Sites Reservoir would be 8th largest in California, providing water to Bay Area, farms, LA
A drone view of rural land and Stone Corral Creek near unincorporated Sites, Calif., left, on Thursday, March 14, 2024. The area is planned as the location for Sites Reservoir, a 1.5 million-acre-foot project that would be California’s eighth largest at 13-miles long, submerging some of the area shown. Plans to build the largest new reservoir in California in 50 years have taken a significant step forward, following a judge’s decision to reject a lawsuit by environmental groups opposed to it.
Late Friday, a judge in Yolo County dismissed a lawsuit from the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the River, and other groups who sued in December, claiming the project’s environmental impact report was inadequate and needed to be redone. The reservoir would store water diverted from the Sacramento River in wet years, for use by cities and farms around the state in dry years.
“We’re disappointed by the court ruling,” said John Buse, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity in Oakland. “There is considerable momentum for this project. But people need to weigh that against the fact that it is expensive and has limited benefits and significant environmental costs.”
CEQA is one of the state’s landmark environmental laws. Signed by former Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1970, it requires developers to evaluate their projects’ impacts on air pollution, water pollution, wildlife, traffic, noise, and other factors. Newsom, former Gov. Jerry Brown, and other critics have said it has had unintended consequences, stalling for years projects that are important to the state and its economy.
Brown, who is not related to the former governor, said Wednesday that the project is on track to break ground in 2026 and finish by 2032.
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