The California Water Resources Control Board announced Monday that the Sites Reservoir project was denied by the federal government.
While the project was denied, the state said the project can take certain steps to eventually receive approval and move forward.
About the project: Sites Reservoir is a planned 1.5 million acre-foot offstream storage project that would be located in the Sacramento Valley west of the town of Maxwell.
- California expects the project to cost nearly $4 billion, with operations not beginning until 2033.
- Funks Creek and Stone Coral Creek would be the sources of water for the reservoir.
The big picture: The application for the project was denied by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers without prejudice.
- In March, the Sites Project Authority submitted a request for water certification to the State Water Board, which was sent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
- One month later, the Army Corps of Engineers told the authority that it needed more information on the project, specifically regarding compliance with the Endangered Species, the National Historic Preservation Act and Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.
- The Army Corps of Engineers did not receive that information by May and told the State Water Board in July that it had withdrawn its request.
- The authority still has an opportunity to provide the necessary information to the Army Corps of Engineers to get federal approval.
- “State Water Board staff will continue to review plans and materials, and work with [the Army Corps of Engineers] and the Authority towards the goal of expeditiously acting on the request for certification for this Project once a subsequent certification application is received,” the state wrote in its letter to the authority. “
The backstory: Approval for Sites Reservoir has been murky since it was first proposed around 70 years ago.
- Just last year the project faced a lawsuit from environmentalists who argued the project would threaten fish and the Sacramento River ecosystem.
- But Gov. Gavin Newsom gave the project a breath of life by qualifying Sites Reservoir under Senate BIll 149 to require all legal challenges under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to be dealt with in court within 270 days.
- A judge in Yolo County ruled against the environmentalists in June, seemingly clearing the way for its ultimate approval.
