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The proposed Sites Reservoir could have captured a lot of runoff this year, says editorial

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 8:33 am

From the Chico Enterprise-Record, and editorial which essentially points out that just because we had a decent - not spectacular, but utterly normal - winter snowpack, this is not a reason to be complacent about water issues. From the editorial:

Without an abundance of snow and with the rapid decline of several threatened species in the delta, requiring more water from reservoirs, there’s not enough water to go around. The cities and farmers that contract with the state will get about 35 percent of what they want.

This fickle rainfall year just goes to prove, once again, how unstable our water supply is. We can’t help but point out that an off-stream reservoir at Sites, west of Maxwell, would have been a perfect place to store runoff from high water in the Sacramento River in January. That reservoir is still the best solution to add capacity to the state’s water storage system. It has been discussed for a decade. Several water bonds have been passed since then, but nothing has been spent on work at Sites.

So why isn’t anything done? Because our state’s leaders would rather argue and pontificate than act.

Schwarzenegger’s water plan in the past has included building two new dams, Temperance Flat and Sites, and raising the height of a third, the Los Vaqueros Dam in Contra Costa County. For whatever reason, the one project which has always gotten the most attention has been Temperance Flat.

Read the rest of this editorial from the Chico Enterprise-Record by clicking here.

March 30, 2008 · Filed Under Water Storage