2016 Newspaper Editorials Opposed to the Delta Tunnels (CA “WaterFix”)
■ Modesto Bee Our View: Tunnels don’t add up, now we know why 3/20/2016
“Remember feeling victimized by Enron’s dishonest accounting? The tunnels only make sense with more “Enron accounting.”
■ Mercury News editorial: Delta tunnels partner Westlands is not trustworthy 3/17/2016
“The twin-tunnel project is a bad idea for lots of reasons. Now adding the untrustworthy conduct of a major financial partner, how could Brown even think about moving forward?”
■ Contra Costa Times editorial: Westlands fine should stop twin tunnels project 3/17/2016
“Those of us who live by the bay know its health relies on healthy flows of delta water. Tunnels are no fix for that, governor.”
■ San Francisco Chronicle: Delta tunnel troubles 1/30/2016
“The twin-tunnel project was a bad idea from the outset. The latest revelation should end any thoughts by Gov. Jerry Brown or any local district of going into business with Westlands.”
■ San Jose Mercury News: Stop the Delta tunnel water madness 1/29/2016
“Every Bay Area resident has a vested interest in the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s decision on whether to support Gov. Jerry Brown’s $17 billion plan to build two tunnels under the Delta.”
2015 Newspaper Editorials Opposed to the Delta Tunnels (CA “WaterFix”)
■ Contra Costa Times editorial: Dump the Delta twin-tunnel water plan 9/18/2015
“Scientifically, politically and financially, it is a disaster, but the fight over it obscures consideration of reasonable alternatives.”
■ Chico ER Editorial: Twin tunnels plan sounds worse each day 8/19/15
“The twin tunnels are being forced down our throats.”
■ San Jose Mercury News: Brown’s Delta tunnel plan benefits plummet; give it up 7/22/2015 Also published in the Record Searchlight and Contra Costa Times
“It would be crazy for California to spend $15 billion — and perhaps double or triple that, given the typical cost overruns for a major digging project — for a plan that promises no additional water nor even a steady supply of water to the farmers and Southern California cities clamoring for it.”
■ San Francisco Chronicle: Governor’s plan for delta tunnels takes turn for worse 7/17/2015
“The governor should look for ways to curb demand rather than increasing financial and environmental costs to reroute more water supply south.”
■ The Record Our View: Tunnel vision 7/15/2015
“He surely would have won the grand prize in the “Lipstick On A Pig” competition.”
■ East Bay Express: No, Governor Brown, You Shut Up 5/13/2015
“And while state officials may have spent “one million hours” studying this complex plan, there are good reasons to believe it won’t work, and could end up ruining the largest estuary on the West Coast.”
■ The Reporter Editorial: Governor’s water policy needs a rewrite 5/9/2015
“It was during his first terms in the 1970s and early 80s that Brown faced a historic drought and his proposed solution was the multibillion-dollar Peripheral Canal to move water to central and southern California in a 42-mile canal along the edge of the Delta. Voters rejected the canal in a 1982 referendum. The Governor apparently learned a lesson from that — with Prop. 1 he just pretended it would pay for storage and groundwater cleanup and then once the funding was approved, revived his plans to spend it on the tunnels plan.”
■ Contra Costa Times editorial: Gov. Brown’s latest Delta plan just a massive water grab 5/4/2015
“The only way to improve the health of the Delta is by pouring more — not less — water through. The feds essentially repeated what Brown had already heard in 2011 from a comprehensive report by the National Academy of Sciences.”
■ The Record Our view: The “Fix” is in 5/2/2015
“This much is excruciatingly clear about Gov. Jerry Brown: he is not a plumber, and he’s not to be trusted with the future of the Delta at stake.”
■ San Francisco Chronicle: The end of the delta tunnels plan? We should hope so 4/21/2015
“The governor has it half-right with his decision to invest in environmental restoration. Now he just needs to deep-six those tunnels.”
■ Modesto Bee Our View: Now we see real goal of Delta plan 4/21/2015
“We’re left asking the same question we’ve been asking since the plan was first proposed: How do you save a water-dependent environment like the Delta by removing its largest water source? The only way is to replace that missing water with water from somewhere else. That’s where we come in.”
■ Sacramento Bee: Brown shouldn’t leave eco goals out of new Delta plan 4/18/2015
” But if he wants to persuade the public that his approach won’t degenerate into a water grab for Southern California and the Central Valley, he has to show resolve.”
■ San Jose Mercury News: Jerry Brown needs new water strategy — no tunnels 4/17/2015
“The state has to reset its water priorities to match both current and worst-case long-term needs. But Brown can’t make that happen as long as he clings to his $25 billion, twin-tunnel proposal to carry Delta water south.”
