Congressman Garamendi Argues BDCP's Twin Tunnels Project Fails to Include Full Range of Better Alternatives as Required by State & Federal Law in Public Comments for Environmental Report

Yesterday, Congressman John Garamendi (D-Fairfield, CA), a leader on water policy in California, released his public comments to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on the Governor's Bay Delta Conservation Plan"s (BDCP) proposed twin tunnels boondoggle.

"The twin tunnels project is being unilaterally implemented under authority claimed through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), which is ironic given how destructive the tunnels will be to the Delta and how they completely fail to meet the law's co-equal goals of water supply reliability and ecosystem restoration," Garamendi said.

The comments were submitted for consideration as NMFS constructs a Final Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement on the BDCP. In his remarks, Congressman Garamendi argues that the BDCP's public process failed to account for a full range of alternatives to the Governor's preferred twin tunnels, and that it does not meet the state's mandate of coequal goals , which puts it in violation of state and federal law.

"If we are going to reduce reliance on the Delta, a conveyance facility is not the first place we should start in developing a reliable water system; it is the last," Garamendi argued in the comment. "As a result, the BDCP as it stands does not meet the state's mandated goals and fails to offer any alternatives that even come close to meeting them. The only thing the BDCP does is to provide a conveyance facility that will potentially harm the Delta more than help it while providing no reliable water supply."

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