The Delta Conveyance Project Fails the Cost-benefit Test
Environmental Economics Expert testifies to SWRCB that the DCP Will Cost $60 - $100 Billion and fail to deliver significant benefits
October 15, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A partner at a leading environmental economics firm concluded sobering testimony at a State Water Board hearing on the Newsom administration’s proposed Delta Conveyance Project this week, observing it will burden ratepayers already facing affordability challenges, crowd out critical investments in local water supply projects, and provide no water security to most Southern California communities. (See the written testimony submitted on July 11, 2025 here.)
Mark Buckley, the senior economist for the research firm ECOnorthwest, testified to the board on behalf of the California Water Impact Network.
Buckley emphasized that the DCP – a massive project that would transfer water from the beleaguered Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta to Southern California via a huge subterranean tunnel – would cost between $60 to $100 billion, or up to five times the $20 billion figure disingenuously cited by the California Department of Water Resources.
Along with cost, Buckley noted other downsides to the project, including:
• Lost Opportunities for Sustainable Policies
The DCP’s crippling price tag would restrict funding for local and sustainable water projects that would also create net environmental gains, including conservation, recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup, and impaired agricultural land retirement.
• Inaccurate Municipal Water Demand Estimates
Urban water use is declining as California households adjust to climate change-associated drought and rising rates. Population growth is also slowing due to the state’s high cost of living. The Newsom administration’s analysis of future water needs – which assumes skyrocketing demand for urban water – is thus misleading and erroneous.
• Fishery and Ecosystem Devastation
The DCP would accelerate and increase freshwater transport from the Delta, pointing to ultimate collapse of its already stressed ecosystems. Buckley estimated economic losses from salmon fishery impacts would range from $1.1 to $2.6 billion over the lifetime of the DCP.
“This is a massive and destructive project that just doesn’t pencil out,” said Carolee Krieger, C-WIN Executive Director. “The ECOnorthwest analysis makes clear that it is time to move on from mega-projects designed to suck more water out of the Delta.”
CONTACT
Carolee Krieger
C-WIN Executive Director
caroleekrieger7@gmail.com
Christina Speed
C-WIN Communications Director
info.cwin@gmail.com
The California Water Impact Network is a state-wide organization that advocates for the equitable and sustainable use of California’s freshwater resources for all Californians.