Tag: Delta tunnel

Court Rejects State’s Attempt to Disqualify Sacramento & Stockton’s Lawyers in Delta Tunnel Fight

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ Leave a comment

On March 27, 2026, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Stephen Acquisto denied the California Department of Water Resources' motion to disqualify Somach Simmons & Dunn, the law firm that has represented the County of Sacramento, City of Stockton, and other local agencies in Delta Conveyance litigation since 2007. DWR's motion, supported by some 5,000 pages of … Continue reading Court Rejects State’s Attempt to Disqualify Sacramento & Stockton’s Lawyers in Delta Tunnel Fight

Stretched Thin: Protestant Attorneys Face Overlapping Delta Conveyance Project Hearings

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ Leave a comment

The week of February 23-27 presents attorneys representing Delta communities with an impossible calendar. The State Water Board's Delta Conveyance Project water rights hearing has added February 23, 24, and 25 as hearing days. The Delta Stewardship Council has scheduled its appeal hearing on DWR's certification of consistency with the Delta Plan for February 26 … Continue reading Stretched Thin: Protestant Attorneys Face Overlapping Delta Conveyance Project Hearings

State Tries to Sideline Sacramento & Stockton’s Lawyers — Court Hears Stay Request

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ Leave a comment

On January 23, 2026, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) filed a motion in Sacramento County Superior Court seeking to disqualify the law firm of Somach Simmons & Dunn, longtime counsel for the County of Sacramento, the City of Stockton, in three of the ten consolidated cases challenging DWR’s approvals of the Delta Conveyance … Continue reading State Tries to Sideline Sacramento & Stockton’s Lawyers — Court Hears Stay Request

History: Water Board ruled against delaying twin tunnels CPOD hearing for Bay-Delta Plan update

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ Leave a comment

In 2015, the Department of Water Resources filed a petition for Change in Point of Diversion with the State Water Resources Control Board for the WaterFix / twin tunnels project. Environmental, fishing, and Delta groups strongly protested the Water Board proceeding with the hearing before the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan Update. But the Hearing … Continue reading History: Water Board ruled against delaying twin tunnels CPOD hearing for Bay-Delta Plan update

Delta Independent Science Board requests extension on Delta tunnel Draft EIR comments

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ 1 Comment

On September 2, 2022, Lisa Wainger, the new Chair of the Delta Independent Science Board, sent a letter to the Department of Water Resources Director, Karla Nemeth, asking for a 30 day extension of time to comment on the Delta Conveyance Project Draft EIR. The DISB Chair's letter gave the following reasons for asking for … Continue reading Delta Independent Science Board requests extension on Delta tunnel Draft EIR comments

Delta tunnel — Inconvenient truths about sea level rise and salinity intrusion

Polar ice sheet melting
~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ 2 Comments

The Delta tunnel Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) has a new Sea Level Rise Study in Technical Appendix 5A-F. The study was done with Bay-Delta SCHISM, a 3-D hydrodynamic model of the San Francisco Bay and Delta. The new SCHISM study has limitations, in that it assumes that Delta levees are raised to keep up … Continue reading Delta tunnel — Inconvenient truths about sea level rise and salinity intrusion

Delta tunnel EIR shows predictable megaproject management biases

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ 1 Comment

Professor Brent Flyvbjerg is an internationally renowned expert in megaprojects. His research has shown how megaprojects are systematically subject to "survival of the unfittest." Flyvbjerg’s 2021 paper, Top Ten Behavioral Biases in Project Management: An Overview, describes several behavioral biases which are relevant to the Delta tunnel project. They include strategic misrepresentation, optimism bias, planning … Continue reading Delta tunnel EIR shows predictable megaproject management biases

Delta ISB review of Delta tunnel project proceeding under huge time pressure

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ 1 Comment

On June 8, 2022, DWR’s Director, Karla Nemeth, made a presentation on the Delta tunnel project to the Delta Independent Science Board (Delta ISB), with several of the scientists who had worked on the project. She said that she supported the Delta ISB’s review of the project. But unlike the twin tunnels project, the Department … Continue reading Delta ISB review of Delta tunnel project proceeding under huge time pressure

Consideration of climate change in the Delta tunnel project

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ 1 Comment

The Department of Water Resources will be holding a webinar on consideration of climate change for the Delta tunnel project on August 25, 2021.  The following discussion is from my testimony in 2016 for Part 1A of the WaterFix Water Right Change Petition hearing. It explains some key problems with the consideration of shifts in … Continue reading Consideration of climate change in the Delta tunnel project

Thoughts on DWR’s Delta Conveyance Webinar on Fisheries

~ Deirdre Des Jardins ~ 1 Comment

The single tunnel project was supposed to be redesigned to limit impacts on Delta legacy communities and fish.  But many of the bad design decisions from the previous project have been kept. The most glaring examples are the enormous, 3,000 cfs intakes, which were carried over from the twin tunnels project. Dave Vogel wrote about … Continue reading Thoughts on DWR’s Delta Conveyance Webinar on Fisheries