Jerry Brown is counting on the Westlands Water District to be one of the major financial backers of his $15 billion Delta tunnels, easily the largest public works project in U.S. history. He needs to dump the whole project, and last week’s admission by Westlands’ general manager is just one more reason: The nation’s largest water district got caught cooking the books with “a little Enron accounting.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission was not amused. It fined Westlands $125,000 to settle charges that it misled investors by faking financial records in connection with a 2012 bond issue.