No place will be more impacted by the project than the tiny town of Hood, in Sacramento County. It will be ground-zero in the effort to build the tunnel, and with fewer than 300 people, they don't have a lot of political clout.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is seeking to short-cut permitting of a proposed $20-billion water tunnel project. Environmental groups condemn the plan as an attempt to bypass necessary procedures.

SACRAMENTO, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to fast-track a project to reroute more water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to farmers and cities as part of his revised budget blueprint set to be unveiled Wednesday.