Hello, Sierra Chapter! It was great to see so many of you at the September meeting as we kicked off the 2022-23 year. We have elections coming up November 8. ACEC-CA’s mission statement is “Professional engineers and surveyors dedicated to building a better California.” Learning about and voting on candidates and issues that work toward or against that mission is one way member firms participate in this mission. Please visit the ACEC-CA website for more information on its advocacy for the industry.
Building a better California takes qualified and talented professionals across our organizations. Finding those professionals is an ongoing concern across the industry. We can all look for opportunities to engage and mentor future generations of professionals, innovators, and leaders. The Sierra Chapter supports several youth and collegiate programs, competitions, and scholarships. Please reach out to one of the board members for more information on these programs, how you can be involved, or to share information on other local programs focused on developing future leaders.
During our September meeting, Jerry Brown, CEO of Waterolology Consulting and Executive Director of the Sites Reservoir Project presented on the Site Reservoir Project. Mr. Brown oversees the Sites Reservoir project development by a multi-disciplined team of consultants, contractors, and experts. As California needs to address its statewide water management challenges by implementing innovative solutions that address our state’s need for a sustainable water supply, the Sites Reservoir Project is a part of the solution. Sites Reservoir is an environmentally beneficial, off-river reservoir that will capture excess water from major storms and save it for drier periods, helping California’s farms, businesses and cities continue to supply reliable water when other sources are low. Sites Reservoir will greatly increase flexibility, reliability and resiliency of statewide water supplies in drier periods.
During Mr. Brown’s presentation, he demonstrated that the Sites Project has broad statewide participation from 17 Sacramento Valley agencies, 2 Bay Area agencies, 2 San Joaquin Valley agencies and 8 Southern California agencies. In addition to these 29 agencies, 12 other agencies occupy a waiting list in anticipation of becoming supporters of this much needed water storage project. The Sites Reservoir Project is a “right-sized” project based on a rigorous value planning effort that cut roughly $2 billion from its original plan making this reservoir more affordable, permittable, and buildable. The project offers climate change resiliency as it captures excess flow from the Sacramento River, is an off-river reservoir which avoids environmental impacts associated with damming a river, and adds 1.5 million acre-feet of water into the statewide system to ease pressure on other water sources during droughts. The Sites project is a locally invested project with federal and state investment, amounting to 56% local, 25% federal, and 19% state participation. The project is estimated to cost $3.9 billion dollars (2021$) – $0.58B (15%) for environmental mitigation, $2.77B (70%) for construction, and $0.58B (15%) is being set aside as contingency to account for unforeseen measures. Construction is anticipated to begin in late 2024 and is believed to take 6 to 8 years to construct and up to 5 years to fill the reservoir, and to be serviceable after year 2 of reservoir filling.
The ACEC Board of Directors thanks Mr. Brown for his time in offering a very informative and engaging presentation.
Tom Sell, President
