SACRAMENTO, Calif.— A California court ruled this week that the California Department of Water Resources’ efforts to fund the Delta tunnel project were unlawful.

The department was seeking legal validation of the Delta Program Revenue Bonds, which would raise $16 billion or more to plan and construct a massive tunnel project under the San Joaquin Delta. The tunnel would divert billions of gallons of water annually from the Sacramento River, endangering the ecosystem’s health and harming farming communities.

“The court was right to recognize that the state’s scheme to finance the environmentally disastrous Delta tunnel project was unlawful,” said John Buse, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Without the bonds to fund this boondoggle, the project’s future is bleak, and that’s very good news for people and wildlife in the San Joaquin Delta.”

The Center and other environmental groups, as well as Sacramento and San Joaquin counties, local and regional water districts, and taxpayer advocates, challenged the department’s attempt to secure legal validation for the Delta Program Revenue Bonds. Tuesday’s ruling by the Sacramento Superior Court found that the department lacked the authority to issue revenue bonds to finance the Delta tunnel project.

The single-tunnel project was announced in 2020, to replace the twin-tunnel California WaterFix project. The single tunnel would siphon water before it passes through the environmentally sensitive San Joaquin Delta, wreaking ecological and economic havoc.