<p>During the worst drought in recorded history, the State of California is considering a plan that would dramatically change how water is distributed throughout the state, according to The Verge. California Governor Jerry Brown and several State agencies have proposed the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), which suggests boring 2 enormous tunnels to divert water from the outdated levee system of the vast estuary northeast of San Francisco Bay, known as the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"Tunneling technology over the last 10 years has really taken off," says Gordon Enas, principal engineer for the California Department of Water Resources. "Several years ago, when we first embarked on this project, we hadn't really considered it."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Most of the state's agricultural and drinking water come from the estuary northeast of the San Francisco Bay, commonly known as the Delta. This is the location of the confluence of the state's 2 largest rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin. A system of levees, which was established during the gold rush in 1849, confines and transports the water using a maze of canals.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Currently, water travels through canals in the Delta and is then pumped to Silicon Valley, the Central Valley, Los Angeles, and the surrounding areas. BDCP would change all of this, by siphoning the majority of the Delta's freshwater directly out of the Sacramento River and run it underground for 35 miles in two 40-ft diameter tunnels. The water would then go into holding reservoirs, where it would be pumped out towards central and southern California.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">One of the main reasons behind the proposal is the fear of an earthquake which could disrupt the state's current water system. In fact, with the current levee system, a large-scale disaster might cripple California's agriculture production and jeopardize drinking water supplies for much of the state.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"The great fear is if for whatever reason, flooding or earthquake, you get multiple islands that flood in the central Delta from levee collapse, and that creates a sucking in of salt water from the bay," says Nancy Vogel, director of public affairs for the California Department of Water Resources. In this scenario, fresh water supplies would be contaminated by sea salt. "If you have a system that takes water from the Sacramento River and North Delta and it's underground and seismically safe, you don't risk the disruption."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The proposal is more than 40,000 pages long, and has been released to the public for comment until April. The proposed BDCP would take an estimated 50 years to implement and has an estimated cost of $25 billion, which would supposedly be paid for by the residential and agricultural consumers of the water.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Of course, locals within close proximity of the Delta, who rely on the availability of this water, are not excited about the idea of 90% of the Delta's freshwater being siphoned off. Delta farmers supply significant amounts of crops like wine grapes and asparagus.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"It's a horrible concept — absolutely horrible," says Tim Neuharth, a Delta farmer whose ancestors have been growing in the area since the Gold Rush.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">If California adopts these extensive changes to its water distribution system, how will this impact its agricultural sector? Or will it gamble with the potentially catastrophic effects of doing nothing?<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://baydeltaconservationplan.com/Home.aspx" target="_new"> Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) </a><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/15/5309350/california-25-billion-plan-to-save-delta" target="_new"> The Verge </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
