Sites Reservoir Project officials engage the pubic at a Sept. 12 meeting at the Maxwell American Legion Hall to bring the community up to speed on the project, set to begin construction in 2026.

MAXWELL, CA (MPG) - A half-century ago, the Sites Reservoir Project was just a concept that residents said would never come to fruition.

Today, the threat of serious drought, the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Act, declining reliability of state and federal water projects, and the uncertainty of climate change has cleared the way for public agencies to invest in a multi-benefit 1.5-million-acre-feet water storage project that will increase flexibility, reliability and resiliency of California’s water supply, Sites Project Authority officials said at a Sept. 12 community meeting in Maxwell.

The Sites Project Authority consists of 30 participating public entities (investors), including Colusa County, local water agencies that serve agriculture, state and federal agencies that have environmental needs, and municipal water agencies that provide drinking water to millions of residents.

The project authority has made significant milestones to keep its 2032 goal to have fully functional infrastructure that captures and stores flood waters in wet years (without the need to dam any major rivers) to help meet California’s needs during times when water becomes scarce, officials said.

“It’s a big project,” said Jeff Sutton, a Maxwell native who represents Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, a participant in the project. “We haven’t done anything like it in California since 1979.” 

The meeting at the Maxwell American Legion Hall was the first direct public outreach meeting held in recent years, although Sites Joint Powers Authority officials and stakeholders have held numerous public meetings to design, fund, construct and operate the $4.5-billion project.

Sites and local officials are also developing policies and recommendations that are responsive to the needs of the local community, according to Sites Executive Director Jerry Brown, who is not related to the former governor who lives in Colusa County.

Brown said the Sites meeting last Thursday was called to update citizens on the project, so they can distinguish the activities occurring with the construction of the dam, slated to begin in 2026, from Colusa County’s current efforts to develop a Maxwell Community Plan. The community plan is funded by the Sites Authority but deals with local land use issues and community needs before and after the reservoir is built. 

Maxwell resident and Sites Authority external affairs manager Kevin Spesert said the local community should remain involved in both processes but particularly the county’s community plan process, which will address potential changes to the Maxwell and Stonyford area as a result of the project’s construction and operation. 

“That’s really going to be the map that we, as a community, use into the future with a new Sites Reservoir in our backyard,” Spesert said.

The Sites Reservoir Project started in 2010, when local water districts formed the Sites Project Authority, which will own and operate the facility, which is unlike other water projects owned and operated by the state or federal government.

“There is really nothing else like this in the state,” Brown said.

Brown said the Sites Project Authority has completed significant milestones in recent years, including the certification of the final Environmental Impact Report and acquiring a streamlined judicial review under Senate Bill 149. Funding for the project includes $875 million from California Proposition 1 bond funding, more than $244 million in federal funding and a committed $2.2 billion low-interest federal WIFIA loan.

The reservoir will be located about 10 miles west of Maxwell and expand north into Glenn County. The site of the reservoir is a natural valley, sealed by two earth-filled dams and nine saddle dams, and will use new pipelines and pumping stations, along with existing facilities, such as Tehama-Colusa Canal, to transfer overflow stormwater to the reservoir for storage. The water, when needed, will be released in the same way to flow into the Colusa Basin Drain and back into the Sacramento River at Knights Landing, Brown said.

About 370,000 acre-feet of storage has been dedicated to the environment; two recreational areas will be located north and south of the Sites-Lodoga Road; a bridge will be constructed over the reservoir to connect Maxwell and Stonyford; and a small hydroelectric power plant will be constructed to produce energy needed to pump water uphill, among many other components of the project. 

The Sites Reservoir is a public project that is 100% funded by local, state, and federal taxpayers, who are represented by the public agencies committed to the project through a beneficiary-pay structure. Participants that have paid for the project will receive the benefits created by the project, including municipal water agencies  in Sacramento, the Bay Area and Los Angeles, whose money was needed to make the project feasible, officials said.

About 27% of the water will remain in the Sacramento Valley to support agriculture and the Colusa County Board of Supervisors has committed to securing 10,000 acre-feet of water for local needs.

“This project is going to be important to this area and important to Northern California, continuing to restore flexibility and add to our water supply system, which has become increasingly challenged and became all too vivid in 2022,” Sutton said.

As investors, project participants will be allowed to sell their water, which was one of many questions raised at the meeting.

Brown said the Sites Project Authority will also use the power of eminent domain to secure the property, if needed, although negotiations with landowners are still underway.

As a public agency, the Sites Project must use union workers, although Brown said they will make reasonable efforts to provide contracting opportunities for local equipment and operators, fuel, materials and supplies.

Most attendees at the Sites meeting had attended one or both Maxwell Community Plan meetings. Following the meeting, which lasted more than 90 minutes, Sites officials stayed to answer questions from the public and provide additional information about the project.

If constructed as currently designed, the Sites Reservoir would be the eighth largest in California but could be later expanded to more than 3 million acre-feet if the need, desire and funding existed, Brown said.