California announces tentative funding for new giant dams

California officials said Friday that eight major water projects qualify for a share of billions in state drought funds, an announcement that breathes new life into plans for two reservoir expansions in the Bay Area and two new massive dams in the Central Valley. Bids to enlarge the East Bay’s Los Vaqueros Reservoir and Santa Clara County’s Pacheco Reservoir were deemed eligible for the highly sought Proposition 1 money. So were proposals for a new, 13-mile-long reservoir in Sites (Colusa County) and a new, 18-mile-long reservoir known as Temperance Flat near Fresno. Friday’s funding decision was good news for proponents of the storage projects, most of whom had been denied money in a tentative verdict announced in January. The California Water Commission initially determined that just three of 11 proposals submitted met Proposition 1’s strict terms for providing public benefit. Most of the applicants appealed the original decision, which could have doomed many of the projects, resulting in a new round of scoring...MORE