Modernized Delta Conveyance
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (Delta) is the hub of our state’s water delivery system and home to one of California’s most important ecosystems. But the current Delta Conveyance system no longer works. Aging dirt levees are all that protect our main source of water from catastrophic earthquakes, floods and rising sea levels. The environment is deteriorating and water deliveries are constrained by tightening regulations.
We need a modern system that can protect water supplies for people, the environment, farms and the California economy. We need improved Delta Conveyance.
TASK FORCE CHAIR:
Allison Febbo
Mojave Water Agency
Your Voice is Needed!
California’s aging water infrastructure needs your help. Efforts to modernize the state’s water system relied upon by 27 million Californians are once again gaining momentum.
Some History
SCWC has a long history of supporting modernized Delta Conveyance. In fact, we were founded in 1984 to help support the project following the defeat of the Peripheral Canal. We led the coalition in support of the earlier version of this project, known as California WaterFix. In 2019, the California WaterFix project was revised and renamed. Today, the Delta Conveyance project consists of one pipeline instead of two, but the goal remains the same: improving water supply resiliency for Californians.
The Delta Conveyance project is a key action in Governor Newsom’s Water Resilience Portfolio, a comprehensive document accounting for the challenges and opportunities facing the state and its communities as we seek to secure every Californian’s right to water.
Delta Conveyance Project: Planning Progress
In July 2022, the California Department of Water Resources issued its Environmental Impact Report for Delta Conveyance, the project designed to modernize our state’s water infrastructure in the vast network of waterways found in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Delta Conveyance is a much-needed update to California’s water infrastructure, ensuring greater reliability and flexibility from the State Water Project system that provides water from the Sierra Nevada mountains to Southern California, Central Valley and the Bay Area.
While versions of this project have been proposed over the years, today’s proposed project is a sharp departure from previous iterations. The Delta Conveyance Project proposed today has been downsized, refined, rerouted, and redesigned to better meet the needs of the communities it serves.
Support for Delta Conveyance
Read SCWC’s letter in support of the EIR dated December 12, 2022.
Read SCWC’s letter in support of the Environmental Impact Statement dated February 8, 2023.
Biological Opinions Lawsuits
You may have read about a series of lawsuits regarding the operations of the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. Together, the two water projects provide water to 29 million Californians and 3.3 million acres of farmland. Both projects export water from the same watershed, but today they operate under two different sets of rules because of state and federal disagreements. The federal and state governments have a long history of coordinating the operations of the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project and SCWC would like to see them return to that coordination. SCWC supports a science-based approach to determining how water flows and urges both parties to return to the negotiating table to work out voluntary agreements rather than pursuing litigation.
As the State of California, water contractors in California and the federal government take to the courts to resolve differences in how water is exported from the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, SCWC has begun collecting relevant documents and updates on this page.
Learn More about Delta Conveyance
For more general information about efforts to improve water infrastructure so critical to our state, check out our Delta Conveyance Project resources and stay connected with us to stay updated on the project and opportunities for engagement. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive regular updates delivered directly to your email box.