Sites Reservoir: Environmental groups file appeal to try to stop California’s largest new reservoir project in 50 years

A plan to build the largest new reservoir in California in 50 years will face a new round of legal challenges.

Less than three weeks after a judge rejected a lawsuit by a coalition of environmental groups seeking to stop construction of Sites Reservoir, a $4.5 billion project planned for rural ranchlands 70 miles northwest of Sacramento, the groups have filed an appeal.

Sites would be California’s eighth largest reservoir, a 13-mile-long, off-stream lake in Colusa County providing water to 500,000 acres of Central Valley farmlands and 24 million people, including residents of Santa Clara County, parts of the East Bay and Los Angeles.

Supporters, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, say with climate change making droughts worse, it is critical that California store more water in wet years to ease shortages during dry years.

Opponents say the off-stream reservoir would divert too much water from the Sacramento River, harming endangered salmon, steelhead and Delta smelt, and depriving the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta of fresh water.

In December, the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the River, and other groups sued, claiming the project’s environmental impact report was inadequate and needed to be redone. But on May 31, Yolo County Superior Court Judge Samuel T. McAdam, an appointee of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, ruled against them.

On Monday, the groups filed a notice of appeal.

“The state’s strong environmental laws demand a thorough review for potentially damaging projects,” said John Buse, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. “For the sake of the Delta community and the fish and wildlife already struggling in this sensitive ecosystem, I hope the true environmental harms of this reservoir will be taken seriously.”

The project’s planners said they are confident they will win on appeal.

“The trial court ruled our original actions to approve the project were based on our conclusions that we conducted a thorough environmental evaluation,” said Jerry Brown, executive director of the Sites Project Authority, a collection of local government officials in the Sacramento Valley who are proposing the new reservoir. “The courts ruling confirmed that.”

Brown said that the authority published 9,838 pages of environmental studies for the project, with analysis from more than 100 experts and consultation with every state and federal agency involved in issuing permits.

Brown, who is not related to the former governor, said Tuesday that the project is on track to break ground in 2026 and finish by 2032.

“The Sites Reservoir project is an integral element of managing water in the 21st century,” he said. “It will pull water from the Sacramento River in wet years and save it for dry years when people and the environment need it most.”

The project is supported by Newsom, President Biden, farm organizations, labor unions and about 20 water agencies, including the Santa Clara Valley Water District in San Jose, Zone 7 Water Agency in Livermore, and the Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles, all of which are partners and would receive water from it.

If completed, Sites would be the largest new reservoir in California since 1979, when the federal government opened New Melones Lake in the Sierra Foothills between Sonora and Angels Camp.

The project has most of its funding lined up. Earlier this month, the Biden administration granted it $67 million, raising the total funding from Congress and the administration to $519 million. It also has received a $2.2 billion loan from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a $450 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and $875 million in state funds from Proposition 1, a water bond approved by California voters in 2014. Much of the rest of the money, and the loan repayments, would come from water agencies around the state who buy its water.

Under streamlined rules approved by Newsom last July and designed to speed construction of water, solar, wind and transportation projects, the state appeals court will have 110 days, until mid-October, to hear the environmentalists’ challenge.

It is difficult to win appeals cases in California. Only about 20% are successful, according to the California Judicial Branch website.

Apart from the legal appeal, the final hurdle for the project is to receive water rights from the State Water Resources Control Board, which is appointed by Newsom. Hearings are set to begin in July and run until next April.