[env-trinity] Article Submission:

[Dan Bacher]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/26/1265402/-Cost-of-twin- 
tunnels-could-be-as-high-as-67-billion

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/12/26/18748433.php

Photo of rally against the peripheral tunnels at the State Capitol in  
Sacramento on December 13. Winnemem Wintu members are holding a sign  
against the raising of Shasta Dam a federal plan that is designed to  
operate in conjunction with the BDCP. Photo by Dan Bacher.



800_no_dam_raise__no_tunn...

Bay Delta Conservation Plan total cost could be as high as $67 billion

by Dan Bacher

The total cost of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build the  
peripheral tunnels could be as high as $67 billion, according to new  
figures revealed at a Westlands Water District board meeting last  
month by a Westlands staff member and a Citigroup bond consultant.

This new figure, with construction bond costs included in the total,  
counters the claims by Brown administration officials over the past  
two years that the plan would cost $24.5 billion during its 50-year  
implementation period.

Mark Cowin, director of the state Department of Water Resources,  
confirmed the estimates are accurate in today's article in the San  
Jose Mercury News. (http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ 
ci_24795356/delta-tunnels-plans-true-price-tag-much-67)

"The assumptions they've made are reasonable," he told the paper.  
"But financing is confusing. There isn't any doubt about it. It's  
hard to relay information that the public understands. We need to be  
clear that if you add up the total debt service, that's a different  
type of calculation than the capital cost estimate. I would hope  
those two types of estimates aren't confused."

The Westlands presentation looked at three scenarios, with each  
considering bonds issued for 30 years at 5 percent interest.

“They pegged the cost to build the tunnels at $18 billion, and  
overall cost with financing at $42 billion to $58 billion,” said the  
Mercury News.

"When the $9 billion more in wetlands restoration, monitoring and  
other costs are included, the grand total is $51 billion to $67  
billion," the article stated.

Governor Jerry Brown is currently fast-tracking the construction of  
two 35 miles long tunnels, each 40 feet in diameter, under the Delta.  
A 120-day public review and comment period for over 40,000 pages of  
documents in the plan and EIS/EIR began on December 13.

The latest estimate provided to Westlands is the highest to date. A  
previous estimate, compiled by Restore the Delta from the figures  
provided by the Bay Delta Conservation documents, revealed the total  
cost would be $54.1 billion.

That figure included $14.5 billion for construction, $1.5 billion for  
O&M (Operation and Maintenance, $26.3 billion for Interest on Tunnel  
Revenue Bonds, $7 billion for Habitat and Conservation, $3.2 billion  
Interest on General Obligation Bonds, and $1.6 billion for  
Administration and research. (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/ 
2013/06/06/18738055.php)

RTD's economic analysis came up with an amount similar to the  
estimate of $53.8 billion made by economist Steven Kasower of the  
Strategic Economic Applications Company in August 2009. Kasower's  
draft economic report was released to California Legislature prior to  
passage of the water policy/water bond legislation that cleared the  
path for the construction of a peripheral canal or tunnels.

His $53.8 billion estimate was based on a combination of $33 billion  
for a conveyance tunnel and $9.8 billion for through Delta  
conveyance, in addition to $2 billion for mitigation, $4 billion for  
restoration, and $5 billion for off-stream storage.

"This latest estimate of the BDCP's total costs makes it clear the  
project is a financial loser even when you use the administration's  
own flawed benefit-cost analysis," said Tom Stokely, Water Policy  
Analyst for the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN).

The latest estimate of $67 billion only underscores the absurdity of  
the Governor pursuing the twin tunnels as a monument to his "legacy."  
The plan is absurd for a number of reasons:

• The tunnels don’t provide any new water – but will only end up  
diverting water from senior water rights holders to junior water  
contractors.

• They will hasten the extinction of Sacramento River winter run  
Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt,  
green sturgeon, sandhill cranes other species, as well as imperiling  
the salmon and steelhead and salmon populations of Trinity River.

• The plan will take massive acres of fertile Delta farmland, among  
the most fertile on the planet, out of production in order to  
continue to irrigate drainage-impaired land owned by corporate  
agribusiness interests on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.

• Finally, the project will increase water bills and property taxes  
for Los Angeles residents from $2,000-$4,500 per household. This  
“twin-tunnel tax” would not bring any new water to Los Angeles.

An independent cost-estimate of the tunnels done by ECONorthwest for  
Food and Water Watch and the California Water Impact Network shows  
that LADWP would need to increase water bills from $7-15 per month  
for over 40 years or $2000-$4,500 per household to fund its cost  
share of the tunnels, according to Adam Scow, California Campaign  
Director of Food and Water Watch.

Fishermen, environmentalists, Tribal leaders, family farmers, Delta  
residents, Southern California water ratepayers and elected officials  
from across the political spectrum have united to stop Jerry Brown’s  
peripheral tunnels, as evidenced by a large protest at the State  
Capitol on December 13 that drew over 400 people.

As Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing  
Protection Alliance, said in his speech:

“We will not allow our fisheries, farms, communities and future  
prosperity to be sacrificed to enrich a south valley industrial  
agriculture, that comprises 3 tenths of 1% of our state economy, and  
is predicated upon embezzled water, massive public subsidizes,  
unrestricted pollution and subsistence wages.

We’ll fight this abominable scheme through the administrative halls,  
the courtrooms and the ballot box.

If necessary, we’ll fight on the channels and sloughs and on the  
levees and through the fields - to the very gates of hell.

We shall never surrender our Delta.”  (http://calsport.org/news/wp- 
content/uploads/2013/12/Bills-Rally-Comments.pdf)
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