This week, Governor Gavin Newsom touted the advancement of the Sites Reservoir project as a step toward “climate resilience” and “water security.” But from our vantage point—fighting for the survival of California’s wild salmon and the fishing communities that depend on them—Sites Reservoir is not a solution. It’s a surefire recipe for further decline, and in some cases, extinction.
Let’s be clear: California’s salmon runs are already in crisis. We are in the midst of a historic three-year closure of the commercial salmon season. Fall-run Chinook returns are dismally low. Spring-run Chinook teeter on the brink of extinction. Meanwhile, communities that depend on salmon—fishermen, Tribal nations, small coastal towns—have lost not just their livelihoods, but part of their cultural and ecological identity.
Instead of confronting this collapse head-on, the Newsom administration is pushing forward with another massive water diversion project—one that threatens to further drain the life out of our rivers and estuaries.
Salmon Are the Canary in California’s Water Wars
The Sites Reservoir is designed to capture water from the Sacramento River during high-flow winter and spring months. But those flows are essential to the health of the Bay-Delta estuary. They cue salmon migrations, flush out pollutants, and sustain the fisheries that countless Californians rely on.
Let’s not pretend you can divert water from the system without consequence. Less freshwater flowing to the Delta means higher temperatures, lower oxygen levels, reduced outmigration flows, and worse outcomes for salmon eggs and juvenile fish. Every gallon that Sites captures upstream is a gallon that doesn’t make it to the estuary—and that puts salmon in peril.
This Isn’t About Climate Resilience. It’s About Priorities.
The Governor has framed Sites as a climate adaptation project. But if climate resilience were truly the goal, California would prioritize restoring natural flow regimes, improving cold-water storage, and enforcing science-based temperature and flow protections. Instead, this administration continues to fast-track outdated infrastructure while ignoring the modern science and ecological safeguards that could reverse salmon declines.
Sites will serve a small number of powerful water users—primarily industrial agriculture—while the public bears the ecological cost. That’s not climate justice. That’s political expediency.
Broken Promises, Ignored Science
The state has poured millions into salmon restoration over the past two decades. Those investments are meaningless if the water those restored habitats need never arrives. And they’re certainly meaningless when the state keeps approving projects like Sites that will undo what little progress we’ve made.
Despite overwhelming evidence and recommendations from scientists, the State Water Resources Control Board has failed to update flow standards to protect fish and the Bay-Delta ecosystem. The current failed standards have been in place for 30 years. Today, there are no state or federal numerical flow requirements to leave enough water in the Sacramento River to keep outmigrating baby salmon alive. The only way to determine if and when it is safe to divert more water from our salmon rivers is for the Governor to allow the State Water Board to set new science-based flow standards. Unfortunately, the Governor is forcing the Water Board to adopt fish-killing voluntary agreements that are designed to lay the groundwork for more salmon-killing projects like Sites and the Delta tunnel .
Salmon Communities Deserve Better
California’s salmon fishery supports thousands of jobs across the state—from commercial and recreational anglers to boat captains, gear manufacturers, and seafood processors. The economic engine it represents is sustainable, renewable, and rooted in California’s natural heritage.
But the Newsom Administration is choosing to sacrifice that industry—along with the salmon themselves—for the sake of a storage project that solves nothing and risks everything.
We urge Governor Newsom and his administration to reconsider this shortsighted path. California doesn’t need more empty promises or concrete monuments to failed water policy. We need bold, science-driven leadership that protects salmon, supports fishing communities, and builds a future where rivers run full and wild fish still return to spawn.