Opinion: Delta tunnel project will protect California’s vital water supply

Modern, reliable water infrastructure is essential to our health, homes and livelihoods as well as the state's economy.

California’s history is defined by building great and innovative infrastructure projects that improve our quality of life and set our state up for continued economic prosperity. From the Golden Gate Bridge to interstates 5 and 80, these projects are symbols of how major infrastructure investments can drive incredible economic growth. Though the creation of these projects was seemingly impossible to many at their inception, they quickly became an essential part of our critical infrastructure fabric that sustains our economy and way of life.

We are at a similar crossroads in building reliable water infrastructure to deliver water to two-thirds of Californians through the Delta Conveyance Project. This proposed project has been studied, refined, redesigned and rerouted due to extensive public input and thoughtful improvements by Gov. Newsom’s administration.

The Delta Conveyance Project would modernize the water transportation infrastructure of the State Water Project in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The project would add new intake facilities to divert water from the Sacramento River and upgrade the current conveyance system to also include a single underground tunnel to help California’s water managers capture, move and store water during major storm events. Currently, an average of 40% of Santa Clara County’s imported water is supplied through the State Water Project.

Now, with a certified Environmental Impact Report and strong backing from organizations representing thousands of businesses, labor unions, social justice advocates and water agencies, it’s time to move forward and build this critically important water reliability project.

At the end of the day, there is no greater priority than ensuring a reliable water supply for the people of California — it is essential for our health, our homes, our livelihoods and our economy.

A recent Benefit/Cost analysis by the California Department of Water Resources demonstrates the value of the project as local public water agencies consider moving forward with the next phase. Every dollar spent on this vital project results in $2.20 in economic benefits. Further, the report found that the cost of “doing nothing” is billions of dollars and jeopardizes the long-term operations of the State Water Project — the water distribution infrastructure that supplies water to millions of Californians and more than 750,000 acres of farmland.

California’s construction contractors and union construction workers strongly support the Delta Conveyance Project because, like many great infrastructure projects, it will create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the state. Businesses in the area served by the State Water Project produce more than $2.3 trillion in goods and services annually, which would be the eighth-largest economy in the world. This investment in the State Water Project will drive our economy forward.

The report shows that improving California’s water system and its infrastructure through the Delta Conveyance Project is mission critical for the state’s economic future. As climate change impacts our daily lives and threatens our most basic resources, there is no time to waste.

The project is a climate-adaptation strategy to protect critically scarce water resources. Climate change and sea level rise are expected to reduce the Sierra Snowpack and overall water deliveries by more than 500,000 acre-feet per year by 2070.

This project will allow water managers to move water during rainy seasons when water is plentiful so we can save it for when it is not. This will allow agencies to fill surface and groundwater storage more often so that we can prepare for the next drought. This would also reduce or eliminate the need for mandatory water rationing as we saw during the most recent dry period.

In fact, if the Delta Conveyance Project was in operation during the storms from Jan. 1 to June 13 of this year, we could’ve captured and stored nearly 941,000 acre-feet of water — enough water supply for 9.8 million people for one year.

It’s time to create the next great infrastructure project in California — one that has been badly needed for decades — and start building the Delta Conveyance Project. Once it is built, we will wonder how we ever operated with a deteriorating system that put so much of our future at risk.

David Bini is executive director of the Santa Clara and San Benito Counties Building & Construction Trades Council. Tim McRae is senior vice president, sustainable growth of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.