Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to bypass the California Legislature to secure financing for the Delta tunnel has struck out again.

The California Court of Appeals last month upheld a lower court ruling that Department of Water Resources’ ability to issues revenue bonds to build projects on the Feather River could not fund the Delta tunnel. 

The DWR’s authority dates back to the 1950s to allow the construction of the Oroville Dam component of the State Water Project.

“The problem here is that the contours of the Delta Program are so ill-defined that it is impossible to ascertain whether any future Delta Program facilities will serve the objectives, purposes, and effects of the Feather River Project, or instead constitute a new and different ‘unit’ of the State Water Project,” Associate Justice Peter Krause said in the unanimous decision.

Newsom’s plan was to borrow $16 billion or more via the Feather River authorization to construct the 36-foot-wide tunnel running 45 miles from a point on the Sacramento River to the Bethany Forebay northwest of Tracy at the start of the California Aquedeuct.

He did so after the California Legislature refused to go along with his plan to fast-track the controversial water project.  

“This is not a technicality — it is a fundamental reaffirmation that major projects affecting our communities cannot be engineered in backrooms by bureaucrats,” noted San Joaquin County Supervisor Steve Ding.

Ding serves as the lead supervisor of the four Delta counties that have formed a coalition to fight the project.

“Last year, San Joaquin County launched an aggressive outreach campaign to stop the tunnel from being fast tracked in Sacramento,” Ding said.

“We made it clear that our agricultural way of life and our water security were not negotiable. Lawmakers listened. Under Senator (Jerry) McNerney’s unwavering leadership, proposed legislative shortcuts were pulled back. That effort set the stage for this court victory.”

The idea of a Delta Conveyance Project has been floating around since the 1940s.

It was driven as a way to avoid saltwater intrusion into water supplies flowing to Southern California taps and what farmland.

It ultimately would avoid the need for expensive desalination plants at the end of the California Aqueduct.

In its latest resurrection as a tunnel, its been pushed as a way water supplies for end users in South California and large south state corporate farms from the impact of climate change.

 Potential fallout for San Joaquin County, which has the largest land mass within the Delta region, from the tunnel project includes:

*Extensive damage to the Delta ecological system.

*Negative impact on fish including the endangered Chinook salmon.

*Tens of thousands of acres of farmland, some of the richest agricultural ground in the world, could go out of production.

*Domestic water supplies would be impacted.

*Long-range issues with saltwater intrusion impacting water supplies the cities of Lathrop, Tracy, Manteca, and Stockton take from the underground aquifer that is impacting when fresh water levels above and below the surface in the Delta drop.

*The quality and sustainability of Delta recreational opportunities.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com