Cutting corners leads to a bad project – we all suffer the hidden costs and damages
By Keiko Mertz, Friends of the River
There’s only one day remaining for the State to divert from its collision course on one of the most consequential and expensive water decisions to be made in our state in decades.
On November 4, the State Water Resources Control Board will vote on whether to grant the proposed Sites Reservoir a water right permit, and if so, what rules should apply to the project. In March of this year, after more than two years of hearings, expert testimony, briefings, and over 1,600 pieces of evidence, the State Water Board issued a draft permit, which acknowledged that Sites Reservoir as proposed would cause unreasonable harm to water quality and the environment. To mitigate those harms, the Board included additional protections in the draft permit.
Sites backers then complained to Governor Newsom and other officials that protecting water quality and the environment would make the project infeasible – that is to say, not worth the cost to its proponents. Those leaders in turn put their foot on the scale of the water right proceeding. The draft permit was changed to allow Sites to take more water, despite the clear evidence in the record and the urgency of the crisis for water quality and endangered species in the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary.
Despite the support of a powerful few, the project has no merit and no place in a 21st century water plan for California. Sites Reservoir will add relatively little “new” water, will be extremely expensive, and on the whole will further endanger the Sacramento River and the largest estuary on the West Coast.
Sites will add only a rounding error to water supply – just three fifths of one percent. That’s the Sites backers’ best-case scenario. Their own worst-case scenario is half of that. It makes no sense to build a bathtub to store a teacup of water in it.
The project itself and the water from it will be extremely expensive. Proponents currently estimate that construction alone will cost $6.8 billion, with the potential of reaching $9 billion. Taxpayers at the state and federal levels are already on the hook for nearly $2 billion. And Sites water will be more expensive than most water in the state. These price tags keep increasing. Metropolitan Water District is one of the biggest investors and its ratepayers would be on the hook for over 20% of the pricetag.
Sites will be environmentally devastating. Sites would take flows that are needed to prevent the extinction of salmon, sturgeon, and other species important to California’s heritage. Sites will also contribute mercury and toxic algae to our waters, and emit as much greenhouse gases as over 80,000 gas-powered cars annually.
Sites Reservoir proponents have, on every front, opposed additional protections for water quality and the environment. They have also already stated their intent to further weaken the project rules. And, they’ve even described how they plan to do it. They clearly believe the project cannot compete in the open market without cutting corners in order to be feasible. The result is that we would pay the hidden costs of ongoing environmental damages. So would our children. And grandchildren.
That is the greatest evidence the project is a failure. If protecting water quality and the environment makes it infeasible, then it shouldn’t be built.
Sites would further disenfranchise and erase California Tribes. Many California Tribes oppose the project due to its ecological harms and permanent destruction of Tribal sacred lands and burial grounds.
The proposed Sites Reservoir is an example of political leaders and the water elite clinging to outdated silver bullet solutions.
Approving the permit in its current state would mean abandoning evidence-based decision-making and the State’s supposed commitment to equity in managing its resources.
The November Water Board vote is an opportunity to pull the plug on this wasteful boondoggle and chart the course toward meaningful local water solutions that will actually improve water security and create an equitable water future.
Keiko Mertz is the Policy Director of Friends of the River, one of California’s foremost river conservation organizations.
Disclosures: No financial conflicts. My organization has participated in the water rights proceeding for Sites Reservoir, proposed conditions that would make the project less harmful, and have opposed the project. No use of AI for writing or researching for this piece.
Note: The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Maven’s Notebook.
