by Katy Grimes, E&E Legal Senior Media Fellow and California Globe Editor
As Appearing in the California Globe
Reader asks ‘Whatever happened to the reservoirs that the residents of California approved to be built in 2014?’
Gov. Gavin Newsom is bragging about more than $140 million coming from the Biden-Harris Administration to support “critical water storage projects here in California, including the Sites Reservoir.” This is curious since voters already approved Proposition 1 in 2014 together with $7.12 billion in general obligation bonds for the Sites Reservoir.
“We’ll continue building more, faster to prepare for a hotter, drier future,” Newsom says now, after a record winter snowpack and heavy rain year, resulting in Lake Shasta filled to the brim with water.
But Newsom blames “severe, climate-fueled drought” for water shortages, when it’s our government: California sends the first 50% of its winter runoff out to the ocean for environmental purposes; the second 50% goes to agriculture (40%) and urban use (10%).
One Twitter/X reader responded accordingly:
“It dryer because you never built any water storage. It’s a government made drought.”
“Whatever happened to the reservoirs that the residents of California approved to be built in 2014, over 10 years ago?” a California Globe reader asked. Indeed, and what about the $30 billion in voter approved bonds since year 2000?
