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After years of planning, officials have finalized all 97,000 pages of environmental documents to support Gov. Jerry Brown’s controversial plan to build two massive tunnels through the heart of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. In spite of a recent call for a scaled-down version of the project from a prominent nonpartisan California water think-tank, state officials are moving forward with the original plan for what they call California WaterFix. The $15.5 billion project would tunnel two pipes 40 feet in diameter for 35 miles under the fragile ecosystem that serves as the hub of the state’s water-delivery network.

 

The Bay Delta Conservation Plan/California WaterFix Final Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) is now available. This Final EIR/EIS was prepared jointly by Lead Agencies: the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation).The Final EIR/EIS describes the alternatives, discusses potential environmental impacts, and identifies mitigation measures that would help avoid or minimize impacts. It also provides responses to all substantive comments received on the 2013 Draft EIR/EIS and 2015 Partially Recirculated Draft EIR/Supplemental Draft EIS (RDEIR/SDEIS).

It takes a while to get to the point, but an 80,000-page environmental opus released Thursday makes the case that Gov. Jerry Brown’s $15.7 billion twin tunnels project is the best way to fix California’s water woes. The final environmental impact report on the controversial plan known as WaterFix does not contain a cliffhanger ending, but the governor characterized it as a crucial bookshelf filler for water wonks.

 

Where will the water come from? We’re entering the wet time of year, but the drought continues to transform communities around the state. And now, Santa Barbara is almost out. Lake Cachuma, the county’s primary source of water for years, is at 7 percent of its capacity and is expected to go totally dry by the end of the year. So while state regulators have lifted the statewide mandatory 25 percent cut in water usage, Santa Barbara officials are cracking down. Beginning Jan. 1, the city will ban all residential lawn watering.

Folsom Lake is filling up, which means the floodgates must open. On Thursday, Dec. 16, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released 35,000 acre-feet of water between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. According to Louis Moore, deputy public affair officer, starting at 9 a.m. they released 15,000 acre feet and every hour after released an additional 5,000 Acre feet until 1 p.m. Throughout the rainy season, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will be lifting the floodgates periodically to keep up with capacity, what will be coming into the lake and how much will need to be release to flow down the river to the delta.