Dear Water Board members,

Please vote not to approve the current water right for Sites Reservoir. Help us oppose political interference in  the massive water rights (diversion) permit for Sites Reservoir on the Sacramento River.

It is critical that the California Water Board deny the current water rights application that could drain the Sacramento River and harm the Bay Delta. We ask that you instead consider the original more protective draft water right. This original draft permit included bypass flow protection, protections to ensure that 55% of instream flows are maintained (including if Sites enters California's Bay Delta Voluntary Agreements), and a shorter diversion season to protect fisheries. 

It is outrageous that the Water Board is considering a  massive new water right of 986,000 acre-feet per year in a watershed where five times more water is allocated than exists without including the original protective measures for water quality, fisheries and flows. The previous version of this water right included some weak, but common sense measures to protect water quality and fisheries, aligning with what the Sites Authority said the project is for: collecting water in excess of what the Bay Delta needs during wet winters. Many of these measures have now been stripped due to political reasons, not the evidence in the record. This is very upsetting as hundreds of hours of export testimony, a year long hearing and thousands of pages of evidence led to the protective measures. These were included in the original proposed permit. 

The proposed 13,200-acre reservoir Sites Reservoir in the foothills west of the Sacramento River would harm salmon, water quality and the drinking water supply for millions of Californians. It would be California's first reservoir built in generations and would be almost half the size of Shasta Reservoir.  It would also help to privatize a critical water supply for California and flood thousands of acres of cultural sites and even Tribal cemeteries. Despite this the Sites Authority has not done most of it's environmental surveys or  meaningful Tribal consultation   

The proposal includes inundating four creeks and adds new diversion pumps on the Sacramento River in Red Bluff. 

In truth, there is no “extra” water in this part of California, where up to 75% of the salmon habitat has been blocked by dams. Fisheries science has now proven that high flows during winter and spring are needed if salmon are to survive in California.

High flows have many benefits. Flushing flows in high water years inundate floodplains, help migrating salmon, scour out sediments and algae, move spawning gravel, and reduce fish diseases, all of which greatly increase salmon numbers. This water right would be the end of much of these flows, and thus any good years for most of California's remaining salmon, and for salmon fisheries. 

Restoring flows is needed to bring back salmon and protect our water quality. This is supposed to be what the board is focused on. Please join us in saying no to the Sites Reservoir water rights permit.