closure of commercial salmon fishing off the California Coast for an unprecedented third year in a row, due to the collapse of the Sacramento and Klamath River Fall Chinook Salmon populations. Meanwhile, Sacramento River Spring Chinook and Winter Chinook Salmon — listed under both the state and federal endangered species acts — continue to decline.    

Yet the Delta Tunnel will only make the ecological crisis in the Delta even worse, since the project will divert vast quantities of water out of the Sacramento River before it flows through the Delta — when what the fish and ecosystem need is reduced water exports out of the estuary to agribusiness and Southern California water agencies.

The testimony of DWR engineer Amardeep Singh reveals that the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) will increase water deliveries from the Delta by 22%, according to an analysis by the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN).

“DCP operation will not decrease water supply for Central Valley Project (CVP) contractors and will increase water supply for SWP Table A contractors by 22 percent,” Singh states on page 2 of his testimony.

Moreover, during drought periods when fish are already strained by low flows and high temperatures, the DCP would increase deliveries by 24%: static1.squarespace.com/…

The data from the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) documents the abysmal situation that Sacramento River Fall Chinook Salmon, once the driver of the West Coast salmon fishery, and the Spring and Winter Chinook are now in.

Between 1996-2005 the average return for fall-run Chinook on the mainstem Sacramento River was 79,841 spawning salmon. In 2023 that number fell drastically to only 3,560 salmon – a 95% decline, according to an analysis by the Golden State Salmon Association.

Spring-run Chinook have also experienced a staggering 95% decline due to a lack of cold water flows in Central Valley salmon rivers. The average wild and hatchery spring-run return plummeted from 28,238 fish in 2021 to just 1,231 salmon in 2023.

And spawner escapement in 2024 of endangered Sacramento River Winter Chinook, an endangered species under both the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, was estimated to be only 789 adults and 578 jacks (two-year-olds).

Delta Smelt is functionally extinct in the wild

I have written extensively about this in previous articles, but it’s crucial in understanding how bad the situation is in the once robust Bay-Delta estuary to review the current status of Delta Smelt and  other pelagic species on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

For the seventh year in a row, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife CDFW found no Delta Smelt in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall Midwater Trawl Survey in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in 2024. This 2 to 3 inch fish is an indicator species that has been villainized by Donald Trump and his corporate agribusiness allies for supposedly being a “worthless fish,”  

It is significant that zero Delta smelt were caught in the survey despite the release of tens of thousands of hatchery-raised Delta smelt into the Delta over the past few years by the state and federal governments.

“The 2024 abundance index was 0 and continues the trend of no catch in the FMWT since 2017,” reported  Taylor Rohlin, CDFW Environmental Scientist Bay Delta Region in a Jan. 2 memo to Erin Chappell, Regional Manager Bay Delta Region: nrm.dfg.ca.gov/...

“No Delta Smelt were collected from any stations during our survey months of September-December. While FMWT did not catch any Delta Smelt, it does not mean there were no smelt present, but the numbers are very low and below the effective detection threshold by most sampling methods,” she wrote.

The CDFW has conducted the Fall Midwater Trawl Survey (FMWT) to index the fall abundance of pelagic (open water) fishes annually since 1967 (except 1974 and 1979), Rohlin stated.

Why is this survey so important?  It’s because “the FMWT equipment and methods have remained consistent since the survey’s inception, allowing the indices to be compared across time,” Rohlin wrote. “These relative abundance indices are not intended to approximate population sizes; however, indices reflect general patterns in population change (Polansky et al. 2019).”

Other surveys last year also reveal the functional extinction of Delta smelt in the wild. A weekly survey by the US Fish and Wildlife Service  targeting Delta smelt caught only one smelt in the summer of 2024. “A late April IEP juvenile fish survey (the 20-mm Survey) caught several juvenile Delta smelt in the same area,” noted scientist Tom Cannon in his blog on the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance website: calsport.org/...   

