From News Line, a daily compilation of farm water news distributed to CFWC members and others upon request. To receive News Line, click here.

California’s ‘water grab’

Coalition response…The original editorial was wrong in claiming that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan is a “classic water grab with the goal of channeling as much Northern California water as possible to Central Valley’s Big Ag and Southern California’s urban sprawl.” Lloyd Carter repeats the misinformation withot any facts to back it up. The amount of water that will move through the proposed tunnels is governed by existing contracts. Water deliveries enabled through BDCP may not negatively affect any other user’s water right or the environment. That’s the law. Water deliveries are expected to be in the neighborhood of the average over the past 20 years. Calling it a “water grab” is simply not true.

Carter’s attempt to link the BDCP tunnels with the Peripheral Canal that appeared on the ballot in 1982 is also disingenuous. The tunnels are only large enough to transport a maximum of 9,000 cubic feet of water per second, comparison to the Peripheral Canal that was rated at 21,800 cfs. Read more at https://farmwater.org/p-canalcomparison.pdf.

More than six years of research by scientists, engineers, water managers and fishery experts have gone into the development of the BDCP, which remains the best choice for creating water supply reliability and more than 100,000 acres of habitat restoration.

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