This is a revised version of the testimony I made before the Delta Stewardship Council on February 28, 2026 regarding the certification of consistency of the Delta with the Delta Plan.
I am an independent investigative journalist based in Sacramento focusing on fisheries, water and environmental justice.
One of the coequal goals of the Delta Plan, mandated under the Delta Reform Act, is to “preserve and restore a vibrant and healthy Delta ecosystem.” But the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP), AKA Delta Tunnel, is completely inconsistent with the Delta Plan because it will take even more water out of an estuary that is in collapse because too water is already being diverted from it now, despite false claims by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) that the project won’t take more water out of the Delta.
The Delta ecosystem is currently in its worst-ever crisis. For the eighth year in a row, the CDFW’s Fall midwater trawl survey found 0 Delta smelt, an indicator species that is found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The latest survey results are revealed in a January 6 memo from Margaret Johnson, Environmental Scientist Bay Delta Region, to Erin Chappell, CDFW Regional Manager: nrm.dfg.ca.gov/…
While a number of factors have caused the collapse of the ecosystem, there is no one factor that is more responsible for the dramatic decline of Central Valley salmon populations and iconic Delta fish species than the reduction of freshwater flows through the Delta.
Other Delta fish species, including Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, striped bass and threadfin shad, have declined dramatically since the State Water Project went into operation in 1967. The water exports for corporate agribusiness and Southern California water brokers increased to over 6 million acre feet of water per year during many years starting in 2003.
Commercial salmon fishing has been closed for the past 3 years, due to the collapse of Sacramento and Klamath River Chinook salmon populations.
The best available science reveals that Delta fish and salmon need more water to flow through the Delta to be restored, not less, but the DCP will actually export even more water from the Delta.
The testimony of DWR engineer Amardeep Singh at a State Water Resources Control Board hearing in April 2025 states that the DCP will increase water deliveries for State Water Project from the Delta by 22%.
DWR’s own documents confirm this fact:
“Operations will not decrease water supply for Central Valley Project contractors and will increase water supply for State Water Project Table A contractors by 22 percent over 2020—essentially keeping overall supplies on par after accounting for future losses caused by climate change.” Go here: www.deltaconveyanceproject.com/…
Moreover, during drought periods when fish are already strained by low flows and high temperatures, the DCP would increase deliveries by 24%: static1.squarespace.com/...
The construction of the DCP, by taking even more water out of the Delta, would be a death sentence to Central Valley fall, late fall, winter and spring run Chinook salmon and Delta fish species. Please don’t certify the Delta Tunnel as consistent with the Delta Plan!
