Trump wants to raise Shasta Dam in California. Who benefits?

from Rachel BeckerCalMatters

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After pressure from powerful producers in California, the Trump administration’s Department of the Interior announced Tuesday that it will commit $40 million to the Shasta Dam construction effort — controversial project which opponents say could swamp sacred sites and harm a protected river.

North of Reading, 602 feet high Sacramento River Dam forms the largest reservoir in California, storing more than 40% of the water taken to irrigate Central Valley farmland.

The administration announced the funding for “planning and preliminary activities related to raising Shasta Dam,” in addition to an estimated half a billion dollars earmarked for rehabilitation of water delivery channels in the Central Valley.

Westlands Water District, the country’s largest supplier of agricultural water, applauded the move, calling it a “long overdue investment in water supply reliability”. The water giant is a major player in California’s $60 billion agriculture industry, serving nearly 700 farms in the western San Joaquin Valley.

Environmental groups have warned that the expensive project is at risk McCloud River which flows into Lake Shasta and would doom the effort to restore critically endangered Chinook salmon to the river. It was calculated by the US Bureau of Reclamation more than a decade ago that raising the dam would cost nearly $2 billion today, according to a federal calculator.

“It’s amazing. This is a project that will only benefit a small group of producers in California,” said Barry Nelson, senior policy analyst for the Golden State Salmon Association, referring to producers supplied by Westlands. “The project is a disaster. It is prohibited by state law. So it will be interesting to see how the state of California responds to this.”

The construction of Shasta Dam would also swallow the remnants of the Winnemem Wintu tribe’s homeland. The tribe lost 90% of their historic and sacred sites when the reservoir was built in the 1940s, said Gary Mulcahy, state representative for the tribe.

If the reservoir is expanded, everything will be lost – a sacred pool, the rocks used for cultural teachings and coming-of-age ceremonies, the burial site for the Kabyai Creek Massacre.

Still, Mulcahy was skeptical that the funding announcement would move the project forward; between inflation and other increases in construction costs in recent years, he called $40 million “a drop in the bucket” of what is needed to raise the dam.

He said he expects federal staff cuts and other losses under the Trump administration to stymie any major infrastructure projects before they get started.

“Throw in $40 million,” Mulcahy said. “They don’t have the staff, one way or the other, to even complete the planning process.”

A long-standing battle

California has tried to block this project before — and it didn’t stick.

For decades, California Wild and Scenic Rivers Act has barred any state agency or “state agency” — such as a water district — from aiding or abetting with federal, state, or local government efforts to expand Shasta Reservoir in any way “that could have an adverse effect on the free status of the McCloud River or on the wild trout fishery.”

But the first Trump administration still pushed ahead with environmental planning efforts under Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for Westlands. Congress approved $20 million in funding.

California sues and secure an agreement vs Westlands Water Districtwhich then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra said was “undertaking illegal actions” to aid the dam effort.

But the push for a bigger dam never stopped. In February, growers — including those served by the Westlands Water District — wrote to President Trump urging him to direct funding from his One Big Beautiful Bill Act to build Shasta Dam.

“You will be presented with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver water that our communities desperately need and create economic stability for farms, workers and rural communities in the Central Valley,” the letter said.

Raising the dam, the Trump administration said, would increase 4.5 million acre feet of reservoirs capacity by about 14%. That’s enough to supply 2.5 million people for a year, the administration said — although the federally operated Central Valley Project supplies most of the water from Lake Shasta to farms.

Nelson said the federal government’s framework is extremely misleading: California actually has to have water to fill the reservoir — which in that state is never guaranteed.

Instead of vowing to fight back, California Gov. Gavin Newsom took the opportunity to include another long-delayed and deeply controversial Sacramento River water storage project, Sites Reservoir, and called on the Trump administration to help pay for it.

“Let’s not get distracted by conceptual designs, years from viability. Let’s build Sites Reservoir,” spokeswoman Tara Gallegos said. “Our state is already a significant investor in the project and the federal government must join us to ensure this project comes to fruition.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.