For Immediate Release: August 14, 2017
Contact:
Nora Kovaleski, 408-806-6470, nora@kovaleskipr.com
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta, 209-479-2053, barbara@restorethedelta.org
Press Release:
Restore the Delta Finds Gaping Holes in MWD White Paper #3
Restore the Delta issued a formal response to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California third and final white paper on the Delta Tunnels. The response illuminates the gaping holes in MWD’s financial analysis on various CA WaterFix costs.
Executive Director of Restore the Delta, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla said:
“MWD’s failure to analyze water costs in dry and drought years and water use by consumers so as to determine the real cost per household for WaterFix make this analysis invalid. MWD staff clearly wants to build this project so that water can be sold for maximum profit.”
Policy Analyst for Restore the Delta, Tim Stroshane said:
“With its latest financing paper, MWD pedals a wish and a prayer to its board that a $17 billion Tunnels project will only cost its 6.2 million residential customers $2 to $3 per month. MWD’s rosy picture omits the cost of their customers’ Tunnels water use. This is analytical malpractice of the highest order.”
Policy Advocate for the Sierra Club (CA) Kyle Jones said:
“Metropolitan Water District continues to paint the Tunnels in the best light, using the lowest cost estimates possible. This proposed fantasy ignores costs of mitigation for their environmental harm, and assumes that all contractors are willing to pay for this $68 billion boondoggle. Metropolitan also cherry picks alternative options for the Tunnels that look at only the most expensive options. Any true alternatives analysis, including conservation, efficiency, and groundwater cleanup, would show that there’s a better path forward for Metropolitan customers to develop a climate-resilient water system that isn’t conditioned on destroying the San Francisco Bay Delta.”
University of the Pacific Economist Dr. Jeff Michael and NRDC Senior Attorney Doug Obegi expressed similar sentiments in their respective analyses on MWD white paper #3. We thank them for their ongoing commitment to discovering the true costs and financial irresponsibility of the CA WaterFix project.
To read Obegi’s blog, click here.
To read Michael’s blog, click here.
To read Restore the Delta’s response, click here.