Comments on: Guest commentary: Contra Costa report on peripheral canal is “utter nonsense” http://aquafornia.com/archives/8417 The California Water News blog! Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:48:00 -0800 hourly 1 By: dfb http://aquafornia.com/archives/8417/comment-page-1#comment-14370 dfb Sun, 10 May 2009 23:10:05 +0000 http://aquafornia.com/?p=8417#comment-14370 From DWR: "The cost estimate for the short and long tunnel options is $7.3 billion and $7.5 billion, respectively. These estimates do not include environmental permitting or mitigation or Initial Dual Conveyance Assessment power facilities costs. Combining the cost of facilities for the Through-Delta Component with the costs for West Canal Alignment to create a Dual Conveyance System produces a range of total cost of approximately $8.6 to $17.2 billion." http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/2008/061908assessmentdual.pdf My understanding is that the difference in cost is due to design changes, the price of land, and the cost of raw materials. I seem to recall that the state also needs to buy some of the central delta islands as well but this is not part of the estimates given for the peripheral canal. The estimates were given last year during the run up in raw material prices and before the land value crash so the price estimates might have come down since. Adjusting for inflation does not always address particular regional costs not reflected well by national inflation indexes. My understanding is that the state and federal governments will share the costs in alignment with current delta operation cost sharing agreements. I cannot find anything addressing that fact on the state web site although I remember reading that at the end of 2008. I am personally skeptical about the peripheral canal plan. The study cited by the original piece is not the only one I have seen. The problem with the plan is that this will only move the pumps and the problem to the north delta. The same issues with killing off fish and other aquatic species and changing the flow of the water ways will still exist. It seems to me that a distributed pumping system would just as effectively serve our needs and not create the number of ecosystem problems as a singular pumping system. From DWR: “The cost estimate for the short and long tunnel options is $7.3 billion and $7.5 billion, respectively. These estimates do not include environmental permitting or mitigation or Initial Dual Conveyance Assessment power facilities costs. Combining the cost of facilities for the Through-Delta Component with the costs for West Canal Alignment to create a Dual Conveyance System produces a range of total cost of approximately $8.6 to $17.2 billion.”

http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/2008/061908assessmentdual.pdf

My understanding is that the difference in cost is due to design changes, the price of land, and the cost of raw materials. I seem to recall that the state also needs to buy some of the central delta islands as well but this is not part of the estimates given for the peripheral canal. The estimates were given last year during the run up in raw material prices and before the land value crash so the price estimates might have come down since. Adjusting for inflation does not always address particular regional costs not reflected well by national inflation indexes.

My understanding is that the state and federal governments will share the costs in alignment with current delta operation cost sharing agreements. I cannot find anything addressing that fact on the state web site although I remember reading that at the end of 2008.

I am personally skeptical about the peripheral canal plan. The study cited by the original piece is not the only one I have seen. The problem with the plan is that this will only move the pumps and the problem to the north delta. The same issues with killing off fish and other aquatic species and changing the flow of the water ways will still exist. It seems to me that a distributed pumping system would just as effectively serve our needs and not create the number of ecosystem problems as a singular pumping system.

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