Delta Conveyance: A $443 Million Question

The Delta Conveyance Project is the single most expensive decision Zone 7 will face in the next decade. Zone 7's estimated share is $443 million, based on DWR's 2023 cost estimate — a number that has not been adjusted for inflation. The total project cost is now over $20 billion, with an operational target pushed out to 2045.

Last night's Capital Improvement Plan adoption put this in sharp relief: the DCP cost sits entirely outside the CIP. It's billed through DWR's Statement of Charges, not through Zone 7's capital funds. That accounting separation is real, but the money comes from the same ratepayers.

The seismic case is real

The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta is seismically vulnerable. A major earthquake could disrupt the system that conveys State Water Project deliveries to Zone 7 and agencies across the state. The engineering rationale for the project starts here.

I take that rationale seriously.

So are the questions

The freshwater impacts on the Delta ecosystem downstream of the proposed intakes. The cost trajectory of a $20 billion project over a 20-year construction timeline. The levee-investment alternative and whether it can deliver comparable seismic protection at lower cost.

These are questions that deserve a rigorous, numbers-first comparison — the same kind of analysis Zone 7 applies to every other project in its capital plan. The board hasn't committed to construction participation yet, and I think the deliberation should match the scale of the commitment.

Responsible stewardship

I want to make sure that whatever we do to secure Zone 7's supply doesn't come at the expense of the Delta ecosystem that supply depends on. The seismic case is real — a single pumping plant is a real vulnerability. So are the freshwater and cost questions raised by communities downstream of the proposed intakes.

That's what responsible stewardship of a multi-decade commitment looks like — a board that asks the hard questions and works through the answers before committing $443 million of ratepayer money.