The Sites Reservoir is a prime example of California’s self-inflicted water woes. If anyone tells you that climate change is to blame for its drought conditions, you need only look at this non-existent reservoir — one of many water storage projects scheduled to receive some of the $7.5 billion from Proposition 1, which was approved by nearly two-thirds of voters in 2014.
Seven years on, not a single one of those projects has been built. The culprit is not climate change, but the state government's lack of urgency in overcoming environmentalists' objections and getting them done.
The Sites Reservoir could be an example of necessity breeding ingenuity. It wouldn’t be connected to a river or a stream, but would “pump water from the Sacramento River whenever it has extra.” This would have been incredibly useful during rainy seasons such as that of 2018-19, which set records in Sacramento.
Voters approved that measure in the middle of a drought. In the seven years since, that drought has ended and been replaced by another drought. Naturally, the only major opposition to the project comes from environmentalist groups, who hate the idea of pumping water from a river to water storage.
Project leaders have to show the feasibility of the project by the end of the year in order to use the bond money, but there is some hope. After all, even California Gov. Gavin Newsom includes the Sites Reservoir in the state’s water plan. But it has still been seven years since voters approved Proposition 1, and still, there has been no progress.
This should not be a struggle, yet here we are. Sites and all the other water projects need to be treated with urgency. California must stop depriving itself and its residents of water that is so desperately needed for residential areas and agricultural providers.
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California water projects remain stalled even though voters approved them in 2014 - Washington Examiner
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