Why make this so Expensive? About 80mi away you got the Keswick Dam. Just pipe it down to Sites Dam, no pumps are needed. You save an enormous amount off energy!!!!
As a Dutch person, it seems to me that California might be better served with thousands of small local projects, that let the land soak up the water when it rains. A huge basin is great, but it doesn't solve the underlying issue. Create places where the water stays in the soil, in stead of evaporating. In the Netherlands, we have tiny little streams everywhere, that keep the ground moist so trees and bushes will grow, their roots hold even more water, etc. In California, there seems to be a lot of water evaporating, due to the dry conditions. If you protect the soil, water doesn't evaporate so quickly. Obviously, it's not the intention to turn California into a second Netherlands, lol! But maybe solving the problem at it's core in stead of the symptoms might be a better course of action. Edit July '24: hi everybody! In the video at 11:22 they ask us what we think and to write that in the comments, so that's what I did. I was asked my opinion, and...well, I gave it. With the preface that I'm not from there, so take it with a grain of salt... Well, for some reason many people reacted to my two cents, haha! Of course there's more to it, and I'm far from an expert. There are very many well thought out reactions, so enjoy. And... I've stopped reading the new comments months ago, because for me, writing this wasn't very significant, I can barely remember the video, and I kinda moved on...sorry! But please enjoy the (mostly) friendly discussions!
I think we in the states could take a lot of notes from y’all across the pond. I’m not sure if the Netherlands is the country with the giant wall that blocks off a sea but I think it is a very interesting idea for places like where I live in Houston. Hurricanes are not just wind damage and rain. Sometimes the storm surge does enough damage and also compounds the problem of rain draining back into the ocean.
Weve had a number of groundwater recharge programs for awhile now. We use agricultural areas and crops that are resistant to damage from flooding. However theres a danger from nitrates from fertilizer getting in there. To answer your question, we are on it.
The state water project in the 1960's had allocated future reservoirs as the population rises. They stopped building at 20 million. The current population is 39 million. California has neglected water infrastructure for decades and is now paying the price.
@@AL-lh2ht except he is actually correct….I live in California and farmers have been lobbying to build more water storage for DECADES….with the democrat run state ignoring not only that but basically every infrastructure we have here. Good job being a leftist shill with little to know critical thinking skills, you can go back to your daily spoon feeding of CNN propaganda now. 😂
@@AL-lh2ht ...look it up yourself. This project was first proposed in 1950. California studies didn't begin until 1996. The reservoir wont even be operational until 2030! 80 Years to get a reservoir built? Thank your local Environmentalists and quit making stuff up.
I live in northern California. Marysville area. The sites reservoir is a bad idea. A better idea is restoration of Tulare lake. They keep it drained to use it as farm Land's. The lake was the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi and considered the Great lake of the West. They need to restore the lake and do to subsidence of the land because the aquaphor has been drained. The lake would be deeper than it's historical past. The Tulare lake reappears from time to time and is currently filling up currently on it's own. It only 10 Miles from the California aqueduct system which actually could be used to supply the water the state needs. They can also dredge the lake to make it deeper in the future and it wouldn't cost 4 billion dollars to restore.
Tulare Lake at the deepest would only be about 30 feet deep. Get Los Angeles, the scumbag thieves they are, to fill up Owens Lake back to the levels it was before the Aqueduct was built in the 1910s.
Well you live in North Cal so thats why that laker would ruin the farming which is the bread basket of world its the reason California is a powerhouse the cities need to be part of a bew state thats the problem they contribute nothing but ridiculous regulations and make all the central valley voting obsolete we live different lifes they need to be seperate
As a Sacramento native I have been watching this project, reservoir levels and snow pack for years. We desperately need something like this and I've been pretty excited about this on, but we definitely need to implement other solutions, I believe recently near Rocklin they've developed a method to locate underground basins with a helicopter and building pump stations to fill them. I I'm not sure about the cost on this but it seems once we identify hundreds of basin and build pump stations we replenish parts of the water table at will.
California definitely needs better water storage, but if this project goes like any other projects in California, expect it to be at least double the projected budget. It would also be a miracle if it got completed.
A lot of major projects go over budget no matter where they are. Especially when you have Republican politicians causing delays and doing anything they can to kill the high-speed rail project. They even asked trump to block it's funding in 2017.
Finally, a common sense response. All I see is pie in the sky starry eye types talking here and ignoring the simple solution of repairing the damage that was done to the previously existing lakes. This would also increase the rainfall in southern CA as a nice side benefit. If they were really smart, they'd dig a canal from the Pacific to the salton sea and let it fill up as well. Would be some large profit in doing that, despite the loss of the desert farm lands, which shouldn't be there in the first place. Not like we don't have those all over the place anyway.
@@zarrothThe salton sea part is not the best idea but otherwise yea I agree. and for my explanation on why is simple it would be making it worse because it still has not outlet it would just be getting more salt faster.
@@zarroth yeah lol well good luck getting California citizens to vote for anyone who isn't insane 😅, Californian's in general I find pretty reasonable, even if I disagree with them. But the people they vote for? I guess that's true most places in America today though 🙃 even where I live
Owens lake has always been shallow, it's not a reservoir type. Also mining companies dumped toxic waste into the river prior to the aqueduct. Now it's a toxic heavy metal waste dust bowl that is now mitigated by wasting significant amounts of drinkable water.
Orange County in Southern California was mostly successful in remedying the county's water issues by expanding one of the main water treatment plants and adding steps to the treatment process so that the water can be pumped back up the Santa Ana River to natural sand percolation/filtration basins. The county reclaims about 20 to 30% of the water it uses this way.
Good to see somebody in California is considering the future. One point to help clarify your use of the word drought. "Drought" means that there is a shortfall of water demanded for use. California's drought has nothing to do with climate or rainfall. It has to do with population increase and the lack of water holding capacity. The answer to your question, "When will the drought end?" , is never, because you do not have enough holding capacity to meet people's needs. When I was growing up in CA (1960 -75). Water was abundant and hydroelectic power made electricity clean and cheap. That was due to number of reservoirs per capita. California can return to that if they wish to.
Nice that you're cut off year was 1975. Because you know that the next year started the mega drought. When I was a teenager, to be specific, it was, Pee don't, Poo do.
Our biggest issue is that our aquifers are dangerously depleted. The problem is that where a lot of the water floods in the central valley, we have a very hard clay soil, and the water does not soak into the aquifers very well. Storage will only get us so far, but we *need* to find a way to get our aquifers refilled.
Infiltration/recharge basins? Yeah. We do need them. The problem is whether it's cheaper to catch, infiltrate, and re-pump water compared to just storing it on the surface. The advantages of these huge storage facilities is that per gallon of storage, they are incredibly cheap. Infiltration basins would have to be built everywhere around the state, which makes the scalability limited. I do think something like implementing recharge requirements into building codes might be a good idea, but the areas where the worst aquifer depletion happens are usually farmland, and could use surface water if it was available.
The biggest issue california has its overpopulated. way over populated. you have 3 or 5 illeagle families living in a 2 room pickers shack. multi million dollar homes who could care less as long as the lawn looks good for the neighbors. hoas that are way out of control and a general population to self important to do what is nessary to solve the real problems. you have a better chance of asking the 15 million people that need to not be there to give up their houses all there money and pack up the car and leave. Are you willing to just leave? that's what is necessary to solve the water issue. you and 15 million others. just drop all you have and drive away. buldoze the houses and rip out the water lines. If you build bigger and more infersturcture to solve the issue it will never be enough for the population at hand now. more storage is not the solution exodus is.
Amen brother. Dams are a 19th and 20th century band-aid for our real problems. You can only reapply a band-aid so much before you have to let the wound heal.
Agreed 100%. Actually the necessary reservoir already exists. The underground water table. Slow the flow of the Sacramento River to allow the water to spread out. It will soak into the ground. There it can be stored in the water table. For free. Without evaporation. Without $4B in construction costs. How to slow the flow? A few man-made structures may help. But most/all of the work can be done by free labor. Just reintroduce beaver along the Sacramento River. Beaver will relentlessly build small dams. Improve fish habitat. Recharge the water table. Help tress and shrubs grow. Elegantly simply. And affordable. The Sites Reservoir is a farce, and merely a gift to the construction industry which is already rife with greed and corruption. If built, this project will surely exceed $5B.
I grew up in the Mojave desert. It's always a drought in the desert....lol I moved to Mojave in 1984. Just before I left in 1992, we got a lot of rain and the desert blossomed into a beautiful thriving beautiy of green. It was the only time I've seen this. Even the smell of the desert changed. Because the antelope valley mountain range stop's the moisture from the Pacific Ocean from reaching any where else.
DWP stealing the water from Owens valley for LA is what caused alot of drought.. The desert by Dove springs used to have.."SPRINGS" everywhere.. All thru time until the late 70's they ran bans of sheep in the desert.. Look at all the Stock Tanks that were there in the Desert. Still there,, just empty now.. Draining the water from the Owens Valley was the Biggest problem for the Eastern Sierra's.
@@leroythemaster4268to fill up I have read it might take 8 years it will also but who knows it also said it will cost more than 5billion and it will take longer than 2030 hopefully not
Sites reservoir is a horrible idea but restoration of Tulare lake would be the best. Because it's all ready there they just keep it drained so they can use it for AG land and it's close to the California and it has natural rivers and streams that could feed it if it gets too full it spills over to the north which it doesn't need if they hook it up to the aqueduct. Mother nature has already provided it we just need to put it back to Larry lake was considered the Great lake of the West it was a largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi
@@walterwhite1the problem with that is desalination is extremely costly and is actually toxic. Because it concentrate salts. That have to be put back in the ocean
I live in Central Washington State. We depend on massive irrigation projects to collect snow melt in the mountains used later to water crops. We too have massive pumping lift stations, giant canals, and assortment of dams. We have very fertile soils but lack water. The demands for water will always be greater than annual supply.
