Tribal Leaders, Enviros Urge Legislature to Reject Bills Fast-Tracking Delta Tunnel Project

Sacramento, CA – On an unusually mild summer day, Tribal leaders and environmental justice advocates met with legislators at the State Capitol on July 16 for the 2025 Day of Action for Water Justice.

They urged the legislators to reject Governor Newsom’s proposed trailer bills that they say would fast-track the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) and bypass critical environmental protections at a time when the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is in unprecedented ecological crisis — and a number of fish species are on the edge of extinction.

“The day-long event started with meetings between Tribal members, environmental advocates and legislators to urge support for “equitable, science-based water solutions” that protect the Bay-Delta and to reject the financially reckless Delta Conveyance Project that threatens ecosystems, Tribal sovereignty, and public health,” according to a statement from Restore the Delta.

Advocates cited a recent report published by the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN) prepared by ECOnorthwest that estimates the project could in reality cost anywhere from $60 to over $100 billion – three to five times higher than the approximately $20 billion that the Department of Water Resources is claiming. These skyrocketing costs would largely fall to water ratepayers across California.

“The Metropolitan Water District, serving 19 million people in Southern California, already proposes up to 14% in rate hikes to support tunnel planning and construction, placing even greater burdens on working families,” the group said.

At the press conference on the Capitol steps, advocates called on lawmakers to reject trailer bills that would provide CEQA exemptions for the Delta Conveyance Project, circumventing existing law, court rulings and public opinion.

Specifically, the coalition called on lawmakers to:

• Vote NO on SB 72 that undermines the Delta Reform Act and sets arbitrary water supply targets;
• Vote YES on AB 362 that protects tribal beneficial uses of water and to;
• Vote YES on AB 263, extending emergency protections currently in place for the Scott and Shasta Rivers, a high priority for the recovery of coho salmon.

Speakers at the press conference included representatives from the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, as well as elected leaders and representatives from Restore the Delta, Sierra Club California, Friends of the River, Defenders of Wildlife, San Francisco Baykeeper and the Delta Counties Coalition. 

Malissa Tayaba, Vice Chair with the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, began the press conference emphasizing the harm that the Delta Tunnel would cause to Tribes and disadvantaged communities.

“Delta tribes deserve a responsible and equitable approach to water management in the state that does not require jamming a tunnel through the Delta, destroying our ancestral homelands and waterways, or desecrating sacred sites and ancestral remains,” said Tayaba. “Our culture and identities are intrinsically tied to the Delta. There is no price tag worth paying that would ever justify the harm done to us or the unquantifiable costs that Tribes and disadvantaged communities would ultimately bear.”

Gary Mulcahy, Government Liaison with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, followed Tayaba by stating, “There is nothing about the Delta Tunnel Project that significantly benefits anyone except Big Ag and south of the Delta water agencies, while putting endangered species, tribal cultural resources, and disadvantaged communities and the viability of the S.F Bay-Delta itself at risk. CEQA exemptions continue to attempt to erase Tribes from water governance.”

Pat Hume, Chair of the Delta Counties Coalition, then noted “the Delta Counties are not trying to deprive anyone of Delta water supplies.”

“Rather, we are asking for smarter investments in resilient water projects. Regarding the major changes in law proposed by the Governor through the state budget to make way for the Tunnel, we ask that there be a transparent and robust process to vet these proposals through the normal legislative process,” said Hume.

“Public opinion points to the need for local, sustainable water solutions - not a $100 billion dollar tunnel that will cost Southern California ratepayers and the Delta economy alike,” explained Morgen Snyder, Policy Manager, Restore the Delta. “Introducing trailer bills that circumvent existing law, court rulings and public opinion to advance the Delta Tunnel is bad policy, and at a minimum, deserves rigorous policy review in the legislature."

Barry Nelson, Policy Advisor, Golden State Salmon Association, brought into focus the closure of commercial salmon fishing for the third year in a row and the very limited recreational salmon fishery in place this year after two years of complete closure.

“California’s salmon fishing economy has been shut down for 3 years because of unsustainable water diversions,” said Nelson. “The Delta tunnel would worsen that problem by sucking much more water through this massive 36 foot diameter tunnel.”

“Fishing jobs are not the only human impact from the crash of the Bay-Delta ecosystem. Delta communities and tribes are also suffering.  We are here today united in opposition to this damaging boondoggle. It’s decades past time for the State Water Board to update their failed 30 year old standards to protect salmon and the Bay-Delta ecosystem,” Nelson added.

