Bay Area Council Applauds State Water Board Decision Clearing Way for Construction of Sites Reservoir

The Bay Area Council today (Nov. 5) applauded approval by the State Water Resources Control Board of a water rights agreement for the Sites Reservoir, clearing a major hurdle for the project and setting up construction on the state’s largest water storage facility in decades to begin as early as next year.

“Millions of Bay Area residents can take comfort that the action by the State Water Resources Control Board will help ensure the reliability of our water supply for decades to come while also strengthening our resilience to unpredictable weather changes,” said Libby Schaaf, President in CEO of the Bay Area Council. “Thanks to the leadership of voters, the Water Board and Gov. Newsom for fast tracking the project, California is now prepared to break ground next year on the largest reservoir built in the state in generations. The Bay Area Council is proud of our role from the beginning in advocating for this important infrastructure investment.”

When completed, Sites will draw excess flows from the Sacramento River during wet years to provide a buffer water supply during dry years, with a maximum capacity of 1.5 million acre-feet, roughly the size of four Hetch Hetchy reservoirs. This new dry-year water supply will strengthen drought resilience in communities across California, including millions of Bay Area residents in Alameda and Santa Clara counties.

The Bay Area Council identified Sites Reservoir as a top regional water supply priority in 2015 and has since spoken out and helped rally the business community in support of the project at each step of this long process, which began with voter approval of $2.7 billion for storage projects contained in Proposition 1 in 2014.