When I lived in Washington it rained like 75% of the time. Idk how there is any lack of water in that state. I've never lived anywhere else where it rained so much.
@@punchabunchofbuttons214 I'd guess you lived on the west side of the mountains. As moist air move up over mountains, it cools, can't hold as much moisture, drops most of the moisture on the mountains (generally as snow), and comes down the other side of the mountain much drier. That's why the leeward side of decently sized mountains is generally a much more arid (or even desert) climate than on the windward side. Western Washington is very rainy from moist air from the pacific, and central and eastern Washington are much more arid because of the Cascades pulling most of the moisture from the air as it travels west to east across the state.
@@punchabunchofbuttons214 Common misconception. Most of Eastern Washington (East of the Cascade Mountain Range) is high desert plain. There are areas that get less than 3" a year. The West side of the state, peninsula and the Puget Sound region get a ton of rain. I lived in Spokane and worked remote for companies in California and on almost every conference call I would get someone saying "Raining up there?".... It got annoying.
When it comes to water here in California, it's either feast or famine so we do have a need for some kind of buffer to level out the dramatic spikes and dips in water availability. The project, on paper, sounds like a great idea to help truncate the extremes....but that's on paper. The real concerns I have is who will put in charge of this project and what kind of red tape? The project itself is a no-brainer as far as helping Californian central valley and as someone who loves trekking up the 395 for camping and trout fishing....I think this is an eventual must. That said, getting competent people to helm this project is also vital. If we can get the right people for the job...great, lets do it because for the long term health of Caliornian businesses and citizens, it's needed....however, if we can't find the right leadership and competent people to make this project a reality...then it's worth to sit on this, we may wind up worse off if the wrong folks are involved.
This will come to an end. All citizens of the Western US need to understand how our water use and allocation came to be, both California and the entire Colorado River Basin. This is required reading and research. In reality since California supplies so much agricultural products to the nation this isn't just a California or Western USA problem either.
Yes, well, Lake Tulare is owned and controlled by one of the richest private farmers in the country. Years ago, he convinced the federal government to build Pine Flat Reservoir for 'flood control'..control of water so that he could farm there. Great idea, but it will never happen. It's a plantation economy here in the Central Valley.
Which is a bummer. The lake i think is likely a huge ecological resource especially in a drought prone state like ours. I can't believe we put these artificial resevoirs all over and then destroy naturally occuring lakes and THEN spend billions for infrastructure to keep a Lake from being a Lake and even more to divert waterways for the purpose of the resevoir system...like it all just seems like hyper expensive insanity. And then the amount of public money that gets used to ensure the interests of private enterprise in a country with no healthcare for its citizens and like...it makes one wonder what the point of all of it is really when we ruin so much for the raw material to make disposable fashion (since its all for cotton)
It looks like stage one worked perfectly for me. We need to go into stage 2 with over 40 million people living in this state. I will 100% support Sites Reservoir!!!
Yeah but we do have about 250 percent of the snow pack that we usually do and stop water from going to the ocean and pump it all into settling ponds so it can go into the water table I watched a wash and it was full for a couple of weeks and I wonder how much of it could we have kept from going out to the oceans
It's about time something was done. It's not just Cali. Nevada has also made major changes to prevent water loss and maximize recycling, from what I've heard. The whole desert southwest needs this.
The upper Colorado River compact states in the west don't have to do anything. Except for the drainages in the Great Basin, that run into the Great Salt Lake and Sevier Lake in Utah and smaller catchments in Nevada, the water falling on the rest of those states ends up in the Colorado River. The major cities in Utah don't use that water as they're in the GB and already have sufficient local eservoirs. The areas of the states in the CRB can't use more than their allotment anyway, plus there are extensive reservoirs already, i.e. Lake Powell and Flaming Gorge, that are currently way, way underfilled. So is Lake Mead. This is California's problem.
Now water conservation, including rain barrels and grey water recycling are something else. That may have been your meaning. All Western states should make better efforts to practice water conservation.
@@leroythemaster4268 I'm a Californian and I can't disagree with you. They should have started working on this project many years ago and not waited until things got this bad. I just moved back here from Sout Florida and their going to be a mess, too. If we don't get a handle on climate change, all of South Florida will be under water, like it was before the Army Corps of Engineers started building canals, so that hucksters could start selling people worthless property in mid 20th century. LOL
California's weather pattern has always been very dry years followed by very wet years as long as I can remember . I actually remember being a kid back in the 70's and CA going through major dry years, everyone in Southern California had to let their swimming pools dry up and that was when skateboarding in swimming pools started like in the movie LORDS OF DOGTOWN. He's definitely right about the population in CA going up 20 million since our last major water project but the growth of Industrial farming has also had a major impact on the water supplies . It takes a lot of water to grow avocados and almonds for all that almond milk.
Yep. It sickens me to drive up and down the state anymore. As Kid growing up in the 1970's and a teen in the 1980's, you could see peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, kiwi, grapes, rice, and a few nut orchards. Now everyone has ripped out their fruit trees for almonds. It takes 1 gallon of water to grow 1 almond. Hugely wasteful, and these morons think it's better for the environment than pastured cow milk. Sorry. It ain't true.
Your video just described the existing San Luis Reservoir in central California where water is pumped into the reservoir from the Sacramento River, but where pumping water is currently blocked because an invasive fish was found in the river and somehow must now be protected. The video seems more of a sales pitch along the same lines as the high speed railroad project. Lots of funding that go into pockets of beneficiaries rather than the project. A project where the main function is already blocked by current environmental protection laws. If the central California's were smart, they would press/protest the issue of the San Luis pumps being shut off at the same meetings of the Sites Dam, so that attention would be brought forward to a costly project that is doomed from the start. California has a problem with water management, not an issue with storage capacities.
Get the point, we also mentioned it in the video but didn‘t go more into detail. However we are definitly not pitching for any projects that we talk about😅 We try to be neutral
Talk to your gov. The federal pumps were running at full power, Your gov ordered state pumps off even though per court order there was nothing to stop them from running. Ask your gov how much he got and gets from utilties investing in billion buck desalination plants, and the billion buck power plants needed to run them, and the billions in fossil fuel needed every year to fuel them. All passed on to rate payers and given to the richest who own the project, and the billions in gov't bonds floated to pay for them.
The restoration of Tulare Lake in the San Joaquin Valley, which is naturally happening RIGHT NOW is a much better idea. More than double the amount of water can be held in it at 1/5th the cost. The area currently grows cotton, which is completely unsuitable for this part of the world.
Very true cotton is the states biggest crop and the big city residents are subsidizing huge corporate farms that that are using all that water. Most vegetables seem to be imported from mexico and central america
This actually is making progress and being built unlike the phony high speed rail that no one wants. They have spent 100 Bill + when we could have had something a lot more useful, once again stupid liberal policies and projects.
But we’re nevertheless spending billions on that railway that won’t even be a real bullet train. And now it’s been shortened to just Merced and Barstow.
We’re not in a drought anymore. We’re in normal cycles. Everyone calls out periods of no water a drought but it’s been the same cycles since I’ve been alive here for 43 years. We need more water storage. I hope they build the dams.
I mean... it's just been one year. You're assuming we're gonna get a ton of rain next year. I.. I just don't know if that's a smart idea. We do need more water storage but to assume that we're gonna see this amount of water next year and then the next year after that? I don't think that's smart. Build storage but assume the worst and keep conserving water the best we can despite the whole "we have to preserve the almond industry at the cost of our very survival" mentality.
@@cosmicallyderived they’ve been doing it to us since we were kids. California water history is an ugly thing. If you’ve never seen a movie called China Town, it’s an amazing film. I don’t know how historically accurate it is but it will give you a basic idea of how California has gotten the water system we have now.
@@melchiorentreri3651 I didn’t hear anyone say that we were going to continue to get this much rain year after year. Ca goes through cycles of very wet years and many year gaps with little rain fall. We had a bit of a red herring this year. This was our transition year between La Niña and El Niño. Historically, it should have produced moderate rainfall. We had several great winter cold storms early and then our Pineapple Express set up. It was a water windfall for the state. El Niño is now here. This next winter based on historical data, should be very wet again. The problem will be that we have little to no new water infrastructure to take advantage of 23/24’s El Niño. It’s a missed opportunity as a “drought” will likely return in 2025- through possibly 2030. Just like everything we do in Ca, we always spend billions of dollars on infrastructure to see it remain unused, or 💩canned in the middle of the project. We could have also dredged or expanded current reservoirs storage when they were drained from our most recent drought. I did not hear of any projects that attempted to do any of that. Our bureaucrats are about as smart as a box of rocks here in Ca, when it comes to water.
This guy is not telling you the truth. Most of California's water is purposely allowed to flow out into the ocean when it should be pumped into other regions that need the water. Snow Pack and flood waters provide enough water to supply all of California. But instead they allow most of the water to flow out into the ocean. He is lying to you.
My father was a chief engineer on the Oroville Dam and was a specialist on the water issue of California. I learned a lot from him on this issue. I think it is more than past time to work on the next stages of the project and create the dams necessary for the future.
As someone who lives in California, I think the Sites project is long over due. This winter was a missed opportunity to fill additional reservoirs. In part with water that can't be stored as reservoir levels are managed to accommodate snow melt. The project may be expensive, but the cost is small compared to the cost of lost revenue from drought. Also, the reservoir provides an additional place to obtain water for fighting wild fires, which could represent more savings.
I say, take the four billion from the corrupt cucks running the state into a wall of debt, homelessness and crime. Reduce pr!ck Gavin Newsom’s income!!
But it might kill a lizard or something.... good luck getting this past the environmental psychopaths. I can 100% guarantee you this project will be wildly over budget and behind schedule.
I agree! Way long over due and imagine what this last storm season could have done for filling it up. Then again, we have a high speed "Bullet Train", oh wait, that was massive flop and waste of 15B tax payer dollars, a train system that doesn't exist and what little does goes no faster than a regular train between to uncommon start & end points..
