A HOPEFUL MOMENT FOR CALIFORNIA’S RESERVOIR PROJECTS By Dave Puglia, President and CEO
Let’s pause from all our troubles for a moment to call out something that might be going right in California. Especially surprising is that it’s happening in water infrastructure. Caught your attention, didn’t I? Two long delayed water storage projects are moving forward: Sites Reservoir and the raising of the dam at San Luis Reservoir. It’s still too early for the ceremonial shovels photo, but that may be coming into view. For the Western Growers team, it’s hard to temper our excitement at the prospect of state and federal water investments that we fought so hard to secure finally turning into "wet water," though the price per acre foot remains concerning in both cases. We have long objected to the endless bureaucratic delays and hurdles the State of California erected after voters overwhelmingly approved Prop. 1 in 2014. That general obligation bond measure – originally passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009 – dedicated $2.7 billion toward water storage projects. Gov. Jerry Brown campaigned for it with messaging that left no doubt in voters’ minds that California needed new water storage facilities, including new and enlarged dams, and that Prop. 1 was the answer. Then the state took over, and with the approval of environmental activists hellbent on blocking any new water storage, thickets of regulatory processes and requirements were put in place. Though a number of small water projects have since qualified for Prop. 1 funding, Sites Reservoir is the only large project that appeared viable to nearly everyone, except the you-know-who’s. Water users in the Sacramento Valley and south of the Delta who could benefit from the project pressed forward to secure funding to complement their own major financial commitments even as the red tape grew. Finally, a breakthrough: In July 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of infrastructure streamlining bills aimed at accelerating critical projects, including for the electric grid, safe drinking water, water supply and transportation. Four months later, Newsom used the new law to fast-track the Sites process and avoid months or even years of environmental lawsuits. True to the intent of the legislation, in June 2024, Sites overcame an environmental permitting challenge and gained approval from the Yolo County Superior Court, a decision that occurred in just 148 days, even faster than the new law allows. Sites Reservoir, which will hold up to 1.5 million acre- feet of water, has received a total of $46.75 million in
initial funding from the state. In all, Sites is eligible for $875.4 million of Prop. 1 funding, a significant portion of the total project cost of $4 billion. Further south, the B.F. Sisk Dam is awaiting that ceremonial shovel photo opportunity, too. The 382-foot-high dam impounds San Luis Reservoir, which has a current total capacity of around two million acre-feet of water. San Luis – operated jointly by the State of California and the federal Bureau of Reclamation – is the largest off-stream water storage facility in the country. But it could hold more, and plans to raise the dam have been around a long time. In October 2023, the Department of the Interior and San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority approved plans to implement the B.F. Sisk Dam Raise and Reservoir Expansion Project, the first major water storage project to be greenlit in California in more than a decade. The joint project will add an additional 130,000 acre-feet of storage space, producing additional water supply for cities, farmland and 135,000 acres of Pacific Flyway wetlands and critical wildlife habitat. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law approved by Congress and President Biden in 2021, together with the questionably titled Inflation Reduction Act, included more than $12 billion for water projects (somewhat loosely defined) in the western states. Now, we can see some of that funding coming to worthy projects like this one, with around $35 million flowing from those federal laws and another $60 million from the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (which made it over the finish line thanks to the remarkable partnership of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy), for a total of $95 million in federal contributions to a project that is expected to cost $1 billion. The Sisk Dam raise project is currently in design, which is projected to complete in early 2025, with construction awards in early 2026. With the continued maladministration of water in California’s very wet years (35 percent allocations before planning windows closed for the San Joaquin Valley following consecutive flood-producing years does not define “balance” in any reasonable person’s view), and the increasing impacts of California’s groundwater regulation regime (SGMA), this is no declaration of success. But it is progress, however slowly achieved. Let’s applaud these investments in two of the key water storage projects we’ve all been calling for, keep the pressure on to make them less costly for water users, and to expedite their completion.
4 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com July | August 2024
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