Water: Newsom pushing uphill finally

Gavin Newsom appears to have finally gotten serious about a bit more reservoir capacity in California.  As we noted back in wet January, some "experts" claim we have already built reservoirs in the most useful spots, but Newsom seems to disagree and is "accelerating" the Sites Reservoir whose Project Authority has been in existence for some time.  Per the Comicle piece

Gov. Gavin Newsom exercised his new power under state law Monday to help get a giant reservoir planned for Northern California on the fast track for approval.  The proposed $4.5 billion Sites Reservoir, envisioned 70 miles north of Sacramento, would be the first major reservoir built in California in nearly half a century.

The reservoir, planned for a swath of ranchlands in rural Colusa and Glenn counties, has long been promoted as a way to significantly boost water storage amid an increasingly uncertain climate.  The reservoir is designed to capture water from the Sacramento River during wet years like this past one and hold up to 1.5 million acre-feet in reserve for dry times — enough for at least 3 million households for a year. The supply would be piped to cities and farms from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. The reservoir would be the state’s eighth largest.

That note about NorCal water going to SoCal is always concerning, but that is the political price to be paid.  The other interesting design feature is

While the water would come from the Sacramento River, the proposed facility is different than most because it would not sit on a waterway. Instead, water from the river would be piped to the “off-stream” site.

So the fish get water first and the reservoir only diverts some when the Sacramento River is flowing well.  It's a plan--lets see if it really starts holding water in 2032.

Comments

[Joe]

Ooops

Anderson Dam: Cost to rebuild major reservoir rises to $2.3 billion, tripling from two years ago

Increased labor and building materials, along with changed spillway design to blame, engineers say

The cost to bring Anderson Dam, which holds back the largest reservoir in Santa Clara County, up to modern earthquake standards has increased to $2.3 billion, water officials said Monday. That’s double what was estimated a year ago, triple the price tag from two years ago, and nearly certain to drive water rates higher next year across Silicon Valley.

“It’s very disturbing,” said John Varela, chairman of the Santa Clara Valley Water District, a government agency based in San Jose that owns the dam and is is overseeing the project.

“The cost escalations are just absurd,” he added. “It’s like a taxi cab when you go inside for a cup of coffee and the meter keeps running and your $5 fare goes to $10 and you say ‘Wait a minute.'”
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I'm not sure about the taxi analogy, but no one should be surprised that a public works project has escalating costs--after all we have the Inflation Production Act money flowing all over.