California is one step closer to building a new, massive reservoir in Northern California.
The state Water Resources Control Board unanimously approved a water rights permit for the Sites Reservoir project, clearing one of the biggest hurdles after decades of planning.
Jerry Brown, executive director of the Sites Project Reservoir, said the $7 billion reservoir is needed as California's population grows and climate change makes the state's water supply less predictable.
"Our statewide system is largely around having snowpack, and a loss of snowpack eliminates that availability of water, and we need to be replacing it with surface storage, groundwater storage and other means," he said.
Sites Reservoir would potentially hold up to 1.5 million acre-feet of water. The plan is to divert water from the Sacramento River during high flows and store it for drier years.
"It's been a long time in California since we've made anything of this magnitude," Brown said.
Sites Reservoir would help supply communities, farms and even some environmental needs.
"The value this provides to our society is of significant importance," Brown said.
However, not everyone agrees the benefits outweigh the costs.
Keiko Mertz with Friends of the River worries the project would take too much water from the Sacramento River and that warmer water released downstream could harm native fish, including chinook salmon.
"The science shows there's a certain level of flow that is needed to prevent that, to prevent further decline and/or create recovery of those species," Mertz said.
During the state water board meeting, representatives from several Northern California tribes also raised concerns, saying the reservoir would flood sacred land and ancestral burial grounds.
"It is important to recognize who has been listened to because it hasn't been tribes," one tribal member said at the meeting.
For Brown, the focus is on what the reservoir could provide for future generations.
"Future generations recognize those sacrifices that were made for this purpose for them," he said.
If all goes as planned, construction of Sites Reservoir could start as early as summer 2027 and is expected to take about seven years to complete.
Even after construction is complete, it could take another six years for the reservoir to fill.
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