{"id":824,"date":"2026-05-25T11:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=824"},"modified":"2026-05-25T11:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T11:00:12","slug":"southern-california-could-get-85-of-its-water-locally-and-avoid-delta-tunnel-groups-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=824","title":{"rendered":"Southern California could get 85% of its water locally and avoid Delta tunnel, groups say"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A coalition of conservation groups wants Southern California to get 85% of its water locally, up from the 50% it gets now, by 2045, and says a new plan shows how.<\/p>\n

Read more Defying Trump, California continues to bet big on offshore wind<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s urging state leaders to scrap plans for a 45-mile tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and consider asking voters to approve a bond measure to fund local water solutions. The 34-page strategy was released as critical decisions loom for local officials, California\u2019s next governor and legislators. <\/p>\n

Over the last century, Southern California has grown and thrived thanks to giant aqueducts it built to bring water from hundreds of miles away \u2014 the Eastern Sierra, the Colorado River and Northern California.<\/p>\n

But with water costs rising<\/u> and climate change jeopardizing these distant sources, there is growing interest in finding ways to get more water locally.<\/p>\n

The allied groups are calling for recycling more wastewater, capturing more stormwater, improving efficiency and cleaning up contaminated groundwater. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to prioritize our investments, and prioritizing them in local water makes the most sense,\u201d said Bruce Reznik, executive director of the group Los Angeles Waterkeeper.<\/p>\n

The coalition includes fishing groups, environmental organizations and Northern California\u2019s Winnemem Wintu Tribe.<\/p>\n

Its calls for a \u201cnew urban water renaissance\u201d in California that prioritizes local water. This approach would reliably yield more and cost far less than Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s proposed Delta Conveyance Project<\/u> beneath the Delta.<\/p>\n

The state estimated in 2024 the tunnel would cost $20.1 billion, but opponents say it could cost three to five times more.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal water is reliable, it\u2019s more affordable, and it\u2019s more flexible, so that we\u2019re not committing California ratepayers to higher bills that they don\u2019t need,\u201d said Kyle Jones, a water expert and consultant who helped prepare the plan for the coalition. <\/p>\n

Southern California imports about half of its water from other regions.<\/p>\n

The coalition\u2019s plan says the region can secure up to 2 million acre-feet of local water per year. It estimates the costs of more conservation and efficiency, more stormwater and groundwater cleaning, and more water recycling at $44 billion over two decades. The Delta tunnel, in contrast, could cost $60 billion to $100 billion<\/u>,<\/u> it says.<\/p>\n

Whether the tunnel project is ultimately built may hinge on whether large water agencies, including the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, decide to participate and pay for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMetropolitan Water District really does have a significant choice on it, that not just impacts their ratepayers but impacts every single person in the state,\u201d said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of the group Restore the Delta. \u201cAre we going to spend $20, $60, maybe upward to $100 million on a tunnel? Or are we going to invest significant money in local solutions that provide water resiliency and sustainability for everyone in California? That is what is at stake right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Metropolitan Water District already is planning<\/u> a large new facility<\/u> in Carson to transform wastewater into purified drinking water. Los Angeles and San Diego are also building water recycling plants<\/u>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, water imported from the northern Sierra and the Colorado River provides the foundation of water supply reliability for Southern California,\u201d said Shivaji Deshmukh, the MWD\u2019s general manager. <\/p>\n

He noted that the MWD invests in water efficiency and capturing stormwater, and has helped reduce per-person water use by more than 40% since 1990.<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s 38-member board last year adopted a climate adaptation strategy that sets goals for lining up additional water.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles<\/u> city leaders and L.A. County<\/u> supervisors have also set goals for becoming more locally self-sufficient.<\/p>\n

The advocates who wrote the policy plan said these efforts should accelerate and expand. They pointed out that the Colorado River\u2019s reservoirs are falling to perilously low levels, and native fish in the Delta are in decline as the pumping of water takes an ecological toll.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change is exacerbating the challenges in those ecosystems, meaning that less and less water will be available to import,\u201d said Ashley Overhouse, water policy advisor for the group Defenders of Wildlife. \u201cAll the while, the cost of water is continuing to rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 20 other environmental groups endorsed the coalition\u2019s strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have got to do a better job in the next 100 years than we did in the last 100 years, if we truly want to create a place of abundance once again,\u201d said Frankie Myers, a member of the Yurok Tribe in Northern California. \u201cThis idea that we can steal \u2026 and divert water however we want with no consequences has got to end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benjamin Bass, a UCLA scientist who studies how climate change is affecting the Colorado River<\/u> and other water sources, joined the group as they presented their proposal in an online briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraditional sources for imported water are less reliable than they used to be,\u201d Bass said. \u201cThe most reliable source of water in the future is local water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other experts have reached similar conclusions.<\/p>\n

Researchers at the Pacific Institute, a water think tank in Oakland, have examined improvements such as fixing leaks in pipes, switching out inefficient washing machines and toilets, and replacing thirsty lawns with plants suited to the state\u2019s Mediterranean climate.<\/p>\n

In a 2022 report, they found that a set of standard practices and technologies could reduce total urban water use by 30% or more<\/u>.<\/p>\n

Read more L.A. is safer than it\u2019s been in decades, but crime is an issue dominating the mayor\u2019s race<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a new plan, environmental groups call for a “water renaissance” in California, saying the state needs to invest much more in local water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate"],"yoast_head":"\nSouthern California could get 85% of its water locally and avoid Delta tunnel, groups say - California Relocation Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=824\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Southern California could get 85% of its water locally and avoid Delta tunnel, groups say - California Relocation Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a new plan, environmental groups call for a "water renaissance" in California, saying the state needs to invest much more in local water.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=824\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"California Relocation Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-25T11:00:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=824#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=824\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b85b48ca4c2015dd056e0e9c18912121\"},\"headline\":\"Southern California could get 85% of its water locally and avoid Delta tunnel, groups say\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-25T11:00:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=824\"},\"wordCount\":942,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=824#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/b3fa3eca66149622f9352aaad4833acf-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Climate\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=824#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=824\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=824\",\"name\":\"Southern California could get 85% of its water locally and avoid Delta tunnel, groups say - California Relocation Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=824#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=824#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/b3fa3eca66149622f9352aaad4833acf-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-25T11:00:12+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=824#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=824\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=824#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/b3fa3eca66149622f9352aaad4833acf-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/b3fa3eca66149622f9352aaad4833acf-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Van Nuys, CA - October 30: Construction continues at a Department of Water and Power wastewater treatment plant at Donald C. 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