Representative Doug LaMalfa has teamed up with a democratic colleague to push a water storage bill. Co-sponsored by LaMalfa and Representative John Garamedi, House Resolution 1269 would accelerate the federal review process and get construction underway on the Sites Reservoir in Colusa and Glenn Counties. The bill would put the project in a better position to tap the funds available under State Proposition 1, the water bond initiative approved by voters. The bill also would allow the federal government to help with construction of what would ultimately be a state facility. Unbridled flooding has followed 5 years of drought, with the problem compounded by the Oroville Dam spillway failure. That situation has led almost everyone to agrees that the state desperately needs a way to capture more storm water on the west side of the valley to save for the dry season. The bipartisan consensus in Northern California is that the most cost efficient and environmentally friendly way to do that is with Sites Reservoir. When completed, sites would have a storage capacity of about a half-million acre-feet of water. That’s about twice the capacity of Whiskeytown. Lake Shasta is the largest reservoir in the state, with about 4.5 million acre-feet when it’s full. An acre-foot is the equivalent of one acre of water one foot deep.