DWR director outlines Delta Conveyance status as questions linger over cost, permits and benefits

Carla Nameth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, told the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Water that the Delta Conveyance Project remains under active design and permitting and is intended to help the State Water Project adapt to changing hydrology caused by climate change.

The project, now configured as a single, 6,000 cubic feet per second tunnel, was reduced from prior larger designs and is funded by the state water contractors; Nemeth said the current planning estimate is about $20 billion and that a recent benefit-cost analysis shows roughly $2 of benefit for every $1 invested. She also described a $200 million community benefits fund to compensate affected communities and noted DWR aims to complete state permits within the governor’s term.

Nemeth framed the project against this water year’s volatility, saying California’s snowpack and inflows are increasingly variable and that the tunnel would create operational flexibility to capture and move water during short, intense storms. “If we had had the Delta Conveyance Project in place for our State Water Project system, we would have already filled San Luis Reservoir by that February storm,” Nemeth said, adding the project could have moved about 75,000 acre-feet in a three-day event for groundwater recharge.

Why it matters: The Delta Conveyance Project is billed as a long-term infrastructure response to sea-level rise, levee vulnerability and shifting storm patterns. Nemeth said the State Water Project supplies about 27 million Californians and that protecting the Bay-Delta system is critical to…