As salmon and Delta fish crash, Trump regime approves Sites Reservoir Project ROD

The U.S. Department of the Interior on Friday celebrated the one-year anniversary of President Trump’s Executive Order 14181 that would increase water diversions from the Sacramento River watershed and California Delta by approving the Record of Decision (ROD) for the controversial Sites Reservoir Project in Northern California. 

That order directed the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce to immediately take actions to “override existing activities that unduly burden efforts to maximize water deliveries” at a time when salmon and Delta fish populations are in peril due to the already massive quantities of water exported out of the estuary on an annual basis.

Yes, that was the order that followed Trump’s bizarre Memorandum, “Putting People over Fish: Stopping  Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California,” on January 20, 2025 where Trump blamed the “alleged protections” for Delta Smelt and other fish species” for the loss of the “enormous water supply” that “flows wastefully into the Pacific Ocean” even though Southern California reservoirs were in great shape and near capacity at that time.

Trump administration officials, Central Valley agribusiness interests, water agencies and California Governor Gavin Newsom claim that the Sites Project is needed to increase “water supply reliability” in the state, while a broad coalition of environmental justice groups, Tribes, fishing groups and conservation organizations say it will devastate imperiled Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations and harm local drinking supplies while costing up to $6.8 billion.   

The ROD released Friday authorizes the Bureau of Reclamation to provide up to 25 percent of the total cost for the 1.5 million acre-foot off-stream reservoir on the west side of the Sacramento Valley near Maxwell. Designed to capture and store water during wet periods for use in dry years, the project will “strengthen reliability for communities, agriculture and the environment across the state,” the DOI claimed in a statement.  

“President Trump made clear that federal water projects must deliver real results for American families,” claimed Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. “This administration is getting it done in record time. The Sites Reservoir Project and the gains achieved over the past year demonstrate how a disciplined, mission-focused approach can expand water reliability for communities, agriculture and the economy.” 

Fritz Durst, Chair of the Sites Project Authority Board of Directors, echoed Burgum’s claims about the Sites Reservoir Project.

“This milestone decision reflects years of rigorous analysis, collaboration, and a shared commitment to advancing a project that balances our water supply needs with protecting the environment,” Durst gushed. “We’re grateful to our federal partners, who have helped make this project possible and look forward to advancing Sites in the coming year.” 

However, environmental justice groups, Tribes, fishing groups and conservation organizations condemned the Trump administration’s approval of the Sites Reservoir Project ROD. They say it comes as “no surprise” following the Trump administration’s rewriting of the plan for Bay-Delta water operations to allow most of the state’s developed water to go to huge corporate agribusiness operations, a move that threatens  the salmon and the communities that they depend on, along with the water supplies of cities. 

“Sites Reservoir does not create new water or improve reliability for most Californians, instead it negatively impacts drinking water quality, and salmon, in the Sacramento River and Bay Delta while providing little local benefits,” said Save California Salmon’s Executive Director Regina Chichizola in a statement. “It is a costly boondoggle that uses public money to subsidize a private reservoir while raising Californian’s water bills, harming salmon and water quality, and failing to respect Tribal Nations and local economies in the North State.” 

She added that California and the federal government have already committed billions of public funding to the private reservoir “even though we will rarely be able to fill it.” Furthermore, Sites Reservoir would divert water from an already over-allocated Sacramento River and Trinity River, a major tributary to the Klamath, she emphasized. 

“The water would mostly benefit a small group of powerful war interests, while Californians are left to pay the price through higher water bills, degraded water quality and climate impacts. Critics say the reservoir does not create new water, it re-allocates already scarce water away from rivers, fish, and communities, and the money would be better invested in replenishing groundwater supplies,” Chichizola added. 

Opponents of the project also pointed out the continued lack of meaningful Tribal consultation. 

“Tribal Nations were not meaningfully consulted on a project that directly impacts our waters, sacred places, and our salmon,” said Josa Talley, a Karuk Tribal member and Communications and Outreach Coordinator at Save California Salmon. “That alone should have stopped this project. It is reckless to ignore Tribal knowledge and push projects that further destabilize rivers, devastate our already ailing salmon runs and the industries and cultures they sustain, and call it ‘progress.”

Tribes contend that the Sites project reflects a “long and painful pattern” where Tribal Nations whose cultural sites, burial grounds, and waters are impacted continue to not be properly consulted, sidelining Indigenous voices, undermining legal obligations, and violating trust and treaty responsibilities in decisions that directly and irrevocably adversely impact Indigenous lands, waters, livelihoods, and lifeways, according to Talley.

Commercial fishermen also point out that creating a massive new diversion in the Sacramento River “would not only be the nail in the coffin of the salmon fishing industry, but also would be used to fill the controversial Delta Tunnel,” Save California Salmon stated,

As if that wasn’t bad enough, project critics note that a recent contract ensures that many of the construction jobs tied to Sites Reservoir will go to out-of-state contractors, while California communities “are left with the long-term environmental damage, the serious risks to water quality and safety, and the financial burden.”

“The fact that the Sites Authority, a private entity with public funding, has gone back on its promise to provide local jobs and benefits has further complicated this project and highlights that its promise of environmental benefits has also been proven false,” Chichizola concluded. 

Keiko Mertz, Policy Director of Friends of the River, agreed with Chichizola and Talley in their assessment that the approval of the ROD by the Trump administration was no surprise.

“The Record of Decision was expected, and does not resolve the fundamental problems with Sites Reservoir,” said Mertz. “Sites is still a nearly $7 billion gamble that delivers little water at enormous cost, threatens rivers and fisheries, and distracts from real solutions.”

Despite claims that selecting Alternative 3 and shifting the Terminal Regulating Reservoir from west to east reduces impacts, Mertz said the massive new diversion and associated water quality impacts  “remain unchanged.” She noted that diverting additional flows “takes flows salmon depend on to survive and worsens the water quality while increasing the risk of harmful algal blooms and releasing warm, stagnant water into the Delta.” 

She said the federal commitment also brings into question whether the reservoir may directly or indirectly impact the Trinity River — and whether the water will be used to fill the controversial Delta tunnel. “The Trinity River is the largest, and coolest tributary to the Klamath River, yet most of it is diverted to the federal Central Valley Water Project for use by large agricultural exporters,” according to Mertz. 

Trinity River water is diverted through a diversion tunnel from Lewiston Reservoir to Whiskeytown Reservoir for storage. The water is then released into Clear Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River, with its ultimate destination being the Westlands Water District and other large corporate growers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.

The approval of the Sites Reservoir project takes place as the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta suffers from its worst-ever ecological crisis — largely the result of already massive water exports from the largest estuary on the West Coast. 

The latest California Department of Fish and Wildlife Midwater Trawl survey on the Delta reveals that zero Delta Smelt, an indicator species that once was the most abundant fish in the entire estuary, were found in the estuary for the eighth year in a row.

In addition, the populations of pelagic (open water) Delta fish species, including Longfin Smelt, Sacramento Splittail, Threadfin Shad and Striped Bass, have crashed to record low numbers in recent years: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentId=239888&inlin

Commercial salmon fishing off the California coast has been closed for three years, due to the collapse of the Sacramento and Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon populations. While the salmon populations on both the Sacramento and Klamath watersheds appear to be improving, due to three wet years on both rivers and dam removal on the Klamath, the fish are still well below historical numbers.

And the Trump administration is doing everything it can to make things even worse by approving a project that would divert even more water from the Delta!