More on Sites Reservoir posted at Maven’s Notebook …
Posted: November 5, 2026
Detractors of the reservoir includes environmentalists and Native tribes that say they’re being ignored in favor of “Big Agriculture.” By Alan Riquelmy, Courthouse News Service California’s water board on Wednesday granted a permit to the Sites Reservoir project, a 1.5 million acre-foot lake intended as an answer to the problems of a changing climate and the state’s evolving water needs. The decision by the State Water Resources Control Board was a crucial step to make the long-simmering project a reality. […]
Posted: November 4, 2026
Permit balances water supplies, protections for fish and water quality From the State Water Resources Control Board: As California responds to a changing climate, more extreme droughts and floods, and a growing need to store water during wet periods, the State Water Resources Control Board today approved a water right for a new reservoir that incorporates critical environmental safeguards to protect the state’s largest river. The Sites Reservoir Project, located about 65 miles northwest of Sacramento, is an off-stream storage […]
Posted: November 3, 2026
By: Jeff McCreary, Director of Operations, Western Region, Ducks Unlimited; Tim Johnson, President and CEO, California Rice Commission; and David Guy, President, Northern California Water Association California’s water future depends on capturing water when available and putting that water to work when communities, farms, and ecosystems need it most. Sites Reservoir embodies this approach. Combining modern infrastructure, dedicated environmental water, and collaborative management, Sites Reservoir offers an innovative investment in healthy rivers, landscapes, and communities—and a more resilient California. We encourage the […]
Posted: November 3, 2026
Cutting corners leads to a bad project – we all suffer the hidden costs and damages By Keiko Mertz, Friends of the River There’s only one day remaining for the State to divert from its collision course on one of the most consequential and expensive water decisions to be made in our state in decades. On November 4, the State Water Resources Control Board will vote on whether to grant the proposed Sites Reservoir a water right permit, and if […]
Posted: November 3, 2026
By Ric Ortega, General Manager of Grassland Water District For those of us responsible for delivering water to California’s remaining wetlands, Sites Reservoir offers a more dependable water supply when habitat needs it most, including in dry years when wildlife has few places to go. Although Sites would be built in the Sacramento Valley, environmental water from the project would be delivered south of the Delta, sustaining the Grassland Ecological Area wetlands and other vital links along the Pacific Flyway. […]
Click here for the full archive.
COMMENTARY: The Sites Reservoir is a bad deal for Californians
Cutting corners leads to a bad project – we all suffer the hidden costs and damages
By Keiko Mertz, Friends of the River
There’s only one day remaining for the State to divert from its collision course on one of the most consequential and expensive water decisions to be made in our state in decades.
On November 4, the State Water Resources Control Board will vote on whether to grant the proposed Sites Reservoir a water right permit, and if so, what rules should apply to the project. In March of this year, after more than two years of hearings, expert testimony, briefings, and over 1,600 pieces of evidence, the State Water Board issued a draft permit, which acknowledged that Sites Reservoir as proposed would cause unreasonable harm to water quality and the environment. To mitigate those harms, the Board included additional protections in the draft permit.
Sites backers then complained to Governor Newsom and other officials that protecting water quality and the environment would make the project infeasible – that is to say, not worth the cost to its proponents. Those leaders in turn put their foot on the scale of the water right proceeding. The draft permit was changed to allow Sites to take more water, despite the clear evidence in the record and the urgency of the crisis for water quality and endangered species in the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary.
Despite the support of a powerful few, the project has no merit and no place in a 21st century water plan for California. Sites Reservoir will add relatively little “new” water, will be extremely expensive, and on the whole will further endanger the Sacramento River and the largest estuary on the West Coast.
Sites will add only a rounding error to water supply – just three fifths of one percent. That’s the Sites backers’ best-case scenario. Their own worst-case scenario is half of that. It makes no sense to build a bathtub to store a teacup of water in it.
The project itself and the water from it will be extremely expensive. Proponents currently estimate that construction alone will cost $6.8 billion, with the potential of reaching $9 billion. Taxpayers at the state and federal levels are already on the hook for nearly $2 billion. And Sites water will be more expensive than most water in the state. These price tags keep increasing. Metropolitan Water District is one of the biggest investors and its ratepayers would be on the hook for over 20% of the pricetag.
Sites will be environmentally devastating. Sites would take flows that are needed to prevent the extinction of salmon, sturgeon, and other species important to California’s heritage. Sites will also contribute mercury and toxic algae to our waters, and emit as much greenhouse gases as over 80,000 gas-powered cars annually.
