Did Gov. Brown promise Bay Area a new reservoir in exchange for WaterFix vote?

Just six months ago, a major Bay Area water district only would commit about a third of the $650 million Gov. Jerry Brown’s office had hoped it would pay for his controversial Delta tunnels project.

In a sudden reversal, the Santa Clara Valley Water District board now may pay the full amount. The board is scheduled to vote on the issue Wednesday.

The district’s possible change of heart comes less than two weeks after Brown’s Water Commission recommended giving $485 million in funding from the Proposition 1 water bond to pay for building a new reservoir in the Pacheco Pass in southeastern Santa Clara County, a project the Santa Clara district has on its wish list.

The commission’s staff not long ago said the reservoir project hadn’t met the criteria to be eligible for any of the funds.

The timing of Wednesday’s vote — so soon after the Water Commission’s favorable score for Pacheco Pass — has foes of the Delta tunnels project alleging Brown’s office worked behind the scenes to deliver a quid pro quo: funding for a new reservoir in exchange for Santa Clara’s full support for the tunnels.

“There’s definitely too much smoke here to be a coincidence,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla of Restore the Delta.

Colleen Valles, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara district, said the “insinuation is false” that Brown’s office traded reservoir funding in exchange for votes on the tunnel money.

“There is no validity to this claim,” said Lisa Lien-Mager, a spokeswoman for multiple state water agencies, including Brown’s Natural Resources Agency and the Water Commission.

The allegations first were reported in The San Jose Mercury News.

“I was surprised when I saw that, because those processes are completely separate,” Lien-Mager said. She noted that many projects, such as Sites Reservoir in the Sacramento Valley, initially had received a poor score from the commission staff, only to get a boost earlier this month after the commission revised its funding projections.

Pacheco Pass got a better score because Santa Clara provided stronger documentation showing why the reservoir met the funding criteria outlined under Proposition 1, Lien-Mager said.

The commission isn’t expected to make a final decision on how distribute Proposition 1 funds until July.

Foes of the tunnels project long have accused Brown’s Natural Resources Agency and its subsidiary, the Department of Water Resources, of being in the pockets of the powerful water districts that would benefit from the Delta tunnels. This is the first time those sort of accusations have been pointed at the Water Commission, which advises the DWR’s director and oversees the distribution of Proposition 1 funding.