Governor Brown’s proposal to fix California’s water problem by building massive tunnels to shunt Sacramento River water past the Bay/Delta and south to Los Angeles water consumers and San Joaquin Valley farmers isn’t going to fix anything, let alone make our water supply more reliable. The state admits the tunnels will not supply any new water. The proposal is replete with misconceptions and misrepresentations, and it has a false underlying basic premise — that there is enough water in California to meet our needs if only we could bypass the Delta.

The Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District, the country’s largest water district, on Tuesday cemented support for California Governor Jerry Brown’s contentious Bay Delta water project, agreeing to pay an estimated $4.3 billion, primarily through rate hikes on millions of Southern Californians. The MWD’s decision to fund up to 25.9 percent of the $17 billion California WaterFix, which would divert water from the West Coast’s largest estuary through two 40-foot-wide 35-mile-long tunnels, comes as a boost to a project beset by environmental and financial uncertainties.

During the recent five-year drought, residents and businesses in Los Angeles were saved from disaster by water that was imported to Southern California from the mountains and rivers of Northern California via the State Water Project and the Metropolitan Water District (MWD). In fact, imported water from MWD is the reason we have averted disaster twice during the last 10 years.

Southern California’s powerful water agency committed more than $4 billion to the Delta tunnels Tuesday, giving the troubled plan a desperately needed vote of confidence. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s board voted to pay for about a quarter of the tunnels project, Gov. Jerry Brown’s $17.1 billion effort to re-engineer the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and improve water deliveries to south state cities and farms. The vote was 69 percent to 22 percent under Metropolitan’s voting system, which gives more weight to the largest cities, with the rest abstaining.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti came out Tuesday against Gov. Jerry Brown’s twin Delta tunnels project to carry water southward, saying he preferred just one tunnel. Speaking at the Sacramento Press Club, the Democrat said he told the governor that he was taking the “Jerry Brown approach,” meaning making the correct, not the expedient, policy decision.