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Water wars: View from the delta
**San Diegans are Water Conservation Leaders Now let’s end Jerry Brown’s water tunnel boondoggle** Congratulations to San Diego! You have become statewide leaders in water conservation. From the heart of California’s Delta, we salute you. Figures released for July shows that San Diegans are using 29 percent less water than in 2013, far beyond the mandated 16 percent reduction goal for the region. Keep up the good work. But please, don’t let California’s drought scare you into supporting wasteful water projects that won’t bring you more water. Governor Brown’s proposed twin water tunnels under the San Francisco Bay- Delta are exactly the boondoggle to avoid. With the 2.0 version of the plan just released for public comment, there are a few things San Diegans should know. If built, these massively destructive tunnels will mostly deliver water to large corporate farm operations, and the oil industry in the southern San Joaquin Valley, not to San Diego residents. Beware the Boondoggle! Once called the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan, the new plan is called California Water Fix. Now, the “conservation” aspect has been largely forgotten. When financing, cost overruns, interest, and operation of the tunnels are factored in, Jerry Brown’s Tunnels will still cost Californians $60 billion. Who will get this water, and who will pay? San Diego will not be getting new water from the tunnels. Most of the water will go to the Kern County Water Agency and the Westlands Water District located in the dry southwestern side of the San Joaquin Valley. These districts serve large corporate agribusiness. In a desert landscape, they grow thirsty crops like almonds, largely for export. Oil companies in Kern County use billions of gallons of water for fracking operations that also pollute water in the process. But these special interests want every California water user to subsidize this project. Thus, the boondoggle. Why should San Diegans help foot the bill for tunnels that mainly support unsustainable agriculture? State funds would be better invested in sustainability and long-delayed infrastructure projects like replacing leaky old water mains, water recycling and restoring Southern California's groundwater supplies. Such investments would drought-proof water supplies while providing local steady jobs. Through innovative conservation projects, San Diegans have actually reduced your dependence on Delta water and that reduction continues. Now it is time for San Diego ratepayers to demand an end to Jerry Brown’s Delta tunnel boondoggle and to insist on projects that will promote water conservation in other parts of the state to equal San Diego’s success. Public Comments on the BDCP/WaterFix will be taken until October 30, 2015 Comments can be mailed to P.O. Box 1919, Sacramento, CA 95812 or sent via email to [email protected] Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla Executive Director RestoretheDelta.org— September 11, 2015 2:14 p.m.