California is the sixth largest economy in the world, and Silicon Valley is a primary driver of our state’s job creation and growth. Yet our success is at risk unless we move to protect our water supply. That’s why we are urging the Santa Clara Valley Water District help secure our water supplies now and well into the future by supporting California WaterFix, which will deliver water through modern pipelines.
A bloc of San Joaquin farmers tentatively endorsed the Delta tunnels project Thursday, becoming the first significant agricultural group to support the struggling plan. But the level of support from members of the Kern County Water Agency, which serves much of the $7 billion-a-year farm economy at the southern end of the valley, was less than wholehearted. An estimated 48.5 percent of the agency’s water users said they’re interested in helping pay for the tunnels, which works out to about $1 billion in financial support.
The Kern County Water Agency has voted to participate in the California WaterFix project, potentially saving one of Gov. Jerry Brown’s two legacy projects: the Delta tunnels. California WaterFix would upgrade the state’s outdated water system and maintain a reliable source of water for 25 million Californians and more than three million acres of farmland in the Bay Area, Central Valley and Southern California, according to a news release issued by California Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird. To date, Kern is the largest agricultural contractor that has voted to support the California WaterFix project.
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 large and influential Metropolitan Water District in Southern California has voted to go forward with the WaterFix tunnels plan. The powerful Metropolitan Water District voted Tuesday to pay its share of the $16 billion project to build two massive tunnels to pipe water from Northern California to Southern California cities. The 28-6 vote gives Gov. Jerry Brown’s ambitious project an important boost of support after an influential agricultural group withdrew its backing last month.
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.
The country’s largest water district on Tuesday cemented support for 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 Metropolitan Water District’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.
Overcoming opposition from representatives of the state’s two largest cities, Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan for a multi-billion dollar fix to the weak link of California’s aqueduct system passed a major hurdle Tuesday when Southern California’s largest water wholesaler formally voted to participate. The Metropolitan Water District (MWD) would provide more than a quarter of the total $17 billion cost projected for what has been dubbed California WaterFix.
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.
