Push to build biggest California reservoir in decades hit with lawsuit

By Free Republic | Created at 2025-01-10 00:14:05 | Updated at 2025-01-15 05:26:07 5 days ago

Push to build biggest California reservoir in decades hit with lawsuit
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | December 20, 2023 | Kurtis Alexander

Posted on 01/09/2025 3:54:40 PM PST by grundle

A plan to build the largest reservoir in California in decades, Sites Reservoir about 70 miles north of Sacramento, is being challenged as ecologically destructive and not worth the cost in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups Wednesday.

The $4.5 billion project, which seeks to boost water supplies for drought-plagued cities and farms, was recently put on the fast track by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The suit, though, alleges the reservoir’s environmental impact report was insufficient, failing to address harm to fish and greenhouse gas emissions — problems opponents say make the additional water hard to justify.

“It’s not a negligible amount of (water) storage that is provided, but it comes with a big cost,” said John Buse, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the organizations behind the suit. “There are other alternatives that were really not considered that might achieve some of the same benefits.” While the legal challenge is a potential setback for the reservoir, Newsom’s streamlining of the proposal, under recently passed Senate Bill 149, was done to expedite legal challenges. The new law calls for the courts to resolve disputes under the California Environmental Quality Act within 270 days. The law was among several efforts by the governor to reduce red tape for infrastructure projects.

Sites Reservoir, planned in rural Colusa and Glenn counties, would be the state’s eighth biggest reservoir. Its water would be piped across the state, including to the Bay Area.

The facility is designed to capture water from the Sacramento River during wet years and store up to 1.5 million acre-feet for dry years, enough to meet the annual needs of more than 3 million households.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfchronicle.com ...

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1 posted on 01/09/2025 3:54:40 PM PST by grundle

To: grundle

There is no reality that interferes with the leftist agenda.

2 posted on 01/09/2025 3:57:26 PM PST by FlipWilson

To: grundle

If Kamala had been elected things would be quite different for California. I’m sure Kamala would have the US taxpayers pay the entire cost.

Recently Biden said —
“President Biden pledged Thursday that the federal government will cover 100% of disaster assistance costs to California for the next 180 days and emphatically tied the devastating wildfires to human-caused climate change.”

3 posted on 01/09/2025 3:59:45 PM PST by plain talk

To: grundle

Nuclear power and desalinization make sense . . . especially in light of the cost v benefits of the so-called California high-speed rail train.

4 posted on 01/09/2025 4:04:08 PM PST by oldplayer

To: grundle

The “Court” should require the Environmental Whacko groups that are the plaintiffs, to POST A BOND Equal to 5 times the amount of the APPROVED PROJECT, to cover any damages as a result of the delay.

5 posted on 01/09/2025 4:13:33 PM PST by eyeamok

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