It’s a start, but they have to stop dragging their feet and get it done… This year would have been the perfect year if it was already done. Missed opportunity for sure, but I doubt anyone knew just how much water they’d be getting this year, plus the snow melt that’s on the way. Hopefully they can do something to collect it before its too late too.
You're right, no one would have predicted the extreme rainfall, snow, snowpack and runoff in California, but they should have expected a reversal to more average conditions. Weather is not climate and vice versa. The drought in the SW is a trend. Trends reverse from time to time. I'm not a climate change denier, we see it happening. But an extreme drought could be predicted to be followed by at least more average or closer to average water years. So yes, Cali should build this project and others. The Colorado River is over-allocated and has been since the beginning. And with an extensive, high altitude mountain range such as the Sierra Nevada, there should be no such thing as any of that runoff going into the Pacific Ocean.
Except it hasn’t been natural. We’ve been in a drought for a long time. But this winter we had an uncommonly strong atmospheric river which brought more rain than usual. Where tf you get your news from?
Am thinking they cant get it done fast enough....But i would hope this is not the only water project in the works....Would like to see smaller projects undertaken for communities where the projects wouldnt be as difficult or expensive thereby eliminating them from projects like this...
FYI most of the state has had it’s drought status reduced or removed entirely. We’re also expecting the return of El Niño over the next 2 years. That brings lots of rain and cold to California.
Did you even watch the video? CA cant capture enough water while it is here it will go away after 5 or more years. How long do you plan on living here?
@@liindawgg what are you talking about? The last massive rains was in early 2000s, and the ones before that was in the late 70s early 90s. The location of the Dam is not in a high drought area. The reason why this project was put off for so long wasn't a lack of foresight it was because the south needed to build more reservoirs which in areas of high drought. To be honest the amount of money spent on this project just to have a reservoir is not worth the price. That money should be spent on Building more systems to recharge California's underground Aquifers (you know the water source that is responsible for 40% of california's water during the Decades of drought). But I am sure you know all about that and your comment to be facetious and not sarcastic.
This first came up during Arnold Schwarzeneggers term as governor, and was being pushed then, after he went out it wasn't brought up again for about 12 years,. It's a excellent idea and very cost effective also because it's in this Valley. This is somewhere up near Colusa CA, but as I remember, it's not going to be terribly deep like Oroville and Shasta, so probably not a recreational lake
The Governator put California into debt. He is even hated by Republicans. He's responsible for the resurrection of Governor Moonbeam's Career and the fact that Republicans will never control California again.
It will take 10 years to clear all the law suits and environmental issues. Beside they have a very expensive train to no where that provides all the graft they need, it would take to long to create new graft avenues.
@@fjanson2468 there's really no opposition to this, but back in 2007 there was this location and another further north which was underground as I remember
Gov Arnold wanted to a bit over $4 Billion on adding water storage and conservation projects. That was before 2010. The Dem Perma Majority in the Legislature ... Said that "It was not needed, and a waste of $$$ " Voted it down. More recently Jerry Brown had "deffered" Maintenance of Infrastructure... Eventually leading to the Oroville spillway Near Disaster! They had to Evacuate 188k people, due to Brown's ignoring Facts.
In India they just dig small crescent-shaped pits and let the water collect using gravity. Things will grow around it to store water above and below ground and mitigate against runoff and evaporation. Cheaper, faster, less concentrated water storage. Worth a look into.
Land for the site's reservoir has all ready been granted and no crops are being grown there. I too live in norcal and we need that reservoir for multiple reasons.
Yes, but why make this so Expensive? About 80mi away you got the Keswick Dam. Just pipe it down to Sites Dam, no pumps are needed. You save an enormous amount off energy!!!! Add floating Solar panel to.
There are a handful of people in Silicon Valley (not the former bank) who could easily fund this project and their own legacy. We have many hydro-electric dams in Canada and often a work around is create for fish. They create a small river off to the side that allows the fish to travel to their spawning grounds. The less affordable option is a desalination plant, which must be built on ocean front property. Another option to conserve water in California is move the almond growers to another part of the U.S. that can sustain the amount water that is needed to grow their trees.
and another option is to live within our resources. Instead of people watering their green lawns, use native plants. Instead of using drinking water to flush toilets, create a second path.
In a state of alternating years of flood and drought, anyone who gets goo-goo about a "Wild And Scenic River" needs to be committed. What needs to be done: 1. Sites Reservoir 2. Auburn Dam 3. Diverting North Coast rivers (yes, we can do this and leave enough flow for salmon) 4. Another San Luis type project (Orestimba Canyon and some other areas west of Interstate 5) 5. Tulare Lake (bed) groundwater recharge projects
It’s basically decades of water “Mismanagement” by the cities and State ( more importantly, the State). The City of San Diego has been doing things right and many cities can learn from their success.
San Diego County built a desalination plant and the State cut our river water allotment. Translation: Do ANYTHING to help and we'll cut your share and give it to everyone else. No one else is even thinking of trying it. No good deal goes unpunished in this State.
An interesting video about a project that I hadn't been aware of! Small question/nitpick: at 09:35, is it 200,000 people (like in the caption) or households (like in the narration)? An average household in California has 2.94 people.
Sites is projected to have the ability to store 1.5 million acre feet of water. Typical rule of thumb is one acre foot of water will supply the needs of one household for one year. So the actual number would be 1.5 million households, or 4.4 million people.
@@derby1251 People like yourself have been saying that since the last State/Federal Water project was built in 1979, a time in which the population has doubled.
Best is to ground radar the basin to find the best access to large gravel based aquifers, scrap the top layer of clay off at strategic places and flood them with the run off. There's probably multiple capacity of the sites storage project, just below are feet.
For all of us locals.. the Colorado desert is the Sonora. Same same different name. I had to look that up cause I never heard it called the Colorado desert lol
Yep, there is no Colorado Desert. The U.S. has 4 deserts, the Great Basin, Sonoran, Mojave and a little of the Chihuahuan. There is the Colorado Plateau, mostly in Utah and Arizona, which technically qualifies as one based on annual rainfall, but it's never referred to as a desert.
They definitely need to do this asap anything that will help but we can't act like California and all those dry hot places will be wet like mid east or the places that naturally receive more rain
A water bond for $7Billion was passed in 2014. They've done nothing with it except rebuild Oroville spillway. This project could have been completed for this year's excess rain. Sad.
I wonder how much water will evaporate from the new lake. It looks to be rather shallow, compared to its size. And maybe enough people will move out of Cal that it will not be needed.
They also left out that a lot of these dams cannot be filled to full capacity. Lake Hodges in San Diego is a great example of this. Decades past a service or replacement date. Our politicians have zero interest in maintenance, because it isn’t novel and they can’t slap their name on it.
In Germany you have to make sure that all the rain that falls on your property, stays on your property and seeps into the ground. This greatly reduces the cost for rainwater sewage systems and prevents flood waves from forming in rivers.
We are using this now. New project must mitigate off site runoff using swales to slow down flow and allow percolation plus using dry wells rather than storm drains that drain to the sea. Soon as these projects are done, the site owners will try and figure out how much is reaching the aquifer which the water companies use to supply potable water. A system of rebates are in the future, I’m sure.
Instead of pumping water uphill into a reservoir that will cost way more than they originally estimated, why not pump the water down into the water table that is constantly dropping and causing the ground to subside?
In addition to something like this, so much more could be done for water supply in the southwest. I have proposed that we cover Lake Mead with solar panels to reduce evaporation and generate power at the same time.
I Central Valley resident of California, and Geologist. The 2023 wet year provided CA with 200% of its snowpack in the Sierras and came rushing down the slopes through the rivers and dams had to release much of it leading to the near return of Tulare Lake. The lake is fed by the Kings River, Kaweah, and Kern mostly. The Kings and Kern like most rivers in CA are modified to control their flow. Rivers are controlled to store water and re-direct it for keystone species like the Salmon in the San Joaquin River, which now spawn just below Friant Dam. The rivers are major areas of groundwater recharge, which has become the biggest source of water for many in Central Valley, as we receive less surface water. CA to preserve and hopefully regain some of its groundwater has started SGMA (Sustainable Groundwater Management Act) and to reduce subsidence and better manage groundwater. We need rivers to recharge, and can’t rely on rainfall because it has a very much chance of making past the layers of clay left by the ancient lakebed (not Tulare Lake, Corcoran Lake). I don’t know if building another dam is the right thing to do for the Sacramento Valley, as surface water stored want help with recharge due to the generation of clay at its bottom and will lose it to evaporation (which will only get worse with a warming climate). CA residents both in city and rural communities HAVE reduce their water usage, at least follow sustainable methods. Get rid of grass lawns, replace them with drought tolerant plants and native plants, the yards will look prettier and cost you less on your water bill. My family got rid of all our grass and it has significantly reduced our cost in water.
Nuclear power plants will need to be constructed for the 4 existing pumping plants that pump water to SoCal. Tehachapi, Wind Gap, Wheeler Ridge, and Buania Vista Pumping Plants that were constructed back in 1960 + by the SWP are all within 40 miles of each other and were the original electrical power plan before the tree huggers started screaming. Windmills, solar panels, and mandated EVs will place the future electrical grid to the limit with this newly added pumping plant for this new reservoir to work !!
At 9:20 there is a photo of the flood in Acampo in January 2023 that was due to breaching the levees on the Cosumnes River. The Sites Reservoir would do nothing to protect this area. Adding less than 10% to the potential storage capacity of the State Water Project is not a panacea, but it's a start.
This project should absolutely move forward! I've lived in California all my life of 74 years and with global warming and the growing agro supply needed it's a no brainer!
