Blocked By Old Contracts and Modern-Day Infighting, California’s Big Water Project Staggers To Its Deathbed

No one should have been surprised when the giant Westlands Water District voted Sept. 19 against joining the state’s equally imposing $17-billion water infrastructure project. After all, the Central Valley district — at 600,000 acres the largest agricultural water district in the nation — had been signaling its uneasiness about the California WaterFix for months. The district accepted that the reliability and volume of the water supply for Southern and Central California could be enhanced by the plan to build two 30-mile, four-story-high tunnels to carry water under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.