Defending California’s Waters: Standing Against CEQA Rollbacks and the Delta Tunnel
Last week, we joined advocates for a powerful Lobby Day at the Capitol to oppose two dangerous budget trailer bills that threaten California’s water, ecosystems, disempower communities, and bypass long-standing environmental safeguards.
The CEQA Exemption for Water Quality Control Plans would eliminate environmental review for critical decisions affecting water flows, quality standards, and habitat protections. Without CEQA, major changes could proceed without scientific analysis or public input, stripping communities, Tribes, and environmental justice advocates of key tools to protect rivers, wetlands, and drinking water. This would accelerate toxic algal blooms, worsen water quality, and threaten endangered species like Chinook salmon and Delta smelt. It undermines transparency and weakens public trust in decisions that directly impact health, biodiversity, and climate resilience.
The Delta Conveyance Project, or Delta Tunnel, is a proposed multi-billion-dollar water export project that would divert freshwater from the Sacramento River to Southern California through a massive underground tunnel. It threatens the health of the Bay-Delta ecosystem by reducing freshwater flows, increasing salinity, and degrading critical habitat. This would harm native fish, birds, and wetlands, and jeopardize the drinking water supply for millions of Californians. With an estimated cost of $60 to $100 billion and no clear repayment plan, the project bypasses standard permitting, public input, Tribal rights, and landowner protections. Though framed as a water reliability solution, the tunnel locks California into outdated infrastructure at a time when we need flexible, climate-smart alternatives.
Together, these proposals would silence public review while advancing one of the most destructive water projects in state history. They would harm frontline communities and tribes who depend on the Delta, and they would erode protections for safe, clean drinking water statewide.
Take Action
Governor Newsom is working hard to push these massive, catastrophic projects through at the last possible minute. Please call or email your State legislators and urge them to OPPOSE trailer bills that:
Exempt Water Quality Control Plans from Environmental Review.
Fast-track Delta Tunnel without public or environmental accountability.
Calls to district offices are especially effective.
We are grateful to Restore the Delta for co-organizing this day of action, and to the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians for co-sponsoring the Lobby Day event. Special thanks to our partners at the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, California Indian Environmental Alliance, Save California Salmon, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the River, Baykeeper, Golden State Salmon Association, Sierra Club California, and Tuolumne River Trust for standing together to defend the Delta.
