The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) has produced a June 2010 Status Update with several interesting maps. They’re looking at management strategies and “opportunity areas,” and considering “site selection criteria” for 5 in-river intakes at 3,000 CFS capacity each (“to avoid high population density areas”).
If you aren’t looking carefully, you could miss this subtle change on the map titled “Proposed Conveyance and Habitat Restoration Options”: the central alignment is identified as a “Pipeline/Tunnel.”
We don’t remember seeing the term “pipeline” being used in earlier BDCP documents. This map describes the “Pipeline/Tunnel” as having “2 bores, each 33 feet inside diameter.” That was the same as last summer’s “tunnel” description.
In a future update, we expect to see “tunnel” dropped altogether. “Pipeline” seems so much smaller, so inconspicuous.
You can find a PDF to download at this website: BayDeltaConservationPlan.com