A long-planned water storage project in Northern California has reached a major federal milestone.
The U.S. Department of the Interior has approved the Record of Decision for the Sites Reservoir Project, clearing the way for the project to move forward after decades of study and debate. The decision authorizes the Bureau of Reclamation to cover up to 25 percent of the total project cost.
Proposed west of the Sacramento River near Maxwell, Sites Reservoir would be an off stream storage facility capable of holding up to 1.5 million acre feet of water. Instead of damming a river, the reservoir is designed to capture excess flows during wet years and store them for use during droughts, improving water reliability for communities, agriculture, and environmental needs across the Sacramento Valley.
Federal officials say recent operational changes have already helped capture more than 200,000 acre feet of additional water within the Central Valley Project by better managing storm flows that historically could not be stored. Sites Reservoir is expected to significantly expand that capacity over the long term…