Sites Reservoir Water Right Application Moves Forward

The state's proposed first major water storage site to be developed in decades took another step to becoming reality on Friday.

The Sites Project Authority, which oversees the Sites Reservoir Project, received notification from the State Water Resources Control Board, the Sites Reservoir water right application has been deemed complete.

The Sites Reservoir Project is moving forward to the next step in the process toward issuing a new water right permit for the project. A water right permit will provide the Authority legal authorization to divert water within certain conditions, for a specific purpose, and for use within a specified area. The Authority will be the state designated steward of the water right for the Sites Reservoir Project.

“We are excited to move into this next phase of the permitting process, which builds on the momentum we've had this past year,” said Jerry Brown, Executive Director of the Authority. “We welcome the public review of our work, and we are confident in our analysis that the Sites Reservoir Project can safely and reliably serve as a key component of new infrastructure to manage California's water in light of our changing climate.”

Through the year-long application development process, the Authority prepared an extensive water availability analysis, more comprehensive than any other in state history, it stated. In addition to analyzing a specific scenario requested by the water resources control board, the analysis looked at six other water supply scenarios — ranging from historical conditions to climate change projections as far out as 2070 — to determine how much water would be available to store in Sites Reservoir under a variety of conditions. “This highly technical work includes varying levels of conservatism to ensure cautious and thoughtful analysis,” the authority stated.

“The findings clearly demonstrate that there is water available to store in Sites Reservoir under a variety of conditions. Sites Reservoir can benefit the public while all other water uses including those serving environmental resources continue to be met.”

“We have closely examined a number of scenarios and every analysis showed that there is water available that could be stored in Sites,” said Alicia Forsythe, Environmental Planning and Permitting Manager of the Authority. “This year is a great example. In 2023 alone — after multiple atmospheric rivers — roughly 700,000 acre-feet of water could have been stored in Sites Reservoir and saved for later use.”

As part of the permit process, the water resources control board is required by law to publish public notice of a water right application once it has been accepted and deemed complete. The notice begins a 60day period whereby the public can protest the issuance of a water right permit for the project on specific grounds, including alleged injury to prior rights, adverse impact on the environment, or failure to best conserve the public interest or public trust resources.

The 60-day public notice for the Authority application is the next step in the water resource control board's process for issuing a water right permit for the project. Through this process, a number of factors are considered, including potential injury to senior water right holders, potential environmental impacts, and potential adverse impacts to public trust resources. Finally, the water resources control board must find unused water is available to supply the project and the use of water is in the public interest. The State Water Board will issue a water right permit if they determine the Project meets these criteria.

Sites is a reservoir proposed north of Sacramento. Additional information can be found at www.sitesproject.org or on Facebook and Twitter at @Sitesproject