SITES
- C W alifornia’s new bass fi
Fall 2024
RESERVO
®
e have all heard the rumors for about three
decades now of a new reservoir in Northern
California. It appears the reality of that happening is becoming more likely – and according to the internet, construction is scheduled to begin in 2026 and the reservoir to be operational at the end of 2032.
This new reservoir will be called Sites Reservoir and is located in the lower foothills of Antelope Valley, approximately 10 miles west of the town of Maxwell and approximately 65 miles northwest of Sacramento.
The Sites Project Authority is beginning the construction procurement process for the Sites Reservoir Project, a $3.9 billion off-stream reservoir, one of the state’s largest proposed water infrastructure projects in decades.
According to the Sites Project Authority, permitting, water rights, and land acquisition are underway. Final design is scheduled to commence in 2026, with dam construction to begin that same year, with final commissioning sometime 2033.
Sites Reservoir would be an off-stream storage reservoir with a capacity of up to 1.8 million acre-feet (MAF) with its primary source of water diverted from
to Don Pedro and New Melones). It would be the 8th largest reservoir by volume in the State.
It would be created by inundating the area around the unincorporated community of Sites, California, which is referred to locally as Antelope Valley.
Up to 11 dams would be needed to create the Sites Reservoir. There would be two main dams: the Golden Gate Dam on Funks Creek, and the Sites Dam on Stone Corral Creek. Both dams would have a height in the general range of 300 feet above the base.
The Golden Gate Dam would have a crest length in the general range of 2,250 feet and the Sites Dam would have a crest length in the general range of 850 feet. There also would be up to nine saddle dams on the northern end of reservoir, between the Funks Creek and Hunters Creek watersheds.
These dams would range from approximately 40 to 130 feet in height above the base, with crest lengths ranging from approximately 270 to 4,000 feet.
the Sacramento River. The Sites Reservoir would be
approximately 12,000 to 14,000 acres in size (similar in size
page 62