SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Today's Why Guy question comes from Tricia Towne: "Why hasn't a dam been built in over 50 years?"
This is a popular question to the Why Guy. The short answer is all the best sites to build dams already have dams on them. Most were built in the 40s, 50s and 60s to prevent catastrophic local flooding. The last regional dam built, the New Melones Reservoir north of Sonora was completed in 1980, about 42 years ago.
Now, with extreme drought, we need dams to store water.
Well, guess what? Looks like we're getting a new dam at the Sites Reservoir just west of Maxwell in Colusa County.
President Joe Biden just dedicated $30 million to the project, which is targeted for a 2024 groundbreaking.
The Sites Reservoir would be able to store up to 1.8 million acre-feet of water for the Sacramento River system -- an acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons. There's been a recent shift in moving this project forward, which includes applying for a $2 billion federal loan, which would cover about half of the overall project cost.
How important is this dam? Here's what Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland said:
"Water is essential for every community, for feeding families, growing crops, powering agricultural businesses and sustaining wildlife and our environment," Haaland said in a statement.
According to the California Department of Water Resources, The Sites dam would in wet years siphon off excess water from the swollen Sacramento River and store it for use in dry years.
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