Sites Reservoir proponents have, on every front, opposed additional protections for water quality and the environment. They have also already stated their intent to further weaken the project rules. And, they’ve even described how they plan to do it. They clearly believe the project cannot compete in the open market without cutting corners in order to be feasible. The result is that we would pay the hidden costs of ongoing environmental damages. So would our children. And grandchildren.
That is the greatest evidence the project is a failure. If protecting water quality and the environment makes it infeasible, then it shouldn’t be built.
Sites would further disenfranchise and erase California Tribes. Many California Tribes oppose the project due to its ecological harms and permanent destruction of Tribal sacred lands and burial grounds.
The proposed Sites Reservoir is an example of political leaders and the water elite clinging to outdated silver bullet solutions.
Approving the permit in its current state would mean abandoning evidence-based decision-making and the State’s supposed commitment to equity in managing its resources.
The November Water Board vote is an opportunity to pull the plug on this wasteful boondoggle and chart the course toward meaningful local water solutions that will actually improve water security and create an equitable water future.
Keiko Mertz is the Policy Director of Friends of the River, one of California’s foremost river conservation organizations.
Disclosures: No financial conflicts. My organization has participated in the water rights proceeding for Sites Reservoir, proposed conditions that would make the project less harmful, and have opposed the project. No use of AI for writing or researching for this piece.
More on Sites Reservoir posted at Maven’s Notebook …
COURTHOUSE NEWS: California water board approves permit for Sites Reservoir project
Detractors of the reservoir includes environmentalists and Native tribes that say they’re being ignored in favor of “Big Agriculture.” By Alan Riquelmy, Courthouse News Service California’s water board on Wednesday granted a permit to the Sites Reservoir project, a 1.5 million acre-foot lake intended as an answer to the problems of a changing climate and the state’s evolving water needs. The decision by the State Water Resources Control Board was a crucial step to make the long-simmering project a reality. […]
PRESS RELEASE: State Water Board approves water right for Sites Reservoir
Permit balances water supplies, protections for fish and water quality From the State Water Resources Control Board: As California responds to a changing climate, more extreme droughts and floods, and a growing need to store water during wet periods, the State Water Resources Control Board today approved a water right for a new reservoir that incorporates critical environmental safeguards to protect the state’s largest river. The Sites Reservoir Project, located about 65 miles northwest of Sacramento, is an off-stream storage […]
COMMENTARY: The time is now: Sites Reservoir can strengthen California’s water future
By: Jeff McCreary, Director of Operations, Western Region, Ducks Unlimited; Tim Johnson, President and CEO, California Rice Commission; and David Guy, President, Northern California Water Association California’s water future depends on capturing water when available and putting that water to work when communities, farms, and ecosystems need it most. Sites Reservoir embodies this approach. Combining modern infrastructure, dedicated environmental water, and collaborative management, Sites Reservoir offers an innovative investment in healthy rivers, landscapes, and communities—and a more resilient California. We encourage the […]
COMMENTARY: The Sites Reservoir is a bad deal for Californians
Cutting corners leads to a bad project – we all suffer the hidden costs and damages By Keiko Mertz, Friends of the River There’s only one day remaining for the State to divert from its collision course on one of the most consequential and expensive water decisions to be made in our state in decades. On November 4, the State Water Resources Control Board will vote on whether to grant the proposed Sites Reservoir a water right permit, and if […]
COMMENTARY: Sites Reservoir can help sustain wetlands in the San Joaquin Valley
By Ric Ortega, General Manager of Grassland Water District For those of us responsible for delivering water to California’s remaining wetlands, Sites Reservoir offers a more dependable water supply when habitat needs it most, including in dry years when wildlife has few places to go. Although Sites would be built in the Sacramento Valley, environmental water from the project would be delivered south of the Delta, sustaining the Grassland Ecological Area wetlands and other vital links along the Pacific Flyway. […]
Click here for the full archive.
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