Republicans seek to ban lawsuits on delta tunnels

A new threat to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the San Francisco Bay is coming not from the governor’s mansion but from the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona (Riverside County), inserted language into the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill that would prohibit legal challenges to anything related to California WaterFix — the governor’s name for the twin tunnels project to move water from the delta to Southern California — not just retroactively but in perpetuity.

If this language becomes law, the dozens of existing lawsuits against the project would be summarily dismissed, allowing the twin tunnels to be built without resolution of legal challenges by local governments, water districts, recreational groups and conservation groups.

But the problems don’t stop there. If enacted into law, this language would allow the California Department of Water Resources to send as much water to Southern California as the department wants, and there would be no opportunity to go to court to stop them.

It would prohibit any lawsuit to protect imperiled fish species under either the California Endangered Species Act and the federal Endangered Species Act. It would prohibit legal challenges based on state and federal water quality protections within the delta and San Francisco Bay.

If California WaterFix is going to improve the health of the delta and the bay, as its supporters say it will, then why would they need to insulate the project from the only protections that those ecosystems have — lawsuits to enforce state and federal environmental laws?

Even proponents of California WaterFix ought to be concerned about this language, as it would supersede state law, including existing water rights and water contracts. Water rights holders, both north and south of the delta, would have no way of protecting themselves in the event the state decides to operate the twin tunnels in a way that harms their water supply.

This type of language that uses the power of federal law does nothing to make California more resilient to future drought. Members of Congress should be using federal power to increase reliable water supplies for their constituents in ways that don’t pit one part of our state against another.

I have long been a fierce critic of Gov. Jerry Brown’s twin tunnels project because it would forever alter the environment that local communities, fishermen, farmers and innumerable species of fish rely on.

I will do everything I can to prevent this harmful amendment from passing the House. If it does, I will work to ensure California’s two U.S. senators — both from the Bay Area — stand up to the Southern California water grab.

Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove (Sacramento County), represents Colusa, Sutter and Yuba and portions of Glenn, Lake, Sacramento, Solano and Yolo counties in the U.S. House of Representatives.