Hold water district accountable for Delta tunnels vote

It’s ludicrous for the Santa Clara Valley Water District board to believe it can steer Gov. Jerry Brown’s $16 billion Delta twin tunnels project by committing to help fund it. The board should reject the project when it meets at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and instead work with California’s next governor on a plan to truly secure a reliable source of water for Silicon Valley while protecting the environmental health of the Delta.

Board members who approve this misguided and costly plan should be held accountable by voters when they come up for re-election. The district board was right in October when it nixed participation. Its sudden decision last week to reconsider with little public notice is unconscionable.

The twin tunnels are a boondoggle of epic proportions. Digging projects routinely wind up costing ratepayers exponentially more than original estimates. And the Delta project won’t add a single drop of new water to the state’s water supply. Nor will it improve the fragile Delta environment.

Southern California has a long, ugly history of ignoring environmental concerns and trampling over the interests of other regions to meet its unquenchable thirst for water. Board member Barbara Keegan admitted as much when she said Wednesday, “I don’t trust Southern California and agribusiness to be looking out for the interests of Northern California.”

She’s right. It’s foolish for Keegan and other board members to jump in bed with Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District to pay for the tunnels. But a majority of the board, including Keegan, Gary Kremen, Tony Estremera and Nai Hsueh, last week expressed a willingness to do just that.

Met, the nation’s largest water district has committed to paying nearly 70 percent — $10.8 billion — of the costs for building the twin tunnels. The Santa Clara Valley Water District would be contributing $650 million, or about 4 percent of the total cost. But Santa Clara board members seem to think that Met would be willing to treat them as equal partners and make major concessions to protect the Delta environment and Northern California interests if they jump on board.

The joint powers agreement associated with the tunnels project creates a five-member governing board. Metropolitan would be given two seats, and Southern California’s Kern County would get one vote, assuring a Southern California majority on any critical vote. The Santa Clara Valley Water District’s one seat on the board would be largely ignored on any issue limiting the amount of water heading south. That makes a spending cap protecting ratepayers a necessity if the board joins this foolish escapade.

But the better outcome is to stop the tunnels project before it begins. None of the major candidates for governor favors it. The Bay Area congressional delegation is opposed and actively willing to engage in efforts to find alternative solutions. Even Sen. Dianne Feinstein doesn’t think it pencils out. Once the digging begins, as Californians have seen with the high-speed rail project, it will be all the harder to stop.

Board members will be held accountable for Tuesday’s decision.