The 16-day federal government shutdown has caused a month-long delay in the release of California's Bay Delta conservation plan. Known as the BDCP, it includes Gov. Jerry Brown's twin tunnel project to carry water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to central and southern California.
The plan was supposed to be released for public comment mid-November. But federal agencies need to review it first, and that was stalled.
Nancy Vogel with the Department of Water Resources said each month of delay costs the public water agencies paying for the project about $2.5 million.
"The longer it takes to get the plan finalized and implemented the more it costs them, so you could think of it as a loss in that way and that the longer it takes, the more resources have to be spent on staff," Vogel said.
Vogel said the Department is hoping the BDCP will now be released by mid-December. So far, public water agencies have spent $200 million in the last seven years.
