Sacramento, California - On Monday, Sept. 30, representatives of California Tribes will present testimony before the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) opposing the Sites Authority’s application for a new water rights permit to withdraw up to 15 million acre-feet per year from the Sacramento River.
Representatives from the Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, along with multiple Tribal attorneys and experts, will testify. Their testimony will focus on the inundation of sacred sites, cultural impacts, water quality and impacts upon salmon.
The hearing will start at 9:00 a.m. You can tune in at the SWRCB Administrative Hearings Office Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/@swrcbadministrativehearing728
“Tribes will testify to address significant concerns regarding the proposed reservoir’s impacts,” according to a press advisory from Save California Salmon and Friends of the River. “They will highlight the lack of meaningful Tribal consultation on the project and advise that the reservoir would flood Tribal cultural resources, Native American graves and sacred sites, and further degrade water quality and salmon runs, harming an important Indigenous food source and traditional lifeway systems.”
“They will also discuss how the new reservoir threatens Tribal water and fishing rights and would build new diversion pumps to take fresh water from the Sacramento River and release warm, polluted water into the Bay Delta. These discharges of polluted water have the potential to adversely adversely impact downstream Tribal lands and water quality, along with the drinking water for over 25 million Californians, and the health of local ecosystems,” the groups stated.
In addition to the testimony, Tribes, fishermen, scientists, and environmental interests will be giving opening statements in their case against the water right.
“Sites Reservoir is a proposed 14,000 acre private reservoir in the lower Sacramento River/Upper Bay Delta near Maxwell, California,” according to the group. “The project is being led by the Sites Project Authority. It would become one of the largest reservoirs in California and would be designed to mainly deliver costly water to Southern California and South of the Delta agricultural interests.”
“California has promised over $816 million in taxpayer money to the project and has streamlined public process laws to allow quick approval of the proposed reservoir. Opponents of the reservoir advise that Sacramento River water is already over allocated by five times its available flow and that the reservoir will add to climate change emissions,” they stated.
“In recent weeks, Tribal and environmental representatives and scientists cross examined the Sites Reservoir representatives. After Native American Tribes testify on Monday other Sites opponents will make their case. These opponents include fisheries experts, fishing industry representatives, climate change and water quality experts, economists and public trust advocates who will testify to the adverse impacts from the proposed reservoir. The hearing is set to continue throughout the month of October,” they concluded.
Tune in at the SWRCB Administrative Hearings Office Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/@swrcbadministrativehearing728