Here in minneaota you can take a shower untill you run out of hot water. NBD. Where I live, it's easy to find water if you dig a hole starting at 15- 20 ft
Ground water is also a huge issue here. The consolidation of water to a few locations has caused the state to drop in elevation, and has caused infrastructure issues statewide
Exactly this will solve nothing when the ground will open up and drop hundreds to thousands of feet. The ground is missing way too much ground water from the ground pumping done in the drought years which will take a huge toll the day California gets the earthquake they've been expecting
@@leechurchill1965 and wildfires that have made the ground non absorbable to any of the rain that fell and to any future flooding which will multiply and stack up when the time comes, out elevation is just worsening in the middle central valley all along the verticle middle below sea level area surrounded by a giant bowl of higher elevations
I was thinking the same thing. Problem with preventing flooding and putting all our water into big lakes is it doesn't allow for it to soak into the ground and replenish aquifers. Flooding is a natural process that if we eliminate would cause other problems me thinks.
Yeah I really think that as a native of CA i have been hearing about this for years yet nothing has been done about it in the long run we will reap the benefits in a short time
Right now we're paying for it during a pandemic and a war that's on the other side of the world but yet Americans are paying high taxes and California is drowning making families leave there homes for a cheaper living well gas and living is sky high but a damn and war is more important then human resources and living
No win at all. The water rights to the Sacramento River water are already higher than the river produces. Now they're going to build a lake that sucks even more water out of an already over stressed supply. And saying the lake will be filled by winter water levels is a total joke. I grew up in Colusa and those "floods" and "high water events" only happen about every five to ten years, sometimes longer. The rest of the time everyone has to conserve water because there's not enough. There are other ways, smarter ways to go about conservation of Californias shrinking supply of water and a project like this that will only increase the states water storage by less than 1% isn't one of them.
Well, we spent 24 billion on homelessness in the last 5 years and got more homelessness... so $4 billion sounds downright cheap for something actually useful.
If only the SF Bay Area would fix their leaking sewage issues. The system is over 130 years old and it is dilapidated and in disrepair. Because of this, Norcal reservoir water is used every year in order "Flush the Bay."
Obviously most of the commenters here dont have a clue how California's water collection works. The 'rainy season' is usually January to March, with a little rain on either end of those months. Then the rain isn't all that much, it's the snowpack that the reservoirs get their water from. The melting snow provides 80 to 85% of irrigation to the valley. The other 15 to 20% comes out of the aquifer, the water levels of the aquafer are dropping faster than nature is replenishing, so in the not too distant future, there won't be enough water left for anything. This project is very necessary, there's also smaller valleys in the foothills further south that could be used in the same way.
This video is great but it doesn't stress enough how challenging California's precipitation cycles can be. It doesn't rain much in California and the reservoirs are almost entirely dependent on snow falling over the mountains in the winter. A project like this can help ease the predictable snowmelt after a big season.
It can rain a lot. It has here the last few days. And we do have years of flooding. I lived in the Sacramento valley, in a town surrounded by two rivers: the Feather River and the Yuba River. I can tell you from my childhood and young adulthood, that lots of winters, the rivers would swell and be encroaching on the tops of the levies that protected the town. Flooding IS part of some areas of the state.
We have not paid attention to saving water and let over population expand. Desert areas can be brought back. Everyone having a pool is not a good thing for saving water.
Think that volcano in the Pacific a year ago which sucked huge amounts of water into the 3rd layer of our earth caused the drought and than earthquakes and floods along the coastal areas of CA?
Regardless of whether California has water or not , the agricultural industry needs to change its practice to more drought-tolerant crops and short session crops . No matter how this plays out, the future needs to change for the future of the growing population of humans .
If the past is any guide, you are in for a painful lesson in patience. Look at the California High Speed Rail project. Approved in 2008, it won't be done for at least another decade, and maybe never. The project is currently $100 BILLION overbudget, despite massive dumping of federal dollars. And the main contractor fled to a 3rd world country so they could work for less corrupt politicians....
California is having such a severe water shortage, they may need to create these ocean water reservoirs and install Desalination Plants to get their water. Taking water from the Colorado River and Snake River is not enough.
Can we all agree that "the weather" is nature's perfect desalination operation and humans need to adapt to use the vast amount of pure water that comes from the sky? Nature doesn't pump tons of brine back into the ocean to disrupt the ecology.
Absolutely. The Sites Dam and reservoir are excellent environmentally beneficial project concepts that should have been built years ago. It would be a simple thing to identify wasteful projects that could have been canceled to fund the Sites projects.
To combat droughts and the spreading of wild fires we need more beavers around the city. Beavers create wetlands because they block off river streams creating a huge puddle of water wider then the beavers actual home. Even if it looks destructive it’s a natural barrier of water preventing fires from going passed that soggy wet land and it’ll keep the land wet for longer preventing dry seasons.
What do you think, should the new mega reservoir be built? 🌊
Yes Might Be Build Soon
Why make this so Expensive? About 80mi away you got the Keswick Dam. Just pipe it down to Sites Dam, no pumps are needed. You save an enormous amount off energy!!!!
Install some floating Solar panels to!
@@larsfridtjofnrheim1638 I think they want to ensure there is a guaranteed volume of water per square mile area.
@@ten-tonnetongue It will help, but, it is not a permanent fix. Like moving water from the Columbia.
As a Dutch person, it seems to me that California might be better served with thousands of small local projects, that let the land soak up the water when it rains. A huge basin is great, but it doesn't solve the underlying issue. Create places where the water stays in the soil, in stead of evaporating. In the Netherlands, we have tiny little streams everywhere, that keep the ground moist so trees and bushes will grow, their roots hold even more water, etc. In California, there seems to be a lot of water evaporating, due to the dry conditions. If you protect the soil, water doesn't evaporate so quickly. Obviously, it's not the intention to turn California into a second Netherlands, lol! But maybe solving the problem at it's core in stead of the symptoms might be a better course of action.
Edit July '24: hi everybody! In the video at 11:22 they ask us what we think and to write that in the comments, so that's what I did. I was asked my opinion, and...well, I gave it. With the preface that I'm not from there, so take it with a grain of salt... Well, for some reason many people reacted to my two cents, haha! Of course there's more to it, and I'm far from an expert. There are very many well thought out reactions, so enjoy.
And... I've stopped reading the new comments months ago, because for me, writing this wasn't very significant, I can barely remember the video, and I kinda moved on...sorry! But please enjoy the (mostly) friendly discussions!
I think we in the states could take a lot of notes from y’all across the pond. I’m not sure if the Netherlands is the country with the giant wall that blocks off a sea but I think it is a very interesting idea for places like where I live in Houston. Hurricanes are not just wind damage and rain. Sometimes the storm surge does enough damage and also compounds the problem of rain draining back into the ocean.
We do that in some areas , particularly in the Sacramento valley areas and overflow causeway areas around Sacramento
I've been saying this for years most of our water is pumped from the ground
Some people have advocated, drilling dry wells into the water table in seasonal stream beds to absorb water during times of high rainfall
Weve had a number of groundwater recharge programs for awhile now. We use agricultural areas and crops that are resistant to damage from flooding. However theres a danger from nitrates from fertilizer getting in there. To answer your question, we are on it.
The state water project in the 1960's had allocated future reservoirs as the population rises. They stopped building at 20 million. The current population is 39 million. California has neglected water infrastructure for decades and is now paying the price.
***California has neglected every considerable infrastructure ...
good job with repeating fox propaganda
@@AL-lh2ht except he is actually correct….I live in California and farmers have been lobbying to build more water storage for DECADES….with the democrat run state ignoring not only that but basically every infrastructure we have here. Good job being a leftist shill with little to know critical thinking skills, you can go back to your daily spoon feeding of CNN propaganda now. 😂
@@AL-lh2ht Everything I said was factual.
@@AL-lh2ht ...look it up yourself. This project was first proposed in 1950. California studies didn't begin until 1996. The reservoir wont even be operational until 2030! 80 Years to get a reservoir built? Thank your local Environmentalists and quit making stuff up.
I live in northern California. Marysville area. The sites reservoir is a bad idea. A better idea is restoration of Tulare lake. They keep it drained to use it as farm Land's. The lake was the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi and considered the Great lake of the West. They need to restore the lake and do to subsidence of the land because the aquaphor has been drained. The lake would be deeper than it's historical past. The Tulare lake reappears from time to time and is currently filling up currently on it's own. It only 10 Miles from the California aqueduct system which actually could be used to supply the water the state needs. They can also dredge the lake to make it deeper in the future and it wouldn't cost 4 billion dollars to restore.
Tulare Lake at the deepest would only be about 30 feet deep. Get Los Angeles, the scumbag thieves they are, to fill up Owens Lake back to the levels it was before the Aqueduct was built in the 1910s.
Exactly!! This project is kinda dumb and is the same kind of stupidity that got us in this mess..
Well you live in North Cal so thats why that laker would ruin the farming which is the bread basket of world its the reason California is a powerhouse the cities need to be part of a bew state thats the problem they contribute nothing but ridiculous regulations and make all the central valley voting obsolete we live different lifes they need to be seperate
@@jacobonline6923 They don't have to restore all of the lake's historic size. Most of the plants planted there are cotton anyway.
Do both
As a Sacramento native I have been watching this project, reservoir levels and snow pack for years. We desperately need something like this and I've been pretty excited about this on, but we definitely need to implement other solutions, I believe recently near Rocklin they've developed a method to locate underground basins with a helicopter and building pump stations to fill them. I I'm not sure about the cost on this but it seems once we identify hundreds of basin and build pump stations we replenish parts of the water table at will.
Rocklin has those quarry's in some spots that they would fill. And there are a few ICBM sites that can be gutted and filled with water.
California definitely needs better water storage, but if this project goes like any other projects in California, expect it to be at least double the projected budget. It would also be a miracle if it got completed.
The projects are not to be completed, they are only to get more votes
They will find some beetle that needs saving and scrap the whole thing..
What the "bullet train" are you talking about!
And double/triple/quadruple the expected, forecasted Completion Date. Let’s be real here:
A lot of major projects go over budget no matter where they are. Especially when you have Republican politicians causing delays and doing anything they can to kill the high-speed rail project. They even asked trump to block it's funding in 2017.
I would let the Tulare , Owens and other dried lakes fill up again. These would be our natural reservoirs.
