State: Ruling won’t delay tunnels
“State officials say last week’s court victory for Delta landowners will not delay Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed twin tunnels project.
The ruling late Thursday from the state’s Third District Court of Appeal blocks any additional environmental surveys or drilling tests on private lands. The court found that the state must first go through formal eminent domain proceedings entitling landowners to just compensation.
State officials have warned in the past that any delay in accessing private lands for testing could drive up the cost of the project and perhaps threaten its feasibility altogether.
But a spokeswoman for the state Department of Water Resources said Monday that with regard to drilling, the state had already anticipated the need to proceed with eminent domain in its schedule and therefore expects no major delay as a result of the ruling.”
Breitler, Alex. Record Net 18 March 2014.