VOL.39 • ISS. 19
Report Estimates Single Delta
Tunnel’s Cost at $15.9 Billion, but
Critics Point to Higher Cost
A
s hundreds of wildfires raged
throughout California, a report
released at the Delta Conveyance Design
and Construction Authority (DCA) on-line
meeting on August 20 revealed that the
cost estimate for Gavin Newsom’s Delta
Tunnel is up to $15.9 billion.
The estimate is based on a single tunnel
with a total capacity of 6,000 cfs. with two
intakes of 3,000 cfs. The project would
feature 42 miles of tunnels and associated
shafts, Southern Complex Facilities with
a Pump Station and Forebay, and connections
to the existing California Aqueduct
of the State Water Project (SWP).
The tunnel is opposed by a large
coalition of recreational and commercial
fishermen, Tribal leaders, scientists,
subsistence fishermen, family farmers,
Delta business owners, boaters, environmental
justice advocates, Southern California
water ratepayers, elected officials
and the people of California.
If built, critics say the actual tunnel costs
would undoubtedly exceed the original
estimates at the same time that the project
hastens the extinction of winter and spring
run Chinook salmon, Central Valley
steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt and
other state and federal listed fish species.
The enormously expensive project would
also imperil the salmon and steelhead
populations on the Trinity and Klamath
rivers that the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa
Valley tribes have been fishing for since
time immemorial.
The construction costs would total
$12,100,000,00. This would include
$1,448,000,000 for the Southern Complex
Facility (Forebay Hydraulic Structures),
$805,000,000 for a Pumping Plant,
$4,473,000,000 for the Tunnel and Shafts
and $522,000,000 for Utilities, Powers
and Logistics. The Construction Subtotal
would be $8,769,000,000 with a 38%
contingency of $3,332,000,000.
In case you’re wondering, that 38%
“contingency” is “part of the construction
cost,” according to the report. “It
represents a best guess of the unknown
items where experience indicates, will
likely result in additional cost.”
That’s reassuring, isn’t it!
The “Soft Costs” would total
$3,400,000,000 including $180,000,000
for DWR Oversite, $420,000,000 for
the DCA Program Management Office,
$2,420,000 for DCA Engineering (Design
and Contract Management Services,
$60,000,000 for DCA Permits and Agency
Coordination and $320,000,000 for Land
Acquisition.
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The cost for “Environmental
Mitigation” of the environmentally
destructive public works
project would be $400,000,000.
In a thread of tweets, Barbara
Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive
Director of Restore the Delta,
responded to the updated cost
estimate by the DCA, pointing out
that the actual cost of the project
would likely to be much higher
than the new estimate.
“The single tunnel is now
up to $15.9 billion. There is a
10% chance according to the @
dcdcainfo’s director the project
could go up to $25 billion. She
worries we will take it out of
context,” wrote Barrigan-Parrilla.
“We don’t have to take costs out
of context,” she explained. “The
average California project comes
in at 6 times projected costs. But
figuring they have a smart team,
and there are no overruns, there
is 5% annual inflation, which gets
the project to over $25 billion.”
She also criticized the low cost
estimate for the mitigation for
the environmentally destructive
public works project.
“Last, and worst, there is only
$400 million for Delta tunnel mitigation,”
she wrote. “That cannot repair habitat,
lost farmland, lost business, or Stockton’s
drinking water system. It will not mitigate
harmful algae blooms (HABs). It will not
mitigate air pollution impacts.”
She concluded, “It will not mitigate the
damage done to environmental justice
communities up and down the state, and
in the Delta, not served by the State Water
Project. $400 million will not provide
mitigation to EJ communities rural and
urban in the Delta.”
Tim Stroshane, also with Restore
the Delta, quipped about the “tunnel
vision” of the Delta Tunnel: “It’s nearly
as expensive as the two tunnel version
canceled last year. One for the price of
two—what a deal!”
Regina Chichizola, co-director of Save
California Salmon, criticized the Newsom
Administration for continuing to go
forward with the Delta Tunnel in the midst
of the global coronavirus pandemic.
“That Gavin Newsom and California
Natural Resources Secretary Wade
Crowfoot are working with the Trump
Administration to push this through during
a pandemic, while many of the people
that will be impacted can’t engage, shows
disrespect
for Native
Americans
and other rural
and salmon
dependent
communities,”
emphasized
Chichizola.
The Delta
Tunnel is a
key part of
Newsom’s
larger “water
vision” for
California.
On July 28,
Newsom
unveiled a
final version
of his controversial
Water
Resilience
Portfolio, a
water plan that that includes the Delta
Tunnel, Sites Reservoir and the agribusiness-promoted
“voluntary agreements,” all
designed to benefit
San Joaquin Valley
corporate agribusiness
interests.
“Governor
Newsom is
continuing to sell
out our rivers and
salmon to benefit
water brokers and
large agricultural
corporations,”
said Chichizola.
“These are the same
corporations that are
polluting our rivers
and drinking water,
then exporting their
products.”
Newsom received
a total of $755,198
in donations from
agribusiness in
the 2018 election
cycie, based on
data from www.
followthemoney.
org. That figure
includes $116,800
from Beverly
Hills agribusiness
tycoons Stewart and
Lynda Resnick, the
largest orchard fruit
growers in the world
and the sponsors of
the Coalition for a
Sustainable Delta,
a corporate agribusiness
Astroturf
group.
By fast-tracking
the Delta Tunnel
plan, promoting
the voluntary water
agreements, overseeing
the issuing
of a new draft EIR
that increases water
exports for the state
and federal projects
rather than reducing
3619
Sept 11, 2020
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