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Proponents of a huge water project are claiming victory after the $20 billion tunnel largely cleared a key hurdle last week. But the massive construction — known as the Delta tunnel — is still mired in controversy, and many roadblocks lay ahead, writes CalMatters’ Rachel Becker.

To shore up state water supplies, the Delta tunnel aims to divert more water from Northern California — while bypassing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta — and deliver water to roughly 30 million people living mostly in Southern California, as well as farmland.

Two high-profile water crises, juiced up by climate change and industrial overuse, are building in the US. From a city in Texas staring down a drought emergency to a decades-long political crisis coming to a head for the states that rely on the Colorado River, water issues in the West will take center stage this summer—and experts tell WIRED that other places should take notes and start planning ahead for their own future.

In February, following a winter of record-breaking heat, snowpack in various mountain ranges across the American West reached record lows. March came in even hotter, smashing records in states across the region.

On Tuesday, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) announced he has opened an investigation into the Trump administration’s latest scheme to steal water from Northern California and divert it to Southern California.

As part of his investigation, he sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum demanding records and information about their efforts to facilitate a Southern California water district’s takeover of dams and water rights on the Eel River, hundreds of miles outside its service area. He sent a similar letter to the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District.

California’s largest agricultural water district wants to turn a growing water crisis into an economic pivot.

The Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan aims to repurpose tens of thousands of acres of water‑starved farmland in California’s San Joaquin Valley into a massive solar‑and‑battery network, producing power for the state’s grid, lowering energy costs for farmers, and creating a new economic lifeline as groundwater rules force fields to fallow.