Sacramento is preparing to press the delete button when it comes to the viability of the Delta.

The proof is in the “fast facts” sheet devised by the Department of Water Resources to “educate” the public on the need for the Delta Conveyance Project.

The sheet brags how the low-balled $20 billion project is “designed to withstand (a) 200-year flood event on top of (a) 10.2 feet of sea level rise.”

The problem is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta as it now exists won’t withstand either of those two events.

Events, by the way, Sacramento has been pounding into our collective heads that are the direct result of climate change caused by greenhouse gas generated by mankind.

It is a strategy that is designed to make any questioning of their solutions appear trite given they are trying to save California as we know it.

And at the same time, it is moral justification for diverting an obscene amount of the state’s resources to deliver 100 percent of the green agenda.

This is not a small point.

California’s entire climate and water strategy is based on the policy premise what exists today should be protected.

And as such, the bureaucratic architects that shape the subsequent strategies have essentially declared:

*Research involving climate change patterns can be ignored as if it were junk science.

*The Delta smelt must survive until the earth dies in a billion years, per a study by Toho University using NASA planetary modeling that was released this month.

*Bass, a highly-coveted sports fish that is non-native and has wreaked havoc on the Delta ecological system, are the equivalent of amphibian sacred cows.

But when it comes to the needs of the Greater LA Growth Machine and corporate farmers with Lear jets eager to make marginal farmland profitable the Delta’s marshlands, habitats, towns, prime farmland, fish, fauna, birds, as well as the homes and livelihoods of tens of thousands of people are acceptable collateral damage.

The dirty little secret about the climate modeling done by the state is the fact by far the biggest area to be impacted will be the six county Delta region and not the coast.

Rising sea levels along the coast — even at 10 feet — will reclaim real estate generally no further inland than a half mile.

In the Delta, modeling shows ocean waters could be lapping at the levees ultimately protecting Stockton, Lathrop, Tracy, and even Manteca.

They are among the same communities that would bear the brunt of repeated waves of 200 year floods some modeling also suggests.

That is why Manteca, Lathrop, and Stockton are working to get actual solutions in place by 2035 with the blessing of property owners who have agreed to foot a large chunk of the bill to expand levees.

But what about the levees that protect ecological systems, farming, and communities within the 1,153 square miles of the Delta?

There was no stomach at all among ratepayers in the massive Metropolitan Water District to open their pockets to find a Delta Conveyance Project.

It was basically dead after statewide voters overwhelming in 1982 rejected the forerunner of the proposed 45-mile Delta tunnel, the Peripheral Canal.

It was killed by arguably the strangest coalition of opponents at the time: Farmers, environmentalists, sports fishermen, and large blocks of urban voters in coastal cities.

The only ones who really saw the value of the Delta conveyance was essentially a water cartel that wanted to make sure Southern California could continue forever to secure cheap water to fuel growth to strengthen their financial bottom lines.

Then, in a stroke of marketing genius, the water cartel latched on to a state seismic risk report issued years after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

In a bid to justify a push for a state project and eventual statewide bond to strengthen Delta levees, it concluded a future quake could cause a massive collapse of levees.

As such, it could threaten LA area water supply for six months to a year.

The water cartel hijacked the report’s conclusion to bring the Delta conveyance project back from the dead.

*Forget no levees were collapsed in the 1989 seismic event.

*Forget that despite other previous quakes with magnitudes as great or greater and even somewhat closer to the Delta, the levees didn’t fail.

*Forget the fact there are built in storage reservoirs south of the Tehachapi mountains holding imported north state water that have kept water flowing to LA through as many as three years of serious drought.

*Forget frugal water use for likely six months or so while repairs were made to key levees that may be damaged would cost a small fraction of the $60 billion the tunnel will probably require once inflation and bond interest are factored.

*Forget any levee damage is likely to be a breach of maybe up to hundreds of yards and not entire levees meaning they’d be quicker to repair than implied in the water cartel’s doomsday scenario.

The water cartel also went from saying the tunnel project would simply protect the flow of water and not grab any other water to saying it would capture “excess” runoff.

That is a laughable premise given drought emergencies and court orders on minimum flows would cut into other uses of Sierra runoff even deeper if LA is able to prevent it’s water from flowing into the Delta and being partially at risk to cover any remedies.

Now we are told they will be able to capture all that water wet winters send to the ocean with LA being able to benefit.

They tossed in climate models showing there will be less snow and more rain as climate change occurs.

It’s a legitimate premise, especially that is what studies of the climate in what is now the western United States indicates happened over tens of thousands of years.

There’s just one rather major detail missing.

But where are they going to store all of that “excess” water?

You need reservoir space above and below ground.

And given how overcommitted both the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project are in water delivery contracts from various watersheds where they have dams and not to mention those of other water purveyors such as irrigation districts, who decided all that climate change runoff increase belongs to the LA water cartel?

The Delta conveyance is a pure and simple water grab.

And it is taking place by Sacramento allowing the wanton destruction of a region they have decided to sacrifice by not taking steps to protect it from climate change.

First LA destroyed the Owens Valley.

Then they crippled the Mono Lake Basin.

And now, with the generous cooperation of Governor Newsom trying to fast track the conveyance endeavor, the LA water cartel can bag an even bigger prize.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at [email protected]