Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Delta Conveyance Project

This report presents the results of a benefit-cost analysis for the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP), a plan to modernize the State Water Project (SWP)’s conveyance infrastructure in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (Delta). The SWP plays a crucial role in supplying water resources to 27 million Californians. Businesses in the area served by the SWP produce $2.3 trillion in goods and services annually, making it the world’s eighth-largest economy. The SWP delivers an average of 2.56 million acre-feet of water annually to urban and agricultural customers in the Bay Area, Central Valley, Central Coast, and Southern California. However, by 2070, climate change and sea-level rise are expected to reduce SWP deliveries by approximately 22%, or 546 thousand acre-feet per year (TAF/yr). In addition, the SWP faces an ongoing risk of service disruptions following seismic events near the Delta; these events could cause outages and reduce the quality of water exports from the SWP south of the Delta.