The California Department of Water Resources has estimated that if Sites Reservoir were online on April 7, the off-stream reservoir would have already stored an additional 904,000 acre-feet of water this year, or nearly 295 billion gallons. For context, this amount of water would completely fill Folsom Reservoir near Sacramento. Remember that last year, during one of the driest years ever with no snowpack, Sites would have captured 410,000 acre-feet of precious water from two storm events.
The last four dry years and a changing climate have reinforced that California needs robust and smart surface water storage. With 39 million people and an unparalleled landscape, California depends upon a managed water system to provide water for various beneficial purposes: drinking water and other domestic uses, the most diverse and high quality food grown anywhere in the world, cold water and habitat for fish, and habitat for birds along the Pacific Flyway.
Now is the time to invest in Sites Reservoir–an off-stream regulating reservoir on the west side of the Sacramento Valley–one of the best opportunities to add value to our current statewide water system.