Finally, a common sense response. All I see is pie in the sky starry eye types talking here and ignoring the simple solution of repairing the damage that was done to the previously existing lakes. This would also increase the rainfall in southern CA as a nice side benefit. If they were really smart, they'd dig a canal from the Pacific to the salton sea and let it fill up as well. Would be some large profit in doing that, despite the loss of the desert farm lands, which shouldn't be there in the first place. Not like we don't have those all over the place anyway.
Yup, common sense, that is why it will not happen in Cali.
@@zarrothThe salton sea part is not the best idea but otherwise yea I agree. and for my explanation on why is simple it would be making it worse because it still has not outlet it would just be getting more salt faster.
@@zarroth yeah lol well good luck getting California citizens to vote for anyone who isn't insane 😅, Californian's in general I find pretty reasonable, even if I disagree with them. But the people they vote for? I guess that's true most places in America today though 🙃 even where I live
Owens lake has always been shallow, it's not a reservoir type. Also mining companies dumped toxic waste into the river prior to the aqueduct. Now it's a toxic heavy metal waste dust bowl that is now mitigated by wasting significant amounts of drinkable water.
Orange County in Southern California was mostly successful in remedying the county's water issues by expanding one of the main water treatment plants and adding steps to the treatment process so that the water can be pumped back up the Santa Ana River to natural sand percolation/filtration basins. The county reclaims about 20 to 30% of the water it uses this way.
I live here, it also has been blessed with an aquifer. Also heard they are building some other water plant in Newport or something like that.
How much is the water bill though?
Don’t they also have a desalination plant?
I feel like the whole Western U.S. should try recycling its water being as dry as it often is.
@@stuartrinker Huntington Beach tried to get one approved but it was denied. There is a desalination planet further south in Carlsbad though.
Good to see somebody in California is considering the future. One point to help clarify your use of the word drought. "Drought" means that there is a shortfall of water demanded for use. California's drought has nothing to do with climate or rainfall. It has to do with population increase and the lack of water holding capacity. The answer to your question, "When will the drought end?" , is never, because you do not have enough holding capacity to meet people's needs. When I was growing up in CA (1960 -75). Water was abundant and hydroelectic power made electricity clean and cheap. That was due to number of reservoirs per capita. California can return to that if they wish to.
Nice that you're cut off year was 1975. Because you know that the next year started the mega drought. When I was a teenager, to be specific, it was, Pee don't, Poo do.
Our biggest issue is that our aquifers are dangerously depleted. The problem is that where a lot of the water floods in the central valley, we have a very hard clay soil, and the water does not soak into the aquifers very well. Storage will only get us so far, but we *need* to find a way to get our aquifers refilled.
Infiltration/recharge basins? Yeah. We do need them.
The problem is whether it's cheaper to catch, infiltrate, and re-pump water compared to just storing it on the surface.
The advantages of these huge storage facilities is that per gallon of storage, they are incredibly cheap. Infiltration basins would have to be built everywhere around the state, which makes the scalability limited.
I do think something like implementing recharge requirements into building codes might be a good idea, but the areas where the worst aquifer depletion happens are usually farmland, and could use surface water if it was available.
The biggest issue california has its overpopulated. way over populated. you have 3 or 5 illeagle families living in a 2 room pickers shack. multi million dollar homes who could care less as long as the lawn looks good for the neighbors. hoas that are way out of control and a general population to self important to do what is nessary to solve the real problems. you have a better chance of asking the 15 million people that need to not be there to give up their houses all there money and pack up the car and leave. Are you willing to just leave? that's what is necessary to solve the water issue. you and 15 million others. just drop all you have and drive away. buldoze the houses and rip out the water lines. If you build bigger and more infersturcture to solve the issue it will never be enough for the population at hand now. more storage is not the solution exodus is.
Amen brother. Dams are a 19th and 20th century band-aid for our real problems. You can only reapply a band-aid so much before you have to let the wound heal.
@@RC-fp1tlask the people who died in floods and drought caused famines centuries ago. I’m sure they wish they had dams to regulate flow. 🤡
Agreed 100%. Actually the necessary reservoir already exists. The underground water table. Slow the flow of the Sacramento River to allow the water to spread out. It will soak into the ground. There it can be stored in the water table. For free. Without evaporation. Without $4B in construction costs. How to slow the flow? A few man-made structures may help. But most/all of the work can be done by free labor. Just reintroduce beaver along the Sacramento River. Beaver will relentlessly build small dams. Improve fish habitat. Recharge the water table. Help tress and shrubs grow. Elegantly simply. And affordable. The Sites Reservoir is a farce, and merely a gift to the construction industry which is already rife with greed and corruption. If built, this project will surely exceed $5B.
I grew up in the Mojave desert. It's always a drought in the desert....lol
I moved to Mojave in 1984. Just before I left in 1992, we got a lot of rain and the desert blossomed into a beautiful thriving beautiy of green. It was the only time I've seen this. Even the smell of the desert changed.
Because the antelope valley mountain range stop's the moisture from the Pacific Ocean from reaching any where else.
The towns I grew up in in the desert had 10k people in 3 towns, those 3 are at over 200k now, not counting the surrounding cities.
Called the Tehachapi Mountains, as the narrator pronounced so well. 3:45
DWP stealing the water from Owens valley for LA is what caused alot of drought.. The desert by Dove springs used to have.."SPRINGS" everywhere.. All thru time until the late 70's they ran bans of sheep in the desert.. Look at all the Stock Tanks that were there in the Desert. Still there,, just empty now.. Draining the water from the Owens Valley was the Biggest problem for the Eastern Sierra's.
This is definitely a needed project, when California does get the heavy rain fall, they have to capture all that they can.
I question how many pumps they would need in the Sac River in order to fill that lake.
@@leroythemaster4268to fill up I have read it might take 8 years it will also but who knows it also said it will cost more than 5billion and it will take longer than 2030 hopefully not
We live right near the ocean where there’s millions of gallons of free water. Let’s tap in to that first.
Sites reservoir is a horrible idea but restoration of Tulare lake would be the best. Because it's all ready there they just keep it drained so they can use it for AG land and it's close to the California and it has natural rivers and streams that could feed it if it gets too full it spills over to the north which it doesn't need if they hook it up to the aqueduct. Mother nature has already provided it we just need to put it back to Larry lake was considered the Great lake of the West it was a largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi
@@walterwhite1the problem with that is desalination is extremely costly and is actually toxic. Because it concentrate salts. That have to be put back in the ocean
how good it is that there are people who can dedicate all interested in the problem and show how everything works! very interesting and informative!)
I live in Central Washington State. We depend on massive irrigation projects to collect snow melt in the mountains used later to water crops. We too have massive pumping lift stations, giant canals, and assortment of dams. We have very fertile soils but lack water. The demands for water will always be greater than annual supply.
When I lived in Washington it rained like 75% of the time. Idk how there is any lack of water in that state. I've never lived anywhere else where it rained so much.
@@punchabunchofbuttons214 I'd guess you lived on the west side of the mountains. As moist air move up over mountains, it cools, can't hold as much moisture, drops most of the moisture on the mountains (generally as snow), and comes down the other side of the mountain much drier. That's why the leeward side of decently sized mountains is generally a much more arid (or even desert) climate than on the windward side. Western Washington is very rainy from moist air from the pacific, and central and eastern Washington are much more arid because of the Cascades pulling most of the moisture from the air as it travels west to east across the state.
@@punchabunchofbuttons214 Thanks for comment. I live in Yakima, we only get 6-9 inches total all year long. Seattle gets around 36.
@@punchabunchofbuttons214 Common misconception. Most of Eastern Washington (East of the Cascade Mountain Range) is high desert plain. There are areas that get less than 3" a year. The West side of the state, peninsula and the Puget Sound region get a ton of rain. I lived in Spokane and worked remote for companies in California and on almost every conference call I would get someone saying "Raining up there?".... It got annoying.
Our family farm in Spokane irrigated with water from Grand Coulee Dam, that water had its source in Canada.
When it comes to water here in California, it's either feast or famine so we do have a need for some kind of buffer to level out the dramatic spikes and dips in water availability. The project, on paper, sounds like a great idea to help truncate the extremes....but that's on paper. The real concerns I have is who will put in charge of this project and what kind of red tape? The project itself is a no-brainer as far as helping Californian central valley and as someone who loves trekking up the 395 for camping and trout fishing....I think this is an eventual must. That said, getting competent people to helm this project is also vital. If we can get the right people for the job...great, lets do it because for the long term health of Caliornian businesses and citizens, it's needed....however, if we can't find the right leadership and competent people to make this project a reality...then it's worth to sit on this, we may wind up worse off if the wrong folks are involved.
The 395 is beautiful
Need to make sure that the socal water board and megafarms like WestLands keeps their hands off it. They are as corrupt as can be.
I’ve heard about these projects my whole life. Environmentalist groups have been suing to block the projects my whole life.
Yep, they sue to save a fish they say is endangered that isn't even native to the state of California.
@@keinlieb3818what fish isn’t native?
The Delta Smelt is not native
Nothing gets done in America anymore
This will come to an end. All citizens of the Western US need to understand how our water use and allocation came to be, both California and the entire Colorado River Basin. This is required reading and research. In reality since California supplies so much agricultural products to the nation this isn't just a California or Western USA problem either.
Dude called it "te-ha-chappy" and i'll never recover.
Okay so, yes, do that, but also, RESTORE LAKE TULARE. It's already ressurecting and should be restablished in its entirety.
Yes, well, Lake Tulare is owned and controlled by one of the richest private farmers in the country. Years ago, he convinced the federal government to build Pine Flat Reservoir for 'flood control'..control of water so that he could farm there. Great idea, but it will never happen. It's a plantation economy here in the Central Valley.
