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Preparing for climate change: California’s huge investment in water storage

photo: dry California's new water storage plans. To prepare for climate change, California is making a huge investment in water storage

On Tuesday, the California Water Commission completed a groundbreaking process to make the state’s largest investment in water storage in a generation. With the commission’s action, eight diverse projects around the state are in line to receive nearly $2.7 billion from Proposition 1, approved by voters in 2014.

These projects – including $816 million for the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento – could add 4.3 million acre-feet of new water storage both above and below ground, better preparing California for climate change and drought.

Opinion
This is good news for Californians because we desperately need more places to capture and store water during wet times to manage through inevitable droughts. Climate change, which already is reducing the Sierra snowpack and challenging our water delivery system, makes it even more critical to add storage in as many different forms as possible.

That’s why the Brown administration’s California Water Action Plan calls for investments in reservoirs and groundwater storage as part of an “all-of-the-above” strategy that also includes increased conservation, groundwater management, water recycling, desalination and more.

That […]

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