SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY – A project to move water from the Sacramento region down to Southern California was recently approved by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). The $16 billion Delta Conveyance Project is causing major controversy around environmental concerns.
This is a very complex issue, Californians are in need of water all over the state. But with a project like the delta tunnel, environmentalists say the 50 species of fish in the delta are at risk as well as the wildlife and people who depend on the fish.
“I don’t think it’s gonna make the situations we already have goin’ any better i think it’s probably gonna make it worse,” said recreational fisherman Hayden Kell.
For the sixth year in a row, the DWR has found no Delta Smelt, a small endangered fish that’s only found in the San Francisco Estuary.
“My grandpa taught my dad how to fish on the delta, I learned how to fish on the delta and the fact that we haven’t seen smelt there in years shows just how much work we have to do to protect the heritage of the delta that has been so essential for these fish populations going back generations,” says Congressman Josh Harder.