California water: Silicon Valley leaders express skepticism of Gov. Jerry Brown's Delta tunnels plan

[KamaAina]

http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_29436145/california-water-silicon-valley-leaders-express-skepticism-gov

Three of Gov. Jerry Brown's top water lieutenants came to Silicon Valley on Tuesday to make the case for his $17 billion plan to build two huge tunnels under the Delta to more easily move water from north to south.

But rather than embracing the idea, five of the seven board members of the Santa Clara Valley Water District -- whose support is considered critical to the controversial project -- instead voiced skepticism. Their concerns ranged from the price tag to environmental impacts to whether Santa Clara County property owners could be left with property tax increases without a public vote to pay for future cost overruns.

"For me there's a lot of uncertainty," said board Chairwoman Barbara Keegan. "I don't want urban water users to end up subsidizing rural water users."...

Most of the water agencies supporting the tunnel plan are in Southern California and the Central Valley. The Santa Clara Valley Water District has so far been the Bay Area's largest supporter, which allows Brown to say the project isn't marked by the same north-south rivalry that resulted in a 1982 defeat at the ballot box of a similar "peripheral canal" plan he backed.

[HassleCat]

1. More water for SoCal

Skeptics believe the whole thing is just a way to get water from the north and move it south, where it will be made available to agriculture and industry. You can't spend $17 billion (and we know it will be much more than that) just to make some fish and clams happy.

[Lordquinton]

2. I'm glad support seems to be waning

but not nearly fast enough.