Construction costs for Sites Reservoir have surged approximately 50%, from an original estimate of $4.5 billion to between $6.2 billion and $6.8 billion due to inflation of construction materials.
The invasive two-inch wide golden mussel showed up near the Port of Stockton last fall. Since then, it's spread south, extending to other waterways in the Delta and some in the San Joaquin Valley.
Malissa Tayaba, vice chairperson of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, whose ancestral lands include the delta, said her tribe would be "irreparably harmed" by the project. "We will not only lose access to our homelands that we have cared for and stewarded for time immemorial, but we will also lose our delta estuary, already in crisis," she said. "More importantly, the Delta Conveyance Project would destroy and desecrate the resting place of our ancestors."