Wednesday Top of the Scroll: Sites Reservoir clears environmental challenge in court
California is one step closer to building its largest water storage facility in nearly 50 years, after a court ruled in favor of the Sites Reservoir project following a challenge by environmental groups. The Yolo County Superior Court issued the 65 page ruling late last week, marking a possible end to the project’s environmental litigation. The relatively quick ruling stands in contrast to a typical, multi-year litigation period under the Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Gov. Gavin Newsom accelerated the project’s CEQA litigation period in November under an infrastructure streamlining package passed the previous summer. He celebrated the court’s ruling in a news release Tuesday. … The proposed $4.5 billion reservoir would inundate nearly 14,000 acres of ranch lands in Glenn and Colusa counties to store water diverted from the Sacramento River through new a system of dams, pipelines and a bridge.
Related articles:
- Los Angeles Times: Newsom praises court ruling dismissing environmental groups’ challenge of Sites Reservoir
- Courthouse News Service: California governor welcomes judicial ruling in Sites Reservoir project
- Ag Net West: Sites Reservoir Could Have Captured More Than 1.5 million Acre-feet of Water