Which is a bummer. The lake i think is likely a huge ecological resource especially in a drought prone state like ours. I can't believe we put these artificial resevoirs all over and then destroy naturally occuring lakes and THEN spend billions for infrastructure to keep a Lake from being a Lake and even more to divert waterways for the purpose of the resevoir system...like it all just seems like hyper expensive insanity. And then the amount of public money that gets used to ensure the interests of private enterprise in a country with no healthcare for its citizens and like...it makes one wonder what the point of all of it is really when we ruin so much for the raw material to make disposable fashion (since its all for cotton)
I definitely appreciate a video with an objective approach to our water issues. Well done!
Get this built ASAP!
Yes, but make it very cheap to. No pumps, just pips from Keswick Dam. And no pumps needed, and you save a lot off energy and constrution time.
It looks like stage one worked perfectly for me. We need to go into stage 2 with over 40 million people living in this state. I will 100% support Sites Reservoir!!!
Yeah but we do have about 250 percent of the snow pack that we usually do and stop water from going to the ocean and pump it all into settling ponds so it can go into the water table I watched a wash and it was full for a couple of weeks and I wonder how much of it could we have kept from going out to the oceans
Go ahead with the Sites Dam!!!!!!!!
It's about time something was done. It's not just Cali. Nevada has also made major changes to prevent water loss and maximize recycling, from what I've heard. The whole desert southwest needs this.
The upper Colorado River compact states in the west don't have to do anything. Except for the drainages in the Great Basin, that run into the Great Salt Lake and Sevier Lake in Utah and smaller catchments in Nevada, the water falling on the rest of those states ends up in the Colorado River. The major cities in Utah don't use that water as they're in the GB and already have sufficient local eservoirs. The areas of the states in the CRB can't use more than their allotment anyway, plus there are extensive reservoirs already, i.e. Lake Powell and Flaming Gorge, that are currently way, way underfilled. So is Lake Mead.
This is California's problem.
Now water conservation, including rain barrels and grey water recycling are something else. That may have been your meaning. All Western states should make better efforts to practice water conservation.
Nevada would have not a problem in the world if California wasn't sucking us dry.
@@leroythemaster4268 I'm a Californian and I can't disagree with you. They should have started working on this project many years ago and not waited until things got this bad. I just moved back here from Sout Florida and their going to be a mess, too. If we don't get a handle on climate change, all of South Florida will be under water, like it was before the Army Corps of Engineers started building canals, so that hucksters could start selling people worthless property in mid 20th century. LOL
@@geoffreyeble32 Agreed.
The video is crystal clear and a worthy project
California's weather pattern has always been very dry years followed by very wet years as long as I can remember . I actually remember being a kid back in the 70's and CA going through major dry years, everyone in Southern California had to let their swimming pools dry up and that was when skateboarding in swimming pools started like in the movie LORDS OF DOGTOWN. He's definitely right about the population in CA going up 20 million since our last major water project but the growth of Industrial farming has also had a major impact on the water supplies . It takes a lot of water to grow avocados and almonds for all that almond milk.
Oat milks far superior to almond milk… people should switch.
@@shasmi93 Coconut milk and oil. Nothing is healthier. Even great for whitening your teeth.
Yep. It sickens me to drive up and down the state anymore. As Kid growing up in the 1970's and a teen in the 1980's, you could see peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, kiwi, grapes, rice, and a few nut orchards. Now everyone has ripped out their fruit trees for almonds. It takes 1 gallon of water to grow 1 almond. Hugely wasteful, and these morons think it's better for the environment than pastured cow milk. Sorry. It ain't true.
Your video just described the existing San Luis Reservoir in central California where water is pumped into the reservoir from the Sacramento River, but where pumping water is currently blocked because an invasive fish was found in the river and somehow must now be protected. The video seems more of a sales pitch along the same lines as the high speed railroad project. Lots of funding that go into pockets of beneficiaries rather than the project. A project where the main function is already blocked by current environmental protection laws. If the central California's were smart, they would press/protest the issue of the San Luis pumps being shut off at the same meetings of the Sites Dam, so that attention would be brought forward to a costly project that is doomed from the start. California has a problem with water management, not an issue with storage capacities.
Get the point, we also mentioned it in the video but didn‘t go more into detail. However we are definitly not pitching for any projects that we talk about😅 We try to be neutral
Talk to your gov. The federal pumps were running at full power, Your gov ordered state pumps off even though per court order there was nothing to stop them from running. Ask your gov how much he got and gets from utilties investing in billion buck desalination plants, and the billion buck power plants needed to run them, and the billions in fossil fuel needed every year to fuel them. All passed on to rate payers and given to the richest who own the project, and the billions in gov't bonds floated to pay for them.
@@russell7489 they will never power any desalination plants unless we make a return to nuclear power 🔋
@@russell7489 Exactly. Shortages are man made in CA, whether its water, electricity or buildable land. It enriches certain people (Can you guess?)
@@christiankruse1970 The Rezniks and Socal developers.
The restoration of Tulare Lake in the San Joaquin Valley, which is naturally happening RIGHT NOW is a much better idea. More than double the amount of water can be held in it at 1/5th the cost. The area currently grows cotton, which is completely unsuitable for this part of the world.
yes yes yes its already there , merde alors!!
Very true cotton is the states biggest crop and the big city residents are subsidizing huge corporate farms that that are using all that water. Most vegetables seem to be imported from mexico and central america
Billions of boll weevils could not be reached for comment. There was a reason cotton production went there.
If it’s anything like our ‘high speed rail’ we don’t have to worry because it’ll never be built!
This actually is making progress and being built unlike the phony high speed rail that no one wants. They have spent 100 Bill + when we could have had something a lot more useful, once again stupid liberal policies and projects.
But we’re nevertheless spending billions on that railway that won’t even be a real bullet train. And now it’s been shortened to just Merced and Barstow.
😂10% for the big guy and it's done tomorrow 😅
@@abcsandoval Two of the real swinging cities in California!😀😀
You can thank Elon for stalling it
We’re not in a drought anymore. We’re in normal cycles. Everyone calls out periods of no water a drought but it’s been the same cycles since I’ve been alive here for 43 years. We need more water storage. I hope they build the dams.
I mean... it's just been one year. You're assuming we're gonna get a ton of rain next year. I.. I just don't know if that's a smart idea. We do need more water storage but to assume that we're gonna see this amount of water next year and then the next year after that? I don't think that's smart.
Build storage but assume the worst and keep conserving water the best we can despite the whole "we have to preserve the almond industry at the cost of our very survival" mentality.
I’ve heard that this drought language is misleading because it gives the impression that the dry cycles are abnormal. They’re not actually.
@@cosmicallyderived they’ve been doing it to us since we were kids. California water history is an ugly thing. If you’ve never seen a movie called China Town, it’s an amazing film. I don’t know how historically accurate it is but it will give you a basic idea of how California has gotten the water system we have now.
@@melchiorentreri3651 I didn’t hear anyone say that we were going to continue to get this much rain year after year. Ca goes through cycles of very wet years and many year gaps with little rain fall. We had a bit of a red herring this year. This was our transition year between La Niña and El Niño. Historically, it should have produced moderate rainfall. We had several great winter cold storms early and then our Pineapple Express set up. It was a water windfall for the state. El Niño is now here. This next winter based on historical data, should be very wet again. The problem will be that we have little to no new water infrastructure to take advantage of 23/24’s El Niño. It’s a missed opportunity as a “drought” will likely return in 2025- through possibly 2030. Just like everything we do in Ca, we always spend billions of dollars on infrastructure to see it remain unused, or 💩canned in the middle of the project. We could have also dredged or expanded current reservoirs storage when they were drained from our most recent drought. I did not hear of any projects that attempted to do any of that. Our bureaucrats are about as smart as a box of rocks here in Ca, when it comes to water.
@@melchiorentreri3651 as others have stated, this is how water works in California. That's why there's so many reservoirs.
Very clear information! Thank you very much for sharing that with us!
This guy is not telling you the truth. Most of California's water is purposely allowed to flow out into the ocean when it should be pumped into other regions that need the water. Snow Pack and flood waters provide enough water to supply all of California. But instead they allow most of the water to flow out into the ocean. He is lying to you.
My father was a chief engineer on the Oroville Dam and was a specialist on the water issue of California. I learned a lot from him on this issue. I think it is more than past time to work on the next stages of the project and create the dams necessary for the future.
Yes, build it. The value of the project will increase with time.
As someone who lives in California, I think the Sites project is long over due. This winter was a missed opportunity to fill additional reservoirs. In part with water that can't be stored as reservoir levels are managed to accommodate snow melt.
The project may be expensive, but the cost is small compared to the cost of lost revenue from drought. Also, the reservoir provides an additional place to obtain water for fighting wild fires, which could represent more savings.
I say, take the four billion from the corrupt cucks running the state into a wall of debt, homelessness and crime. Reduce pr!ck Gavin Newsom’s income!!
Missed opportunity… never cali summed up better.
Fully agree. We need this desperately
But it might kill a lizard or something.... good luck getting this past the environmental psychopaths. I can 100% guarantee you this project will be wildly over budget and behind schedule.
I agree! Way long over due and imagine what this last storm season could have done for filling it up. Then again, we have a high speed "Bullet Train", oh wait, that was massive flop and waste of 15B tax payer dollars, a train system that doesn't exist and what little does goes no faster than a regular train between to uncommon start & end points..
It’s a start, but they have to stop dragging their feet and get it done… This year would have been the perfect year if it was already done. Missed opportunity for sure, but I doubt anyone knew just how much water they’d be getting this year, plus the snow melt that’s on the way. Hopefully they can do something to collect it before its too late too.
He conveniently left out all that snow California got 2022-2023!
Stop populating desert cities.
You're right, no one would have predicted the extreme rainfall, snow, snowpack and runoff in California, but they should have expected a reversal to more average conditions. Weather is not climate and vice versa. The drought in the SW is a trend. Trends reverse from time to time. I'm not a climate change denier, we see it happening. But an extreme drought could be predicted to be followed by at least more average or closer to average water years.
