California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill to protect the Delta’s aging levees and water infrastructure from flooding and sinking land, saying funding already in the state budget made the measure unnecessary, CalMatters reported.
The Delta Stewardship Council estimates repairing the Delta’s levees would cost roughly $3.3 billion, and says $22 billion in assets and over $5 billion in annual economic activity could be exposed to flooding by 2085 if improvements are not made.
In his veto message, Newsom said the more than $170 million for repairing levees, aqueducts, canals and other projects already in the state budget made the bill redundant, according to CalMatters.
“While well-intentioned, this bill is unnecessary,” Newsom said.
About 1,100 miles of federal and non-federal levees line Delta waterways. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in 2018 that many aging levees do not meet current construction standards and could fail at water levels well below the top of the levee.
Democratic state Senator Jerry McNerney of Stockton had sought a $300 million annual repair fund, including proceeds from the state’s carbon market, according to CalMatters. The Delta Caucus secured a little over half that amount in this year’s budget, and the bill eventually dropped the larger funding figure.
The state has spent hundreds of millions already, including at least $400 million by the Department of Water Resources, according to a bill analysis cited by CalMatters.
The fund would also have paid to repair the delivery system that pumps Northern California river water south through the Delta, supplying two-thirds of the state’s population and Central Valley farmland.
Groundwater overuse is causing land around the California aqueduct and other canals to sink. A state report found the damage could cut water deliveries by almost 90% in the next 17 years, and the Department of Water Resources estimates fixing past and future damage could cost nearly $4 billion.
The Legislature passed the bill unanimously, with no votes against and five members not voting, and it drew support from water agencies, local governments, environmental groups and business organisations, according to CalMatters.
The California Central Valley Flood Control Association urged Newsom in a letter to veto the bill, saying it could disrupt existing funding programmes and add bureaucracy to complex reimbursement processes.
McNerney said the bill “brought together traditional adversaries on California water issues — environmental groups and State Water Contractors, along with political leaders from both Northern and Southern California,” adding that 2026 represented a major step forward in safeguarding the state’s primary water supply.
Restore the Delta, a Stockton nonprofit, contrasted the bill with Newsom’s Delta Conveyance Project, the roughly $20 billion tunnel meant to bypass the Delta rather than protect it. “It is (Newsom’s) white whale,” Executive Director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla said in a statement.
“We’re not done,” McNerney said after the budget vote earlier this month. “This historic investment is just a down payment. In the years to come, we need to continue to protect California’s primary supply of freshwater.”