Delta Caucus Chairs Praise Exclusion Of Delta Tunnel Fast-Tracking From State Budget

This week has been a busy week for opponents of Governor Gavin Newsom’s Delta Tunnel, an unpopular project that scientists and public trust advocates say would hasten the extinction of Sacramento River winter, spring and fall Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish species.

On June 25, Delta Caucus Co-Chairs Senator Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, and Assemblywoman Lori D. Wilson, D-Suisun City, applauded the 2025-26 California budget agreement for excluding Newsom’s controversial proposal to fast-track the “costly and destructive Delta Tunnel Project.”

“Keeping the tunnel fast-tracking proposal out of the state budget is an important victory for California and the Delta, and for the communities, farms, and historic resources surrounding the largest estuary on the West Coast. The 45-mile-long, $20-plus billion water tunnel project not only would devastate much of the Delta region, but is also unaffordable and unnecessary,” said Sen. McNerney, whose district includes the heart of the Delta region. “The Legislature and Governor should pursue alternatives that will cost far less and would safeguard California’s main water supply system without inflicting major harm to it, such as fortifying Delta levees and increasing water recycling, water efficiency, and groundwater storage.”

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