More Tunnel Talk

I’m a big fan of beat reporting – steady, day-in, day-out attention to a topic. I love to do it, and when I’m trying to learn a new topic, the first place I turn is to the beat reporters who cover it.

Today’s example is the Stockton Record’s Alex Breitler, who cut through the noise a couple of days ago to explain what state water official Jerry Meral had and had not said about the state’s views toward building a giant tunnel to divert water around the Sacramento Delta to points south:

People are tweeting today that the Brown administration will “seek” a smaller conveyance in the Delta, and that “big tunnels appear out.”

Easy, there.

What was said in yesterday’s Assembly committee hearing — and reported by the Bee’s Matt Weiser– is that a wide range of alternatives will be considered, including a 3,000 cfs pipe (five times smaller than the 15,000 cfs system described in last year’s Bay Delta Conservation Plan working draft).

A big tunnel isn’t “out.” It’s just that officials are no longer touting it as the leading solution.

One Comment

  1. Someone needs to introduce Alex Breitler to the concept of reverse logrolling. In substance, the big tunnel is indeed out.

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