I was told recently about the two gates “fish protection” project, a proposal to install two large water gates in the Delta. The gates will automatically close two key waterways between Bethel Island and Discovery Bay for six hours at a time, twice a day during the winter, cutting the southern side of the Delta in half.

The gates can’t be opened during that time, because they will have the weight of the rising tide against them.

My husband and I live in Discovery Bay — a Delta waterfront community. We are here because we love the Delta. Our weekends and vacations involve traveling by boat to various areas of the Delta, Bethel Island, Stockton, Sacramento and even San Francisco or beyond.

Unlike people who jump in their cars on weekends to go on an outing or for a drive, our waterways are our roads. We chose to build our retirement home in Discovery Bay because of its access to the beautiful Delta.

But these gates will cut off our access! Currently, we have year-round 24-7 access from Discovery Bay to the Delta. But once these two gates are in position, the only route from Discovery Bay to elsewhere in the Delta requires boats to go through the Bacon Island Bridge, which only operates from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and breaks periodically.

Today, if we miss the bridge’s hours or if the bridge has a maintenance issue and can’t open, we can take a different route. And if we’re traveling in the evening, today we can get still home.

But those alternate waterways will be blocked by the gates. When these gates automatically close at the same time during half the year, boaters who venture out will be stranded. This affects not only Discovery Bay, but all marinas on this side of Bacon Island Bridge. It will make any winter boating very difficult.

And, we’re not even sure larger boats like a 6-foot keel sailboat can get through these gates during the summer, so the gates could become a year-round problem.

There are many unanswered questions about this project that need answers before the project is rushed to completion.

The stated goal of this project is to protect the endangered Delta smelt, but someone would have a hard time convincing me that blocking fish (the smelt, bass, salmon, etc.) as the tide goes in and keeping them from their freshwater spawning grounds is “protecting” them. What’s truly impacting the fish is poor water quality and getting caught in the pumps that send water south. If the goal really was to protect them, then the best option is to shut down the pumping stations a few times in the winter during spawning season.

Those of us who live in the Delta know when the pumps shut down, our water quality improves dramatically. But water districts want more water, not less, pumped out. The rush to install the two gates is really about how much water can be taken out of the Delta and sent to Southern California.

We need answers to questions about boater safety, reliability and usability and about boaters stuck on one side of the closed gates. Before these gates are installed, there needs to be a reliable plan for 24-7 access to Discovery Bay.

• Jan McCleery is a resident of Discovery Bay and an avid San Joaquin Delta boater.