Lawsuits challenge ambitious water tunnels

FRESNO — Environmental and fishing groups filed anticipated challenges on Thursday seeking to block California Gov. Jerry Brown's ambitious plans to build a pair of massive water tunnels.

The proposed $16 billion project would destroy endangered native fish species in the Sacramento-san Joaquin River Delta already on the brink of extinction, the groups said in two parallel federal lawsuits.

They come days after Brown's project won a first critical round of approval from National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"Politics has trumped science once again," Doug Obeji, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The agencies tasked with protecting our natural resources are making things worse."

The proposed twin tunnels, both four stories high and 35 miles (55 kilometer) long, would be California's most ambitious water project in decades.

State officials say the tunnels are needed to reengineer the delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast and the hub of a water system which supplies much of the nation's most populous state.

The Sacramento and San Joaquin — two of California's largest rivers — send mountain snowmelt through the delta and out to sea through the San Francisco Bay.

Supporters say the tunnels will modernize and secure water deliveries from the delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, now done by aging pumps that pull the rivers and the fish in them offcourse.

Water is currently pumped from the delta and sent south through hundreds of miles of canals to farms in the vast San Joaquin Valley and communities as far south as San Diego.

The two federal agencies on Monday announced rulings that the project would not mean extinction for endangered and threatened native species of salmon and the Delta smelt.

State officials say the water agencies planning the tunnels have added thousands of acres of habitat restoration, boosting chances that the imperiled fish species will survive.

"This version of the tunnels will wipe out California's salmon fishery and the families and communities that rely on salmon," said John Mcmanus, executive director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association, which represents commercial fishermen.

He's joined in the lawsuits by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife and the Bay Institute.

Before work can begin, the project also requires approval from other state and federal agencies. Local districts that serve farms and communities have yet to confirm their commitment to paying for the tunnels.

Nancy Vogel of the California Natural Resources Agency declined to comment.