One of Valley Water’s most controversial and costly projects has been shelved indefinitely.
The water district’s board of directors unanimously voted Tuesday to suspend the Pacheco Dam expansion project after eight years, which would have brought the dam’s water capacity from 5,500 acre feet of water to 140,000 acre feet of water. Directors cited the skyrocketing billion-dollar price tag and repeated delays as reasons for the suspension. The latest estimates show costs ballooning to $3.2 billion and construction not beginning until 2029 at the earliest.
“Our board’s responsibility is to balance water reliability with affordability, and we are deeply concerned that moving forward with Pacheco would place too great a burden on our ratepayers without cost-effective benefits,” Board Chair Tony Estremera said in a news release…