MWD purchase of Delta Islands moves forward

Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District has been given the green light to move ahead in its purchase of 20,000 acres of land in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. A ruling by San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Barbara Kronlund called a lawsuit by two Northern California counties to block the purchase “premature.”

San Joaquin and Contra Costa Counties, along with Delta farmers and two environmental groups, have sued arguing that MWD needed to conduct environmental reviews first and study potential harm to the Delta and its fragile ecosystem.

The lawsuit alleges that MWD intends to use part of the land to further Gov. Jerry Brown’s controversial twin tunnels project—known as the California WaterFix. The lawsuit was filed in hopes of blocking the $15.7 billion plan to send Delta water as far south as San Diego. However, the twin tunnels await regulatory approval and could become a ballot measure for California voters to decide.

But according to Judge Kronlund, “Yes, speculation and conjecture and suspicion surround, but where’s the evidence? Where’s the proof of what’s going to happen here?” Kronlund made her comments during a three-hour hearing.

For its part Metropolitan’s Senior Deputy General Counsel Catherine Stites said in mid-April, “We are simply buying property. We’ve identified a number of potential future uses, but we have not identified any particular use or change in the use of the property yet. Our board has not given us authority to do anything with the property except buy it.

“If and when we decide on a particular use, further environmental analysis will be done as required. It would be speculative to do CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) now.”

MWD has repeated said it could use the land to hold earth dug from under the Delta for the twin tunnels or the land may be use as a wetlands habitat to improve the health of the Delta estuary for a more dependable water supply.

The Delta land MWD intends to purchase includes Bouldin and Bacon islands, Webb Tract, most of Holland Tract and a slice of Chipps Island. The land covers 20,000 acres in San Joaquin, Contra Costa and Solano counties. Escrow for the land purchase is expected to close on June 8.

“We are pleased but not surprised by the ruling, given that Metropolitan is simply purchasing the land and not initiating a project,” Metropolitan’s Bob Muir said.

The land is currently owned by Delta Wetlands Properties, a company controlled by Swiss financial services conglomerate Zurich Insurance Group. The purchase price is $175 million.