So yes, Cali should build this project and others. The Colorado River is over-allocated and has been since the beginning. And with an extensive, high altitude mountain range such as the Sierra Nevada, there should be no such thing as any of that runoff going into the Pacific Ocean.
They should’ve never drained Californias Great Lake
the Lake was not drained per-se the water was used up for SoCal and mostly (80%) for central valley agriculture.
They drained it for farm land
It's called the natural rain cycle in CA.
Except it hasn’t been natural. We’ve been in a drought for a long time. But this winter we had an uncommonly strong atmospheric river which brought more rain than usual. Where tf you get your news from?
@@magesalmanac6424😂 The first sign of someone's lack of knowledge (ignorance) is the use of insults.
Am thinking they cant get it done fast enough....But i would hope this is not the only water project in the works....Would like to see smaller projects undertaken for communities where the projects wouldnt be as difficult or expensive thereby eliminating them from projects like this...
Romans and Persians had great water infrastructure projects.
FYI most of the state has had it’s drought status reduced or removed entirely. We’re also expecting the return of El Niño over the next 2 years. That brings lots of rain and cold to California.
Yes lets live in the moment! Screw the next 20 years
Did you even watch the video? CA cant capture enough water while it is here it will go away after 5 or more years. How long do you plan on living here?
@@liindawgg what are you talking about? The last massive rains was in early 2000s, and the ones before that was in the late 70s early 90s. The location of the Dam is not in a high drought area. The reason why this project was put off for so long wasn't a lack of foresight it was because the south needed to build more reservoirs which in areas of high drought. To be honest the amount of money spent on this project just to have a reservoir is not worth the price. That money should be spent on Building more systems to recharge California's underground Aquifers (you know the water source that is responsible for 40% of california's water during the Decades of drought). But I am sure you know all about that and your comment to be facetious and not sarcastic.
@LiiNDAWgg That's not what he said and NO ONE lives more in the moment than a leftard.
@@gniawd Alarmist crap
Love these civil engineering projects that help so many people.
Yes, and right after California just benefited so much from the high-speed rail network project that we paid for!
This first came up during Arnold Schwarzeneggers term as governor, and was being pushed then, after he went out it wasn't brought up again for about 12 years,. It's a excellent idea and very cost effective also because it's in this Valley. This is somewhere up near Colusa CA, but as I remember, it's not going to be terribly deep like Oroville and Shasta, so probably not a recreational lake
The Governator put California into debt. He is even hated by Republicans. He's responsible for the resurrection of Governor Moonbeam's Career and the fact that Republicans will never control California again.
It will take 10 years to clear all the law suits and environmental issues. Beside they have a very expensive train to no where that provides all the graft they need, it would take to long to create new graft avenues.
@@fjanson2468 there's really no opposition to this, but back in 2007 there was this location and another further north which was underground as I remember
Not deep? So it will more easily evaporate due to greater surface area?
Gov Arnold wanted to a bit over $4 Billion on adding water storage and conservation projects. That was before 2010. The Dem Perma Majority in the Legislature ... Said that "It was not needed, and a waste of $$$ " Voted it down. More recently Jerry Brown had "deffered" Maintenance of Infrastructure... Eventually leading to the Oroville spillway Near Disaster! They had to Evacuate 188k people, due to Brown's ignoring Facts.
I've got to say, the production quality of this video was 10/10. The music was also 10/10. Phenomenal work!
Wow, thanks a lot😍
Well...9.5/10ths.
The narrator didn't know how to pronounce Tehachapi...
We need more of this all over the country
No we don’t . The eastern side of the United States has plenty of water.
In India they just dig small crescent-shaped pits and let the water collect using gravity. Things will grow around it to store water above and below ground and mitigate against runoff and evaporation. Cheaper, faster, less concentrated water storage. Worth a look into.
Yes we need this project to continue future water needs.
Land for the site's reservoir has all ready been granted and no crops are being grown there. I too live in norcal and we need that reservoir for multiple reasons.
Honestly this sounds like a good project
Yes, but why make this so Expensive? About 80mi away you got the Keswick Dam. Just pipe it down to Sites Dam, no pumps are needed. You save an enormous amount off energy!!!! Add floating Solar panel to.
It's California. They can complete the project at 50x the initial cost and 5x the estimated duration.
And then tear down the dam if a non-native fish needs extra water for breeding. Oh wait, that didn't help!
I imagine there are some other locations where such dams could work. Not just in California but some of the other SW states as well.
Use gray water to water grass lawns and flower gardens. Save water off roofs to water food gardens.
Whaat!? You you mean that people are going to have to take personal action themselves!? "Whadda we pay taxes for, I shouldn't have to do ANYTHING".
Humans use 9% of the total - check the figures
There are a handful of people in Silicon Valley (not the former bank) who could easily fund this project and their own legacy. We have many hydro-electric dams in Canada and often a work around is create for fish. They create a small river off to the side that allows the fish to travel to their spawning grounds. The less affordable option is a desalination plant, which must be built on ocean front property.
Another option to conserve water in California is move the almond growers to another part of the U.S. that can sustain the amount water that is needed to grow their trees.
and another option is to live within our resources. Instead of people watering their green lawns, use native plants. Instead of using drinking water to flush toilets, create a second path.
In a state of alternating years of flood and drought, anyone who gets goo-goo about a "Wild And Scenic River" needs to be committed. What needs to be done:
1. Sites Reservoir
2. Auburn Dam
3. Diverting North Coast rivers (yes, we can do this and leave enough flow for salmon)
4. Another San Luis type project (Orestimba Canyon and some other areas west of Interstate 5)
5. Tulare Lake (bed) groundwater recharge projects
Yes.. We need more such insightful episodes.
0:07 The California drought is over.
It’s basically decades of water “Mismanagement” by the cities and State ( more importantly, the State).
The City of San Diego has been doing things right and many cities can learn from their success.
And yet some of the highest taxes.
@@mikelarry2602 Yes. Heaven forfend that people should have to pay for the services they receive.
@@jarvisfamily3837 No, call it by its real name government theft.
Has a study ever been done for the price of desalination plants for those 200,000 extra people?
Pretty big ocean out there.
San Diego County built a desalination plant and the State cut our river water allotment. Translation: Do ANYTHING to help and we'll cut your share and give it to everyone else. No one else is even thinking of trying it. No good deal goes unpunished in this State.
An interesting video about a project that I hadn't been aware of! Small question/nitpick: at 09:35, is it 200,000 people (like in the caption) or households (like in the narration)? An average household in California has 2.94 people.
Sites is projected to have the ability to store 1.5 million acre feet of water. Typical rule of thumb is one acre foot of water will supply the needs of one household for one year. So the actual number would be 1.5 million households, or 4.4 million people.
What did California do with the remaining .06 of people? Kinda interesting!!! Go on you sick-o..... do tell...!!!😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
@@4lostinamerica More water will be available if lawns and golf courses are outlawed.
@@derby1251 People like yourself have been saying that since the last State/Federal Water project was built in 1979, a time in which the population has doubled.
I love the juxtaposition of the shots from the cities, showing ultra green golf courses and lawns.
Golf courses are a huge waste of water
And swimming pools. CA should ban the building of new pools beyond a small size, and require water conserving covers on all pools.
Best is to ground radar the basin to find the best access to large gravel based aquifers, scrap the top layer of clay off at strategic places and flood them with the run off. There's probably multiple capacity of the sites storage project, just below are feet.
Good for future "Water Splitting Technologies." Atta Boy. Not optimum concept but dang close. Future Geo-engineer?
If there are no other dams to be built other than this, then it's best to build it asap
Haarp has contributed almost 100% of the problems of the weather being that they control it for the most
For all of us locals.. the Colorado desert is the Sonora. Same same different name. I had to look that up cause I never heard it called the Colorado desert lol
To be fair, he was listing the names of basins, not deserts. )
Yep, there is no Colorado Desert. The U.S. has 4 deserts, the Great Basin, Sonoran, Mojave and a little of the Chihuahuan. There is the Colorado Plateau, mostly in Utah and Arizona, which technically qualifies as one based on annual rainfall, but it's never referred to as a desert.
They definitely need to do this asap anything that will help but we can't act like California and all those dry hot places will be wet like mid east or the places that naturally receive more rain
A water bond for $7Billion was passed in 2014. They've done nothing with it except rebuild Oroville spillway. This project could have been completed for this year's excess rain. Sad.
I wonder how much water will evaporate from the new lake. It looks to be rather shallow, compared to its size.
And maybe enough people will move out of Cal that it will not be needed.
They also left out that a lot of these dams cannot be filled to full capacity. Lake Hodges in San Diego is a great example of this. Decades past a service or replacement date.
Our politicians have zero interest in maintenance, because it isn’t novel and they can’t slap their name on it.
In Germany you have to make sure that all the rain that falls on your property, stays on your property and seeps into the ground. This greatly reduces the cost for rainwater sewage systems and prevents flood waves from forming in rivers.
different climate entirely
We are using this now. New project must mitigate off site runoff using swales to slow down flow and allow percolation plus using dry wells rather than storm drains that drain to the sea. Soon as these projects are done, the site owners will try and figure out how much is reaching the aquifer which the water companies use to supply potable water. A system of rebates are in the future, I’m sure.
Instead of pumping water uphill into a reservoir that will cost way more than they originally estimated, why not pump the water down into the water table that is constantly dropping and causing the ground to subside?
Money taxes. 4bn is cail after bull shitn will 12b
the mountains are granite. and have granite roots that go down many klms into the earth
Because you can't, once an aquifer is empty and collapses you can't pump water back in.
Look @ You. Trying to be a Geo-engineer? atta boy, have a Cigar Kid, your gunna go far.
It's California, they will screw it up no matter what......but they will virtue signal...oh how they will virtue signal.!
In addition to something like this, so much more could be done for water supply in the southwest. I have proposed that we cover Lake Mead with solar panels to reduce evaporation and generate power at the same time.
How about not letting the water flow out into the ocean?
@@andypeterson8013 It doesn't. The Colorado River has rarely reached the ocean since the 60s.
