California's largest new reservoir in decades secures federal approval

"The proposed 1.5 million acre-foot Sites Reservoir would store water from the Sacramento River and distribute it during droughts to several parts of California, including the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, Southern California and the Bay Area. Stretching about 4 miles across and 13 miles north to south, it's meant to provide water to approximately 24 million people, and it would mark California's first major reservoir project since 1979, when New Melones Lake was completed."

"Jerry Brown, the executive director of the Sites Project Authority, told SFGATE that the new reservoir would capture water that's mostly "rain-fed" as part of an effort to adapt to a changing climate. "So much of our future precipitation is anticipated to come as rain instead of snow, which means it's going to come fast and it's going to come flashy, and we have to be prepared with a tool that will allow us to rein in some of that water to the greatest extent," he said."

"Sites is part of President Donald Trump's executive order 14181, which is intended to provide more water resources to the state and help with natural disasters. The federal approval allows the Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees the reservoirs, to fund up to a quarter of the total cost for the project. Around $1 billion worth of funding is also set to come from Proposition 1 funding, a water bond in California that was approved in 2014 for water storage projects."

The U.S. Department of the Interior approved a major water project enabling the proposed 1.5 million acre-foot Sites Reservoir. The reservoir would store Sacramento River water and distribute it during droughts to the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, Southern California and the Bay Area. The project would span about 4 miles across and 13 miles north to south and serve roughly 24 million people. The reservoir aims to capture primarily rain-fed runoff as snowpack declines with climate change. Federal approval allows up to one-quarter federal funding and leverages Proposition 1 and other funding sources.

Read at SFGATE