“There are many other water districts across the state who would love to have the luxury of half a billion dollars banked and ready to go if a project should get warm enough to opt into that.”

— Sandra Matsumoto, California Water Commission member, at a public hearing last week on Santa Clara Valley Water District’s progress on a proposed new dam near Pacheco Pass. The commission committed $504 million from a 2014 bond measure, but costs have since tripled to $2.7 billion, no agency partners have signed on and groundbreaking is pushed from 2024 to 2029.