California’s state government began drawing up plans for Sites Reservoir in the Sacramento Valley 70 years ago. And it still only exists on paper.
So, kudos to Gov. Gavin Newsom for deciding that it’s finally time to put this tardy project on the fast track.
Fast track means there’ll be limited time for any opponent to contest the project in court on environmental grounds.
California Governor Gavin Newsom fast-tracked a massive reservoir project Monday using a law he signed this past summer to accelerate construction.
The Sites Reservoir Project near the town of Maxwell, about 81 miles northwest of Sacramento, is slated to hold up to 1.5 million acre-feet of water — enough for 3 million households for a year. Once complete, it’ll increase Northern California’s water capacity by up to 15%.
Senior water rights holders have arguably the sweetest deal in California water. They often have ironclad deals and some even get access to substantial water during the worst of drought.
But three new bills in the state legislature are taking aim at senior water rights in an attempt to level the playing field.
When rain storms pummel Sacramento, a city surrounded by levees, crews work all hours of the night to prevent flooding.
They monitor, control and maintain the city’s more than 100 stormwater lift stations, which residents depend on to pump water into creeks, canals, or the Sacramento or American Rivers.
An appeals court in Sacramento on Thursday upheld a California environmental agency’s standards for limiting the presence of the chemical perchlorate in the state’s drinking water.
In the appeal brought by plaintiff California Manufacturers and Technology Association, Judge Elena Duarte ruled the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment properly considered iodide uptake inhibition and established its public health goal “at the level at which no known or anticipated adverse effects on health occur, with an adequate margin of safety.”
It is unlikely the Sacramento area will receive a substantial amount of rain anytime soon, according to the National Weather Service.
Forecasts for this weekend show temperatures climbing above the average for this time of year which is around 94 degrees, weather service spokesman Craig Shoemaker said.
And it’s expected to remain dry in the area for awhile.
Just days after parts of the valley reached 90 degrees, and less than a day removed from the earliest fire weather warning ever issued in spring, rain and snow fell Monday across Northern California amid a 30-degree cooldown expected to last most of this week.
Chain controls were in place on several mountain highways Monday morning, Caltrans said, as the National Weather Service predicts about a foot of snow could fall at the pass level in the central Sierra Nevada range by the end of the day. Snow will fall as low as about 4,000 feet.
Rain and gusty winds are coming to Northern California with precipitation in Sacramento expected to start as soon as Monday evening. Sacramento can expect up to 1 inch of rain along with wind speeds between 30 to 35 mph starting Monday around 5 p.m. into Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service’s Sacramento office.
Residents of the Sacramento area have been on a meteorological seesaw this past week: After 212 days without rain, the area saw precipitation again — which, this weekend, turned into an all-out rainstorm.
Already, the rainfall this weekend broke records: The area got more than half of the rain it had all of the last wet season, which was particularly dry, in a single storm.
While wildfires and droughts dominate California weather, residents have to prepare for another kind of disaster — flooding.
Sacramento is no stranger to seeing flooding of epic proportions. It happened during the Great Flood of 1862 that completely submerged Old Town, and the evidence is still right below our feet.
Floodwaters have plagued the Central Valley several more times before, happening again in 1986, 1995, 1997, 2006 and 2017, but new research by the organization Climate Central suggests that in 100 years, flooding in the Sacramento and Central valleys could reach levels never seen before.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
