On April 10, the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California voted to invest $10.8 billion towards the state’s plan to build new water conveyance infrastructure in the Delta (commonly called “Water Fix.”) The total price tag is nearly $17 billion, so the news provided a level of certainty to the project it didn’t have before. However, Lisa Lien-Mager of the California Natural Resources Agency said there are still a few water agencies that need to make specific funding commitments to their boards before the project can move forward in May.

Beyond financing, the project still has many regulatory and legal hurdles to clear as well. A long hearing process is already under way with the State Water Resources Control Board, to decide whether to approve a water right change petition due to the tunnels’ three new points of diversion on the Sacramento River. The hearings before the SWRCB are examining whether there are potential impacts on the current legal users of water, like downstream municipalities, and the potential impacts to fish and wildlife, as well as general flow through the Delta. There is no specific timeline for the SWRCB to reach its decision, and an assistant Deputy Director for the SWRCB’s division of water rights indicated it could be as short as six months, or as long as several years, before the project has the regulatory certainty to move forward. In addition, nearly 20 lawsuits have been filed in state court, and two in federal court, though most of the cases have now been consolidated in Sacramento. One thing is clear: there is still a long way to go before the Water Fix tries to live up to its name.

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