California is getting its largest new reservoir in more than 50 years, despite strong opposition from Native American tribes and environmental activists.

The State Water Resources Control Board approved the final water-right permit for the Sites Reservoir project, located in Glenn and Colusa counties in Northern California.

The 1.5 million-acre-foot reservoir is designed to take water from the Sacramento River during high-flow periods and store it for use during prolonged dry conditions.

“Sites Reservoir is a smart investment in our future, helping ensure our communities, farms, and wildlife have the water they need when it matters most. Now it’s time to get shovels in the ground,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement on Nov. 5.

Sites is an off-stream project, meaning it does not sit on a major waterway or directly disrupt river flows or fish. It will store enough water to supply more than 4.5 million homes for one year.

Native American tribes with ties to this rural stretch of Northern California have been opposing the reservoir, saying it will wipe out the cultural heritage of their communities.

Amanda Mitchum, an official with the Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians, called the planned reservoir a “cultural genocide.”

“If this reservoir goes through, you will literally be covering up the footprints and trails that my father walked with his mother, he walked with me, and I walk with my children. And that’ll all be gone,” said Mitchum, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Theresa Moore of the Chhé’ee Fókaa Band of Northeastern Pomo called it a “destructive, extractive” project.

“You are corruptly embracing a role as the mouthpieces and rubber-stamps of Big Ag, water profiteers, and the politicians in their pockets,” she told the water board, The Times reported.

Environmental groups have also voiced their objections. Keiko Mertz, policy director of the environmental group Friends of the River, said that the project “makes no sense.”

“It costs billions, delivers a trickle of new water, and threatens the health of the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay-Delta,” Mertz said, according to the news outlet.

Construction for the reservoir is scheduled to begin in 2027, and the facility is expected to be operational by 2033, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The State Board’s decision follows an extensive public water right proceeding and decades of planning and collaboration among the Authority, its local, state and federal partners, and participating water agencies across California.

“Sites [project] has been decades in the making, and today we are closer than ever to making it a reality. Sites is a 21st-century solution for 21st-century problems.

“With this decision, we’re ready to move forward and turn years of planning into action,” Fritz Durst, Chair of the Sites Project Authority Board of Directors, said in a statement.

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