[env-trinity] Stockton Record: Shutdown may mean costly delay for Delta tunnel plan

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131002/A_NEWS/310020315/-1/A_NEWS14 

Shutdown may mean costly delay for Delta tunnel plan
By Alex Breitler
Record Staff Writer
October 02, 2013 12:00 AM
The shutdown of the federal government could delay the governor's twin tunnels plan for the Delta, a state official said Tuesday.
The plan, said to be close to 25,000 pages in length, is supposed to be released for public comment Nov. 15.
But the plan must first be reviewed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, both of which were closed Tuesday.
Richard Stapler, a spokesman for the California Natural Resources Agency, said every day the federal government is shut down will likely amount to a day's delay in releasing the plan, which has been in the works for seven years.
Each day that the plan is delayed equals a cost of about $100,000 to the state Department of Water Resources and to the public water agencies expected to pay for the bulk of the tunnels project, Stapler said. That's because those agencies must maintain a staff of biologists, planners and other experts working to finish the complex document.
"It's real time and it's real money," Stapler said.
About $176 million has already been spent preparing the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the Legislative Analyst's Office reported in August. Building the tunnels to divert water past the Delta while also restoring large tracts of wetland habitat for fish and wildlife is expected to cost $24.5 billion overall.
Another large project relying on the federal government is the restoration of the San Joaquin River upstream from Stockton. A senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group involved in the restoration, said Tuesday it was still uncertain what impact the shutdown might have on that project.
Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 orabreitler at recordnet.com. Visit his blog atwww.recordnet.com/breitlerblog.
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