Tag Archive for: Gov. Gavin Newsom

California’s Delta tunnel project inches forward – and just got a $15.9 billion price tag

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

When Gov. Gavin Newsom downsized the Delta tunnels water project last year, the idea was to save money and try to appease at least some of the project’s critics.

Yet the project remains controversial — and still figures to be costly.

After months of relative quiet, Newsom’s administration released a preliminary cost estimate for the scaled-back project Friday: $15.9 billion for a single tunnel running beneath the estuary just south of Sacramento.

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OPINION: Gavin Newsom’s Plan for California Water is a Good One. Stay the Course

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby The Times Editorial Board

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new blueprint for California water policy offers a stay-the-course agenda for projects and policies intended to help cope with a warming climate and more volatile weather patterns that already are affecting the state’s irrigation, environmental and drinking water supplies. There are no moonshots and few surprises, and that’s fine; it will be challenging enough to ensure that all Californians are hooked up to safe and reliable water supplies to meet their needs for the coming decade and beyond.

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State Water Contractors Pick Sides in Lawsuit over Trump’s Water Boost

/in , /by /The Sunby Alex Tavlian

The State Water Contractors, an association of water agencies drawing water from California’s State Water Project, is wading into the newest showdown in the Golden State’s Water Wars.

Tuesday, the association filed a motion to intervene as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife, along with a handful of other environmental nonprofits.

The suit, launched in mid-December, is companion litigation to a suit launched by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Xavier Becerra last month.

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Water is Life. It’s Also a Battle. So What Does the Future Hold for California?

/in , /by /CalMatters (Sacramento, Calif.)by Alastair Bland

Water plays a lead role in the state’s political theater, with Democrats and Republicans polarized, farmers often fighting environmentalists and cities pitted against rural communities. Rivers are overallocated through sloppy water accounting. Groundwater has dwindled as farmers overdraw aquifers. Many communities lack safe drinking water. Native Americans want almost-extinct salmon runs revived. There is talk, too, of new water projects, including a massive new tunnel costing billions of dollars.

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Farmers Review Impact of Federal, State Water Actions

/in , /by /Ag Alert (Sacramento, Calif.)by Christine Souza

After a week that saw President Donald Trump visit Bakersfield to pledge more water for Central Valley farmers and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration respond with a lawsuit, farmers and water agencies looked for ways to continue work on voluntary agreements intended to ease California’s water disputes.

Trump announced his administration had finalized new federal rules to guide operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project. The lawsuit filed by the state the next day asserts that new biological opinions prepared by federal agencies lack safeguards for protected species and their habitat.

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Trump OKs More California Water for Valley Farmers. Gavin Newsom Promises to Sue

/in , , /by /Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler, Briannna Calix, and Carmen George

Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a preemptive strike against President Donald Trump, said Wednesday he plans to sue Trump’s administration to block a controversial plan to increase water deliveries to the San Joaquin Valley.

Newsom’s office said he “will file legal action in the coming days … to protect highly imperiled fish species close to extinction.”

The announcement came just minutes before Trump appeared in Bakersfield to announce he’s finalized an order removing regulatory roadblocks and enabling the giant Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta pumps to deliver additional water to the southern half of the state.

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Trump’s Signature Could Mean More Water for Valley

/in , /by /GV Wire (Fresno, Calif.)by David Taub

More water will flow toward San Joaquin Valley farmers, President Donald Trump declared at an event in Bakersfield on Wednesday afternoon.

Trump announced the completion of biological opinions that will increase water allocations in Californians.

“A major obstacle to providing more water for the region’s farmers has now been totally eliminated by the government,” Trump said.

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On Eve of Trump Visit, Critics Ask Why Newsom Hasn’t Fought President’s Water Moves

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

During President Trump’s visit to California this week, the commander in chief who campaigned on a pledge of shipping more water to Central Valley farms plans to stop in Bakersfield to boast about a promise kept.

His administration has succeeded in rolling back protections for fish in California, opening the door to more pumping from rivers and streams, and more irrigation deliveries for the state’s vast agricultural economy.

The endeavor is no surprise for a president who has been supportive of industry and hopes to rally rural voters behind his re-election bid. But what confounds some who are worried that Trump’s water plan could undermine the environment is how little the state has done to stop Washington.

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State Seek Input on Delta Tunnel Plan

/in , /by /The Pressby Tony Kukulich

The California Department of Water Resources is holding a public meeting in Brentwood, Thursday, Feb. 20 at the Brentwood Community Center from 6 – 8 p.m. to review the details of the Delta Conveyance Project

The Delta Conveyance Project is the latest iteration of the state’s plans to build a tunnel through the Delta that will convey water from the Delta’s northern reaches to a forebay near Byron. From there, water will move on to the Central Valley and Southern California through the existing State Water Project network of canals. Previously known as WaterFix, or the twin-tunnels project, Gov. Gavin Newsom reduced the project to a single tunnel last year, spurring the new initiative.

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California Analysts Urge Lawmakers: Reject Gov. Newsom’s $1 Billion Climate Loan Proposal

/in , /by /Cal Mattersby Rachel Becker

Nonpartisan policy analysts took aim Thursday at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to use $1 billion in state funds to seed innovative climate change efforts, questioning the state’s ability to even identify the right projects.

The Climate Catalyst Loan Fund, which Newsom called for in his $222.2 budget proposal for next year, would offer low-interest loans to public and private projects that would otherwise struggle to attract venture capital money or bank loans — particularly those intended to combat climate impacts of recycling, transportation, agriculture, and forestry sectors.

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