I Central Valley resident of California, and Geologist. The 2023 wet year provided CA with 200% of its snowpack in the Sierras and came rushing down the slopes through the rivers and dams had to release much of it leading to the near return of Tulare Lake. The lake is fed by the Kings River, Kaweah, and Kern mostly. The Kings and Kern like most rivers in CA are modified to control their flow. Rivers are controlled to store water and re-direct it for keystone species like the Salmon in the San Joaquin River, which now spawn just below Friant Dam. The rivers are major areas of groundwater recharge, which has become the biggest source of water for many in Central Valley, as we receive less surface water. CA to preserve and hopefully regain some of its groundwater has started SGMA (Sustainable Groundwater Management Act) and to reduce subsidence and better manage groundwater. We need rivers to recharge, and can’t rely on rainfall because it has a very much chance of making past the layers of clay left by the ancient lakebed (not Tulare Lake, Corcoran Lake). I don’t know if building another dam is the right thing to do for the Sacramento Valley, as surface water stored want help with recharge due to the generation of clay at its bottom and will lose it to evaporation (which will only get worse with a warming climate).
CA residents both in city and rural communities HAVE reduce their water usage, at least follow sustainable methods. Get rid of grass lawns, replace them with drought tolerant plants and native plants, the yards will look prettier and cost you less on your water bill. My family got rid of all our grass and it has significantly reduced our cost in water.
Nuclear power plants will need to be constructed for the 4 existing pumping plants that pump water to SoCal. Tehachapi, Wind Gap, Wheeler Ridge, and Buania Vista Pumping Plants that were constructed back in 1960 + by the SWP are all within 40 miles of each other and were the original electrical power plan before the tree huggers started screaming. Windmills, solar panels, and mandated EVs will place the future electrical grid to the limit with this newly added pumping plant for this new reservoir to work !!
At 9:20 there is a photo of the flood in Acampo in January 2023 that was due to breaching the levees on the Cosumnes River. The Sites Reservoir would do nothing to protect this area. Adding less than 10% to the potential storage capacity of the State Water Project is not a panacea, but it's a start.
wise idea.
That's great, so what do they have planned for L.A.? I was driving west on the 91, and all of that rain water washing out to the Ocean.
This project should absolutely move forward! I've lived in California all my life of 74 years and with global warming and the growing agro supply needed it's a no brainer!
We had a drought last summer in SW Florida. It didn't rain for 2 days. It rains almost every day from June through September.
How many hurricanes did that rain come from. Last time I checked California doesn't have to worry about hurricanes kicking the shit out of their state
@@jamesadams893 You lucky dog.
Here in minneaota you can take a shower untill you run out of hot water. NBD. Where I live, it's easy to find water if you dig a hole starting at 15- 20 ft
Ground water is also a huge issue here. The consolidation of water to a few locations has caused the state to drop in elevation, and has caused infrastructure issues statewide
Exactly this will solve nothing when the ground will open up and drop hundreds to thousands of feet. The ground is missing way too much ground water from the ground pumping done in the drought years which will take a huge toll the day California gets the earthquake they've been expecting
Add rising sea levels to the equation.
@@leechurchill1965 and wildfires that have made the ground non absorbable to any of the rain that fell and to any future flooding which will multiply and stack up when the time comes, out elevation is just worsening in the middle central valley all along the verticle middle below sea level area surrounded by a giant bowl of higher elevations
Seriously Doody? That goes back literally 200 years. The problem was always there, but thanks for your input.
I was thinking the same thing. Problem with preventing flooding and putting all our water into big lakes is it doesn't allow for it to soak into the ground and replenish aquifers. Flooding is a natural process that if we eliminate would cause other problems me thinks.
The technology on display here is amazing.
It would be insane to not do this.
that would be great. i doubt Cali can pull it off. let's hope!
Remember, the idea is 80 years old,,,,,, from a time when Cali still had smart people.
Build it. Building late is better than never.
Like High Speed Rail, it will take 30 years and cost 5 times the initial price.
Nice Vid!
Hearing him say Tehachapi was hilarious
I replayed that part of few times.
Yeah I really think that as a native of CA i have been hearing about this for years yet nothing has been done about it in the long run we will reap the benefits in a short time
Right now we're paying for it during a pandemic and a war that's on the other side of the world but yet Americans are paying high taxes and California is drowning making families leave there homes for a cheaper living well gas and living is sky high but a damn and war is more important then human resources and living
I'm a big fan of the fact that it taps off of a river rather than blocking it. This sounds like a win/win for the environment and the residents.
Agree, and it gets back the energy from pumping when its released is a big deal.
San Luis Resevoir is like that
Yes, that appeals to me, too.
No win at all. The water rights to the Sacramento River water are already higher than the river produces. Now they're going to build a lake that sucks even more water out of an already over stressed supply.
And saying the lake will be filled by winter water levels is a total joke. I grew up in Colusa and those "floods" and "high water events" only happen about every five to ten years, sometimes longer. The rest of the time everyone has to conserve water because there's not enough.
There are other ways, smarter ways to go about conservation of Californias shrinking supply of water and a project like this that will only increase the states water storage by less than 1% isn't one of them.
4 billion dollar dam project to be able to supply water to only 200,000 people seems overly costly.
Well, we spent 24 billion on homelessness in the last 5 years and got more homelessness... so $4 billion sounds downright cheap for something actually useful.
Love it!!!
CA urban and industrial % of total water is 11%. Even if you removed every single person from CA, it would still be in drought.
They never mention this, people/communities/cities only use 10% of the water. Cows & Almonds use more water.
If only the SF Bay Area would fix their leaking sewage issues. The system is over 130 years old and it is dilapidated and in disrepair. Because of this, Norcal reservoir water is used every year in order "Flush the Bay."
Obviously most of the commenters here dont have a clue how California's water collection works. The 'rainy season' is usually January to March, with a little rain on either end of those months. Then the rain isn't all that much, it's the snowpack that the reservoirs get their water from. The melting snow provides 80 to 85% of irrigation to the valley. The other 15 to 20% comes out of the aquifer, the water levels of the aquafer are dropping faster than nature is replenishing, so in the not too distant future, there won't be enough water left for anything. This project is very necessary, there's also smaller valleys in the foothills further south that could be used in the same way.
This video is great but it doesn't stress enough how challenging California's precipitation cycles can be. It doesn't rain much in California and the reservoirs are almost entirely dependent on snow falling over the mountains in the winter. A project like this can help ease the predictable snowmelt after a big season.
It can rain a lot. It has here the last few days. And we do have years of flooding. I lived in the Sacramento valley, in a town surrounded by two rivers: the Feather River and the Yuba River. I can tell you from my childhood and young adulthood, that lots of winters, the rivers would swell and be encroaching on the tops of the levies that protected the town. Flooding IS part of some areas of the state.
Environmentalists will court-block this until it dies, as they always do in the state.
We have not paid attention to saving water and let over population expand. Desert areas can be brought back. Everyone having a pool is not a good thing for saving water.
What’s the point of having more water if its contaminated lmao, I like gas with my water gives it that extra kick
Good think you aren’t in charge of the environment
And they should. 80% of California's water goes to the ag industry. To state "The only disruption will be the high-power pumps" is grossly inaccurate.
@@sumsara9255you don’t like eating food?
Im not sure we’re in a drought anymore, it’s officially over. Lake Tulare is back baby!!! 🤙🏾
Think that volcano in the Pacific a year ago which sucked huge amounts of water into the 3rd layer of our earth caused the drought and than earthquakes and floods along the coastal areas of CA?
@@1m2rich bro hook me up with your LSD dealer
Regardless of whether California has water or not , the agricultural industry needs to change its practice to more drought-tolerant crops and short session crops . No matter how this plays out, the future needs to change for the future of the growing population of humans .
This is one of the best conceived ideas for capturing water in California that I’ve seen in years. I can’t wait till it gets started.
If the past is any guide, you are in for a painful lesson in patience. Look at the California High Speed Rail project. Approved in 2008, it won't be done for at least another decade, and maybe never. The project is currently $100 BILLION overbudget, despite massive dumping of federal dollars. And the main contractor fled to a 3rd world country so they could work for less corrupt politicians....
They could just stop dumping water back in the ocean for a start. CA hasn't built new reservoirs in 40 years. Sorry to say it's all political.
@@skidmoda Ye I was wondering that too, if they need the water so badly why keep letting in back into the ocean?
California is having such a severe water shortage, they may need to create these ocean water reservoirs and install Desalination Plants to get their water. Taking water from the Colorado River and Snake River is not enough.
Can we all agree that "the weather" is nature's perfect desalination operation and humans need to adapt to use the vast amount of pure water that comes from the sky? Nature doesn't pump tons of brine back into the ocean to disrupt the ecology.
Only 10% of the water in California are used by people in communities/cities, cows & almonds use more water. Maybe stop having so many cows
Bringing the beavers back into the watershed would make major improvements as well, beavers are natures, finest Hydro engineers
Absolutely. The Sites Dam and reservoir are excellent environmentally beneficial project concepts that should have been built years ago. It would be a simple thing to identify wasteful projects that could have been canceled to fund the Sites projects.
To combat droughts and the spreading of wild fires we need more beavers around the city. Beavers create wetlands because they block off river streams creating a huge puddle of water wider then the beavers actual home. Even if it looks destructive it’s a natural barrier of water preventing fires from going passed that soggy wet land and it’ll keep the land wet for longer preventing dry seasons.
Absolutely. Problem is most of the banks are private land.
New Jersey did this years ago with the Round Valley Reservoir. A massive Reservoir where water is pumped up a hill into it.
It is a long overdue project as well as dredging the Tulare lake bed to make it deeper to able to store more water for the state's future use.
The problem in the Central Valley is the dead pan that does not let the water percolate down.
@@u4riahsc no way to create aquifer rechargers?
@@ToddFithian Maybe now there is a technology, but the only way was to dig it all out.
Restore the beaver. They will work tirelessly to keep water around longer helping with drought.