Water storage is not rocket science. The people of California pass a $7 billion bond years ago to create new water storage facilities. The recalcitrant Gavin Newsom has refused to spend a dime of that money. California does not have a lack of water. It has a corrupt Governor working hard to kill off the State.
“Case and point is proposed expansion of Los Vaqueros Reservoir It was built in the 1990’s. Financed by a 450 million dollar bond issue by the Contra Costa Water District (CCWD). Its purpose was to pump water from the Sacramento River when non-salty run-off conditions prevailed early in the year.
In 2012 expansion of Los Vaqueros was accomplished. Even hard core environmentalists were happy with the outcome.
Enter the Federal, State, and regional water agencies to double the capacity of Las Vaqueros. In the regulatory climate of today, it took a decade to put a coalition of interested parties together.
Red tape, permits, environmental impact reports, engineering seismic studies, and additional construction costs resulted in expanded Los Vaqueros to be even more expensive.
CCWD was now expected to pay for cost overruns and have their customers suffer when the proposed doubling of capacity took place. In addition there was concern when the project was completed, control of the facility would longer rest with the utility.
This is why water availability is limited and expensive—Newsom and his friends do not want it.
Creating more water storage? By Richard Eber
Richard Eber, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views, 2/3/25 www.capoliticalnewsandviews.com
As a child I was really upset about the fate rear befell King Kong. Fighter planes shot him dead from his perch on the Empire State Building
My first instinct was to condemn the Air Force for executing my gentle giant hero. Later I learned the hate of America was responsible for King Kong’s demise.
My point is once failure transpires, it often doesn’t really matter why things have gone haywire. In a similar vein I look for the reasons California has done virtually nothing for the past 40 years to increase water storage facilities in the state.
This sad fact has recently come to light with the firestorm that enveloped Loa Angeles. Dry draught conditions combined with Santa Anna Winds, helped contribute to the disaster. Making things worse was the lack of water availability in the Palisades area to fight the fire. This was at least partially responsible for thousands of structures burning up.
Even if Governor Gavin Newsom or L.A. Mayor Bass do not care to discuss the problem, the lack of H2O is a critical problem that must be addressed in California.
“Too many cooks spoil the broth” comes into play. Federal, State, and regional government agencies have a seat set the table. So are commissions, environmentalist groups, and agencies on all levels of government.
Then there is CEQA, permits. and Court proceedings who all participate with the process of building new water storage.
In the end, very little gets done. Enjoying a root canal occurs more often than actually building a reservoir or dam. As often is the case, the interests of wildlife and fish are given a higher priority the needs of agriculture and the States expanding population.
Bonds allocated for increasing water supplies are often used for purposes other than producing the end product. An example is Gavin Newsom tearing down the dams on the Klamath River with bond proceeds that were earmarked for storage and producing electricity..
While increasing the salmon run and appeasing environmental concerns is a noble cause, this work does not resonate with what comes out of a spigot or fire hydrant.
Case and point is proposed expansion of Los Vaqueros Reservoir It was built in the 1990’s. Financed by a 450 million dollar bond issue by the Contra Costa Water District (CCWD). Its purpose was to pump water from the Sacramento River when non-salty run-off conditions prevailed early in the year.
In 2012 expansion of Los Vaqueros was accomplished. Even hard core environmentalists were happy with the outcome.
Enter the Federal, State, and regional water agencies to double the capacity of Las Vaqueros. In the regulatory climate of today, it took a decade to put a coalition of interested parties together.
Red tape, permits, environmental impact reports, engineering seismic studies, and additional construction costs resulted in expanded Los Vaqueros to be even more expensive.
CCWD was now expected to pay for cost overruns and have their customers suffer when the proposed doubling of capacity took place. In addition there was concern when the project was completed, control of the facility would longer rest with the utility.
Last November the water company Board of Directors cried “Foul” and withdrew from expanding Los Vaqueros. In making this decision, It is was widely believed interests of their customers were not being met.
In the end. It doesn’t matter who is responsible for what transpired. The project was DOA.
A similar fate has transpired with increasing water supplies in California. The best example was Donald Trump offering at federal expense to raising height of Shasta Dam to enlarge storage by 15%. Governor Newsom turned down this proposal because of protests of Indian Tribes who claimed the expanded lake would cover over ancient burial grounds.
No one has suggested building a floating Casino or waiting for a Democrat to occupy the White House to move the dam expansion forward.
It has been widely publicized the delays in constructing the proposed Sites Reservoir located some 81 miles Northeast of Sacramento. Like Los Vaqueros it would divert water from Sacramento River during peak run-off periods when excess water flows into the Pacific Ocean.
If completed Sites would capture at one time 1.5 million acre feet of water to be used by Central Valley farmers and residents of Southern California. Approval should be a no brainer as no wild rivers are impacted by this land locked structure.
In this case Governor Gavin Newsom through supporting SB-149 has attempted to cut the red tape and lawsuits filed by environmentalists trying to block the project.
Even if these hurdles can be overcome, it is estimated the earliest Sites Reservoir can be operational is 2033. Were this optimistic timetable to be met, it will have taken almost 30 years to plan, receive approval, and construct this vital water storage facility.
Closer to the burn areas in Los Angeles are numerous instances of delaying and canceling needed projects to assist in providing more water for fighting fires.
From the failure to fill a small reservoir under routine maintenance to breaking ground on 13 million project to build 1.1 million gallon water tank in Malibu, local government has been more concerned with DEI, assisting the Homeless and constructing more bike lanes.
Guaranteeing public safety has seldom been on the agenda of Karen Bass or her Progressive-Blue predecessors. This may all change as the 2026
election for Governor soon approaches.