In a January post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump falsely claimed that Governor Gavin Newsom “refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way. He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California.”

I break down the four falsehoods that Trump made in this post here: www.dailykos.com/...

To summarize, the Delta Smelt is definitely not a “worthless fish.” In fact, the Delta Smelt is a key indicator species that demonstrates the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas. The 2 to 3 inch fish that smells like a cucumber is found only in the Delta.

It was once the most abundant fish in the Delta, numbering in the millions, but now is functionally extinct in the wild due to massive water exports to agribusiness and other factors, including invasive species, toxics and pollution, over the past several decades.  

The significance of the Delta smelt’s role in the Bay-Delta Estuary cannot be overstated.

”Delta Smelt are the thread that ties the Delta together with the river system,” said Caleen Sisk, Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “We all should understand how that affects all the water systems in the state. They are the irreplaceable thread that holds the Delta system together with Chinook salmon.”

Other pelagic fish species are in free-fall also

The other fish species collected in the fall survey — striped bass, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and threadfin shad — continued their dramatic decline since 1967 when the State Water Project went into effect. Only the threadfin shad showed an increase from the last year’s index — and the population is still at just a fraction of its former abundance.

The survey uses an “abundance index,” a relative measure of abundance, to document general patterns in population change.

The 2024 abundance index for striped bass, an introduced gamefish, was 136, representing a 49% decrease from last year’s index.

The index was 175 for longfin smelt, a native fish species, representing a 62% decrease from last year’s index.

The index was 577 for threadfin shad, an introduced forage fish, representing a 12% increase from last year’s index.

The index for American shad, an introduced gamefish, was 1341, representing a 45% decrease from last year’s index.

The index for Sacramento splittail, a native minnow species, was 0, with 0 fish caught.

To put things truly In perspective, one must understand that these substantial decreases were from already abysmally low levels of abundance.

Between 1967 and 2020, the state’s Fall Midwater Trawl abundance indices for striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad have declined by 99.7, 100, 99.96, 67.9, 100, and 95%, respectively, according to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

The graphs in this CDFW memo graphically illustrate how dramatic the declines in fish populations have been over the years: nrm.dfg.ca.gov/…  

Follow The Big Ag Money

Newsom’s push for the Delta Tunnel may have something to do with the fact that Beverly Hills Billionaires Linda and Stewart Resnick, owners of the Wonderful Company and the largest orchard fruit growers in the world, are among the largest contributors to Governor Newsom and hosted his 2022 anti-recall campaign in a fundraising letter.

The Resnicks have donated a total of $431,600 to Governor Gavin Newsom since 2018, including $250,000 to Stop The Republican Recall Of Governor Newsom and $64,800 to Newsom For California Governor 2022. Not only did the Resnick's donate $250,000 to Stop the Republican Recall in 2022, they hosted a fundraising letter to persuade wealthy potential donors to contribute to the effort.

Newsom received a total of $755,198 in donations from agribusiness in the 2018 election cycle, based on the data from www.followthemoney.org. That figure includes a combined $116,800 from Stewart and Lynda Resnick and $58,400 from E.J. Gallo, combined with $579,998 in the agriculture donations category.

But the Resnicks are also huge contributors to the University of California system and other universities in the state. In 2019 they made a donation of $750 million to Caltech and in 2022 made a $50 million donation to UC Davis, in addition to contributing millions to UCLA, CSU Fresno and other universities over the years.  

The Resnicks have pushed for increased water exports from the Delta for agribusiness and the construction of the Delta Tunnel for many years.

The Resnicks have donated many millions of dollars to both the Democratic and Republican parties and to candidates for both parties over the years. They were instrumental in the creation of the Monterey Amendment, a 1994 pact between Department of Water Resources and State Water Project contractors, that allowed them to obtain their 57 percent stake in the Kern Water Bank: https://www.watereducation.org/aquapedia/monterey-amendment