Changed delta tunnels plan results in less restoration

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Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday announced changes to the state’s plan to build twin tunnels under the expansive delta amid objections from environmentalists who said the move will result in far fewer acres of wetlands and wildlife habitat being restored than initially promised.

Brown said the state will restore about 30,000 acres at a cost of $300 million, which will be paid for with public funds. The plan considered for years had called for nearly $8 billion worth of restoration to 100,000 acres along the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta — and those costs were expected to be paid for by the water agencies that were going to receive water from the project.

“That 100,000 — we didn’t have the money for it,” Brown said in Oakland. “This 30,000 is fantastic. We’ll actually get it done in a few years. This is a concrete action happening in the real world. The other was a desire on paper.”

When they are built, the 30-mile-long twin tunnels are supposed to draw water from the Sacramento River to provide water for water agencies that serve farms and some urban areas, including Los Angeles and parts of the Bay Area. Those agencies are expected to pay for the $15 billion cost of the tunnels, which the state says amounts to about $5 per month per water customer. The tunnels will run north-south from Merritt Island in Yolo County to just south of Discovery Bay in Contra Costa County.

Opponents, including environmental activists and local farmers, call the tunnels a “water grab” by growers of water-guzzling crops like almonds that will drain too much water from the river system.

Birds and fish — particularly the native delta smelt — have already been suffering from reduced water in the delta that for years has been diverted to irrigate farmland in the Central Valley and to flow into millions of urban taps. The accompanying habitat restoration program has been expected to address the problem that has brought the smelt to near extinction.

Brown insisted the environment would still be protected under his plan.

As Brown described it, “the tunnels will protect the fish.” He said the new plan was a “major move to respond to environmental concerns” while also meeting the needs of farmers, urban water users, and a state that has swelled to 39 million water drinkers and is only getting larger.

In defending the plan from critics like Restore the Delta and Friends of the River — some of whom protested outside the state building in Oakland, where the governor announced the plan at a press-only meeting — Brown said its details were the result of “1 million hours of analysis” by state engineers and scientists.

“This is not just some piece of rhetoric play, like pingpong,” he said. “It’s been circulated, critiqued, read and evaluated. We’ve responded to 15,000 comments. I’m doing what I believe is absolutely necessary to proceed.”

But critics said California water policy should not cater to Big Agriculture, whose motive is profit rather than the health of the state.

“The only way to keep more water in is to take less out,” said E. Robert Wright, lawyer for Friends of the River, who stood outside the state building. “California has plenty of water to meet all the needs of regular people, business and farms — with the exception of big, subsidized agriculture.”

Brown was joined on Thursday by state and federal officials, who will contribute to the cost of the habitat restoration. The state’s greenhouse gas reduction fund “and other sources” will contribute to wetlands restoration, according to a fact sheet. Proposition 1 will contribute to flood-management projects. Voters approved Prop. 1 in November to provide funds for water improvements but were promised none of that money would go toward the tunnel plan, which at that time included the environmental restoration.

“We’ll get all of these projects going in the next 3½ years,” said Chuck Bonham, director of the state’s Fish and Wildlife Department.

Brown offered few specifics about the source of the funding for the tunnels and the restoration.

When a reporter asked where the money would come from, the governor instead offered a lecture on the importance of spending big for big projects.

“Civilization is not free,” he said. “We’re the seventh-largest economy in the world, and we can afford what we must. It’s a question of preserving our collective well-being. Yes, this costs money, but compared to what? A stadium? (Water) is the basis of human existence.”

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: nasimov@sfchronicle.com