RESERVOIR

view,” Watson said. “We just take this like we are peeling an onion – layer by layer, breaking it into manageable chunks.”

If 2018 was an onion, project coordinators broke off a sizable layer. The entire project is estimated to cost $5.1 billion to construct, so a tentative commitment from the state earlier this year for $816 million in Proposition 1 funding plus a recent loan of $449 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a crucial piece of the overall project means the Sites Project Authority made notable progress.

Once completed, the reservoir is expected to add 500,000 acre-feet of water annually to the state’s water system. That total is how project coordinators are determining how buy-ins from the different stakeholders will break down.

Determining how much each of the current and prospective stakeholders will buy in for is something the authority will work to define in 2019, Watson said.

Water agencies like Metropolitan Water District, which provides water to 19 million people in Southern California, are one of the entities that bought in early to the project and will look to see how the authority plans on operating the reservoir when determining investments in the future.

Steve Arakawa, manager of the Bay-delta Initiatives Program for Metropolitan Water District, said Sites would provide flexibility to the state water system by adding storage and relieve some of the burden currently on other facilities like Shasta Reservoir and Lake Oroville to meet certain environmental requirements.

“Storage is key in managing water in dry years,” Arakawa said. “For all participants, that’s what they are really looking for, to develop storage and add that capability into the system.”

Other priorities for next year include continuing to advance key studies related to engineering, environmental review and operational plans, and keeping the public informed about the project, Watson said.

The project is still on track, he said, to have all of the critical permits in place by the end of 2021. The authority is eyeing initial construction to begin as early as 2022, though heavy construction would be a few years behind that.

“Right now, we are just looking to build on the successes of this year and continue ramping up the project,” Watson said. Business hours: Monday-friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Main number .................... Steve Miller ......................

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