Sites Reservoir Project Appellate Court Victory Over Environmental Groups

The Sites Reservoir project moved forward on Friday following an appellate court agreeing with California and the Sites Project Authority, rejecting a CEQA lawsuit against the Sites Reservoir project.

While the Sites Reservoir had been proposed off and on since the 1950’s, it wasn’t until the 2010’s until the state began proper work on it, including funding it. In 2018 it was finally funded by over $800 million in Prop 1 funds, as well as over $400 million coming from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as other local, state, and federal funding.

In total, the reservoir eventually brought up the price tag to $4 billion. However, a battle over the Glenn and Colusa County site soon came to a head with environmental groups. Lawsuits by environmental groups began to delay the project, even as the worsening mega-drought began proving to more and more lawmakers and Californians that the reservoir was needed.

By the 2020’s, support for the Sites Reservoir included GOP lawmakers, the majority of Democratic lawmakers, Governor Gavin Newsom, farming groups, and  urban water districts, all citing a need for water. More and more citizens efforts to bring in water also sprouted up amidst the drought. Environmentalist groups lawsuits began failing more and more in court, leading them to try more and more desperate arguments, such as saying there wasn’t enough water to fill a reservoir. This argument came in late 2022, and was soon stomped out by the winter atmospheric river storms of 2023 and 2024 literally filling up every reservoir in the state.

In June, a lawsuit by the Friends of the River, Center for Biological Diversity, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, California Water Impact Network, Save California Salmon, and Sierra Club  tried to say that the Reservoir would harm fish and increase greenhouse gases, adding that they didn’t meet the requirements the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A Yolo County judge quickly denied the suit to stop the project.

However they kept trying, appealing the June decision in the Third Appellate District Court with  Friends of the River v. Sites Project Authority, challenging the infrastructure streamlining law requiring courts to decide CEQA challenges within 270 days to the extent feasible. On Friday, the Appellate Court held up the June ruling, saying that the CEQA report was sufficient with all conclusions in it correct. In their decision, Associate Justice Ronald Robie wrote that “We conclude neither of these fatally undermines the environmental impact report. An environmental impact report does not have to consider alternatives ‘whose effect cannot be reasonably ascertained and whose implementation is remote and speculative.

The latest Sites decision

The CEQA lawsuit was one of the last remaining legal hurdles for the Sites Reservoir, which is currently expected to be finished around 2030. While there are still a few more hurdles to go for the Reservoir, such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needing more information to move forward with the site, one of the last major environmental holds now being extinguished brought relief from many project backers.

Governor Gavin Newsom, who has become a major proponent of the project in recent years following change of his policies to include more water and infrastructure for California, said in a statement that “We can’t waste anymore time with frivolous lawsuits to hold up major infrastructure projects, especially building more water storage. The Sites Reservoir project will capture more rain and snow to supply millions of homes with clean drinking water. This is exactly why we needed this streamlining law.”

Jim Verzi, a water usage specialist in Los Angeles, added that “California needs more reservoirs. You pointed it out, so many people usually on the opposite sides of things want this, and in many cases, need it. Farmers need water crops, those in cities need it for everyday use. And Sites specifically is being built for usage during droughts. We’re going to get them again, and Sites will make California more prepared.

“Look, if Newsom and Republicans are in agreeance on this, you can tell that this is really a need.”

Once built, the Sites reservoir is set to hold up to 1.5 million acre-feet of water, and will have enough stored up for 3 million households’ yearly usage.