WARNING!
There is a major threat to water quality from the proposed Sites Reservoir. It has been well known for 40 years that the water in such a reservoir in the Sacramento Valley coast range will be very warm − meaning it could not be released into the Sacramento River when contractors south-of-the Delta are most interested in having it. State and federal agencies already struggle to keep the river cool enough to keep fish alive. Added to the temperature issue is the fact that the land planned for the reservoir and the land where the source water would come from contains heavy metals.
As Jerry Boles puts it, “The draft EIR/EIS fails to discuss the high concentrations of a number of metals in the source waters to the proposed project, and, even more important, does not discuss water quality in the proposed reservoir. Water quality in the proposed reservoir will mimic that of the source waters, and hence the reservoir will have concentrations of a large number of metals that exceed many water quality criteria and standards.” Metals include mercury, chrome, selenium, and more.
The warm polluted water that can’t be returned to the Sacramento River will instead be used on agricultural land in the Sacramento Valley – poisoning the land as has been done in the San Joaquin Valley.
Jerry Boles was the Chief of the Water Quality and Biology Section of the Northern District of the Department of Water Resources in Red Bluff. He was exceedingly qualified to comment on the proposed Sites Reservoir draft Environmental Impact Statement/Report in 2017.
Click link to view his full comment to the Bureau of Reclamation (11.17.2017):
2 Different Views of Sites Reservoir
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