Tuesday Top of the Scroll: A big moment for the Delta — and Newsom knows it
The country’s biggest water supplier is set to vote [Dec. 10] on whether to fund one of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s top priorities on water — and he’s not leaving the result up to chance. Newsom and his top aides are leaning on board members and top staff at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to approve additional funding to plan and permit the Delta Conveyance Project, a version of which has been floating around — first as a canal, then a pair of tunnels — for more than half a century. … Newsom’s $20 billion proposal would route more water to Southern California through a single 45-mile long tunnel under the crumbling Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Environmental groups and Northern California Democrats oppose it because it could harm the Delta’s ecosystem, but Newsom has called it a key climate adaptation project as the state stares down an expected 10 percent reduction in water supplies by 2040. Newsom wants to get it permitted and ready to build by the end of his term in early 2027.
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