16 CapitalPress.com
October 28, 2016
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California
Sites proposal gains momentum as it prepares to seek bond funds
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
MAXWELL, Calif. —
Backers of the proposed Sites
Reservoir west of here be-
lieve they have plenty of mo-
mentum going into next year’s
application period for Proposi-
tion 1 water bond funds.
The number of agencies
signed on to participate in the
project has grown from 14 to
34, including from the San
Francisco Bay area and San
Joaquin Valley, said Jim Wat-
son, general manager of the
Sites Authority.
The Legislature also recent-
ly passed Assembly Bill 2553,
a bipartisan measure that will
give flexibility in construc-
tion methods to help speed the
project.
“With what we’ve put to-
gether now, we are on track to
making the Sites Reservoir a re-
ality,” said Assemblyman James
Gallagher, R-Yuba City, who
authored the bill.
The $3.6 billion Sites Res-
ervoir project is one of several
around the state that have been
identified for potential funding
under Proposition 1, the $7.5
billion water bond approved by
voters in 2014. The bond sets
aside $2.7 billion for large stor-
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Assemblyman James Gallagher, left, and Colusa County Supervisor Kim Vann discuss the Sites Res-
ervoir proposal during an Oct. 21 presentation in Maxwell, Calif. The Sites project will apply next year
for Proposition 1 water bond funds.
age projects.
The California Water Com-
mission is set to take applica-
tions from projects in the first
half of 2017, determine the eli-
gibility of projects late next year
and determine funding in the
spring of 2018, according to the
agency’s website.
Language in the initiative
had called for the commission to
hand out money as early as this
December. But an initial time-
line set out by the commission
called for projects to be funded
as late as 2019, Watson said.
“In May, we supported the
commission’s decision to ac-
celerate the schedule, and they
pulled a year off the schedule,”
he said. “We believe it’s critical
that these projects move for-
ward.”
Another project expected to
seek funding is the $2.5 billion
Temperance Flat Reservoir near
Fresno, for which the newly
formed San Joaquin Valley Wa-
ter Infrastructure Authority has
begun planning its application.
The bond tasks the water
commission with funding the
public-benefit portion of storage
projects, which could include
flood protection, ecosystem
restoration, recreation or water
quality benefits. Local agencies
that would benefit from addi-
tional water would need to part-
ly fund projects.
Both the Sites and Temper-
ance Flat projects would be aid-
ed by the passage of AB 2553,
which will allow several steps
in construction, such as design-
ing and building, to happen
concurrently.
The bill passed 78-2 in the
Assembly and 36-1 in the Sen-
ate and was signed by Gov. Jer-
ry Brown.
“We don’t agree on every-
thing,” said state Sen. Jim Niel-
sen, R-Gerber, referring to the
governor. “We’re fighting over
the tunnels. But we agree on
this.”
Brown also proposes build-
ing twin water tunnels to trans-
port water south from the Sac-
ramento River.
Planning for Sites has had a
significant head start over oth-
er projects. The U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation, the state De-
partment of Water Resources
and other agencies have been
studying the workability of the
planned 1.8 million acre-foot
reservoir since before the CAL-
FED Bay-Delta Program’s re-
cord of decision in 2000 listed
Sites as a potential project.
A joint powers authority
was formed in 2009 and has
been gathering commitments
from those that would bene-
fit from the additional water
supply. The Sites Authority re-
cently opened a new office in
Maxwell and launched a new
information website.
The moves follow a DWR
report last year that Sites could
provide as much as 900,000
acre-feet of additional water
storage during drought years.
An acre-foot is enough water
to serve a household for a year.
Rancher Mary Wells,
whose 500-acre property is
in the center of the proposed
reservoir in western Colusa
and Glenn counties, supports
the project because she under-
stands the need for additional
water storage, she said. She
also farms rice and almonds
near Maxwell and could ben-
efit from the project.
“This project is different
because it will have a whole
different impact on the locals,”
Wells said, noting that plans
call for Sites to be built by lo-
cal companies. She credits the
authority for dealing directly
with affected landowners.
Wells touts what propo-
nents see as the project’s en-
vironmental benefits, as up to
half of its stored water will be
dedicated to increasing Sacra-
mento River flows to improve
water quality in the Sacramen-
to-San Joaquin River Delta at
certain times of the year.
“The world has changed,”
she said. “California has
changed. As much as farming,
we deal with the environment.”
Walnut harvest
resumes after
rain drenches
N. California
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
44-4/#4N
LOS MOLINOS, Calif. —
Growers who rushed to harvest
as many walnuts as they could
before the mid-October rains
drenched Northern California
are now slowly returning to
work.
Farms got an early start
on harvesting an anticipated
670,000-ton walnut crop by
using ethephon to hasten hull
split, which produces lighter
kernels, said Rick Buchner, a
University of California Coop-
erative Extension farm advisor
in Red Bluff.
Buchner said he hadn’t yet
heard of any damage from the
storms, which dumped nearly
an inch of rain on the area Oct.
14-17. Some growers were
waiting a day or two to let their
orchard floors dry before re-
suming harvest, he said.
“It was just a matter of being
under the right cloud,” he said,
noting that some orchards got
wetter than others.
“The part that’s unknown is
the quality — how much they
can actually take from the or-
chard and put in the bank,”
Buchner said of the harvest.
“Anything that’s light and
doesn’t have a hull in it will be
separated out.”
Bruce Lindauer, owner of
Lindauer Farm Management
near Los Molinos, said the
quality of his walnuts has been
good. He said he’s heard of
some growers kicking out 10
percent of their crop because of
sunburn damage.
“I’m not kicking out that
much,” he said. “My yield
is actually up. I’m just doing
Howards now, but my Hartleys
were up at least 15 percent.”
Growers were accelerating
their harvests to get the lighter
kernels that walnuts natural-
ly have just before hull split.
Lighter kernels earn a higher
premium, which is important
as the average price per pound
to the grower has dropped from
about $2.05 in 2013 to about 85
cents.
Buchner and other advisers
have been offering growers tips
on producing higher-quality
kernels, such as not watering
too much or too little, prevent-
ing defoliation by guarding
against leaf-feeding insects and
managing sunburn with kaolin
particle films.
Sunburn was a problem for
some growers this summer, as
temperatures that soared to near
110 degrees in the Central Val-
ley for several days in late July
affected numerous crops.
The harvest’s first work
stoppage came on Oct. 2, when
the first storm of the new water
year spritzed Red Bluff with
one-third of an inch of rain.