California's Sites Reservoir project: sparking mixed feelings in the Northstate

CHICO, Calif. — The Sites Reservoir project has been in the planning process for several years and if ultimately approved, would change the way California utilizes its water.

“With anything like this, this is a four-and-a-half billion-dollar project, time is money,” said Sites Project Director Jerry Brown.

The site's project aims to help California maintain a successful water supply in the face of climate change, weather extremes and water scarcity. Along with meeting California's goal of expanding above and below-ground water storage capacity by 4 million acre-feet.

“This project, and other projects like it, need to happen so we can have a secure water supply for future generations,” said Brown.

The project will be on the West side of the Sacramento Valley, approximately 10 miles west of Maxwell in Glenn and Colusa counties. Utilizing existing canals in the area creates a half-million-acre-foot reservoir.

“I think the smartest and cheapest thing to do is to conserve water, use less, and think about how we are using water rather than just pouring more concrete, trying to hold on to an old way of thinking,” said Policy Director Friends Of The River, Keiko Mertz.

Governor Gavin Newsom recently took steps to streamline the environmental approval process this month once again raising the concerns of the Friends of the River Organization.

"What I'm really trying to hammer home here is that this reservoir has been branded as this 'green infrastructure answer of the future,' when the science, we believe, tells us that that's not the case. And, honestly, can't really be the case," Mertz added.

Recent research by Tell the Dam Truth, supported by Friends of the River and Patagonia, found that sites will emit 362,000 metric tons of CO2 annually, mostly in the form of methane.

However Jerry Brown, the director of the project, says they have worked towards this plan with the intention of an environmentally friendly impact. “We have had numerous meetings on various topics of concern and have made adjustments and modifications in the project to be responsive to those concerns and issues,” Brown told KRCR.

This project would be the second largest off-stream reservoir in the nation and aims to overall improve California's water supply if approved. “This is a priority for our state and we need to act with urgency,” said Brown.

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