This organization’s argument against building the two new dams the governor calls for is that the dams will just increase the amount of water lost to evaporation already from existing dams.
Stop the Dams
These Dam Ideas Make No Sense
Gov. Schwarzenegger proposed the building of not one but two new dams: the Sites dam to take water out of the Sacramento River and the Temperance Flat to further drain the San Joaquin. These dams make no sense. The state hasn't even finished the studies that it started on these proposals. And the dams aren't necessary anyway. Most California scientists agree that existing dams can collect any extra runoff created by global warming. More important these dams would produce less reliable amounts of water at a much greater cost than any other option, from conservation to recycling -- even cloud seeding!
Talk about making no sense. The amount of water reliably produced by Sites and Temperance Flat -- 500,000 acre feet -- is virtually identical to the amount of water that evaporates each year from California’s existing major reservoirs. Construction of these new reservoirs will simply increase that loss.