Caty Wagner, Water Campaign Manager, Sierra Club California, reported on how the construction of the Delta Tunnel would raise the already high cost of living in Southern California.

"As a resident of LA County, I don’t want to see our already high water bills and property taxes, or rent, go up any further to pay for the expensive and unnecessary Delta Conveyance Project,” explained Wagner. “The Department of Water Resources predicted the project would cost $20 billion, but a new report from California Water Impact Network found that it will actually cost closer to $60-100 billion.

“Metropolitan Water District is already doubling water rates this year and next, and raising property taxes, just to pay for the planning phase of the project. I can’t imagine how high rates will be to pay for the actual construction of the project, especially with the true cost revealed, and MWD knows that it will be unreasonably high or they would not have fought so hard to try to pass those sneaky trailer bills last month, or push for them to resurface next month. We cannot see AB or SB 131 pass. The cost of living in California is too high, the impact to Tribes and EJ communities is too great, and we should instead be investing in water recycling for more communities to ensure a reliable source of water in the future,” she noted.

“Instead of wasting ratepayer money to keep pushing this expensive environmental justice debacle, we need to sees investments in local water supply like recycled water, and the Freshwater Pathways program that would improve Delta levees to keep communities safe and improve State Water Project reliability in an emergency. We urge a commitment to vote NO on the return the Delta Conveyance Project and Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan bills,” Wagner said.

Keiko Mertz, Policy Director, Friends of the River, pointed out how the Delta Tunnel, touted by Governor Newsom as a “climate project,” would in reality exacerbate climate change impacts.  

“There’s no argument that California needs to take swift and decisive action to fight climate change,” said Mertz. “But the Tunnel, like its predecessors, should be left in the 20th century. The era of water megaprojects is over. It’s time to usher in the era of local water solutions.”

”And instead of facing those facts, the Governor has been pushing proposals to rewrite the rules, attempting to fast-track projects like the Tunnel, gut environmental laws, and cut+ the public out of decisions that affect us all,” she continued. 

“We’re calling on the Legislature to hold the line. Californians believe in protecting our environment, not handing out blank checks to special interests. We deserve transparent, science-based decisions — not shortcuts that benefit the few at the expense of our rivers, communities, and future,” Mertz said. 

Max Gomberg, Senior Policy Advisor, California Water Impact Network, took aim at the Governor’s campaign to build the Delta Tunnel at the same time that he has collaborated with right wing influencers like Charlie Kirk, Michael Savage and Steve Bannon on his podcasts.

"Instead of prioritizing water affordability and protecting vulnerable communities, Governor Newsom is pushing a Delta tunnel that will break the bank and going on podcasts to throw trans kids under the bus. He is unfit to hold any elected office ever again,” emphasized Gomberg.

In a similar vein, Jon Rosenfield, Ph.D. Science Director, San Francisco Baykeeper, said "Decades of backroom water deals have hidden how California hands water to the wealthy, and harms the public's right to clean water and thriving fish and wildlife populations. Today, Governor Newsom is continuing that sad history, by pushing budget trailer bills that will hide the latest water giveaways from legislative and judicial review.”

“Water business-as-usual will irreparably harm California's tribes, fishing businesses, and San Francisco Bay's seven imperiled fish species. The state must adopt science-based safeguards for its water and its people -- Governor Newsom can't hide that truth any longer,” Rosenfield concluded.

The Governor’s campaign to fast-track the Delta Tunnel, along with Sites Reservoir and the Big Ag-pushed voluntary agreements, would seal the doom of Sacramento winter, spring and fall-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon, white sturgeon, Sacramento split tail and longfin smelt. The Delta smelt is already functionally extinct in the wild with the current massive exports of Delta water to Big Ag oligarchs in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water brokers. No Delta smelt have been found in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall Midwater Trawl Survey for 7 years.

Yet Governor Gavin Newson wants to make things even worse for the Bay-Delta ecosystem by increasing Delta exports when what is urgently needed for imperiled fish and wildlife to recover is less Delta water exports!  

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has claimed that the tunnel will not increase deliveries from the Delta. Yet the testimony of DWR engineer Amardeep Singh reveals that the DCP will increase water deliveries from the Delta by 22%.

“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,” he states on page 2 of his testimony.

Then on page 20 of his testimony, Singh again clearly states, “Finally, DCP operation will not decrease water supply for CVP contractors and will increase water supply for SWP Table A contractors by 22 percent.”

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/…