"These investments help keep Sites Reservoir on track for a late 2026 groundbreaking." That line is in the Sites Project Authority's 2025 Annual Report, published this spring. It's now October 2026. The road west of Maxwell still has no dam crew on it, and the next date that matters is a vote in Sacramento.
That vote is real and close. The approvals it caps are mostly finished. Even so, the first changes people around Maxwell will notice will be small. Expect drilling rigs, haul roads and a detour, followed by decisions about worker housing and water and sewer lines that the town has written into its own plans but hasn't settled. As of this week, none of those has a confirmed location, map or start date.
The Permits Are Nearly Done
Most of the state and federal approvals that once looked like the hard part are already final:
- October 22 and 24, 2024. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife issued the incidental take permits for construction and for operations. The construction permit runs through December 31, 2034.
- July 7, 2025. CDFW issued the Master Lake and Streambed Alteration Agreement.
- July 16, 2025. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued the construction biological opinion.
- November 4, 2025. Colusa County adopted Ordinance No. 847, the development agreement with the Sites Project Authority.
- September 10, 2026. The State Water Board's Division of Water Quality signed the water quality certification for the project. Deputy Director Phillip Crader signed it.
The Army Corps of Engineers has also issued its Record of Decision. The Corps says that document completes environmental review and is not the final Section 404 permit decision.
The water right is the big approval still pending. On September 3, the State Water Board released a revised draft decision and permit. It would let the project divert up to 986,000 acre-feet a year from the Sacramento River. The board describes that as enough water for about 8.4 million people a year. The revision broadens when the project could divert from the river. It also gives the Authority a chance to show that local creeks have water available to store. Final written comments are due October 5, which is tomorrow. The board plans to consider adoption at its November 4 meeting.
That draft came out of a long process. The board's Administrative Hearings Office held 32 hearing days over two years, with 21 parties, 60 witnesses and 2,115 documents in evidence. A November 4 vote would close the longest regulatory chapter. It would not decide when work starts west of Maxwell.
The Official Schedules Don't Agree
The project's own documents give different start dates.
| Source | When construction starts | Roads Maxwell drivers use |
|---|---|---|
| Sites Project Authority 2025 Annual Report | "Late 2026" groundbreaking | Not specified |
| Authority schedule dated January 21, 2026 | Project construction March 8, 2027; Golden Gate Dam March 8, 2027; Sites Dam March 17, 2028 | Sites-Lodoga Road and bridge June 2029 to November 2032; Huffmaster Road November 2030 to October 2032 |
| State Water Board certification, September 2026 | Geotechnical work 2026; dams and dikes 2027 | Road improvements 2027 to 2029 |
The certification says its dates are "subject to change as the design progresses." The Army Corps estimate is laid out the same way. It puts the first work package in 2026, the main dam and reservoir package in 2028, Huffmaster Road in 2030 and the recreation areas in 2032. The "late 2026" target goes back at least to July 2025. That month, Authority board chair Fritz Durst told the Redding Record Searchlight that groundbreaking could come by the end of 2026, beginning with soil and rock testing.
The contractor's paperwork shows the same gap. On January 16, 2026, the Authority board selected Barnard Construction Company, Inc. It authorized a $1,000,000 preconstruction task order that runs through December 31, 2026. Barnard can't start construction until the Authority approves a work-package amendment and issues a notice to proceed. The contract says the parties hadn't yet agreed on completion dates. That selection meeting brought more than 100 union protesters to Maxwell. The Sacramento Bee reported a split. Nor Cal Carpenters representatives questioned the choice, and some members of the State Building and Construction Trades Council supported it.
First West Of Town: Test Holes, Haul Roads And A Sites-Lodoga Detour
The certification divides the work into packages, and the first one is modest. Work Package 1 covers geotechnical investigations, access and haul roads, and a temporary detour for Sites-Lodoga Road. Work Package 2 finishes the second phase of that detour and builds the bridge. Huffmaster Road comes later, in Work Package 3.
For anyone who drives Sites-Lodoga Road toward Lodoga, a detour will likely be the first sign of the project. The documents describe it in stages. They don't give a closure date or say when traffic would move to the temporary route. The permits also contain no dated closure plan for Maxwell-Sites Road or the I-5 interchange at Maxwell.
The land is already lined up. The Authority's 2024 Annual Report says it agreed to buy about 817 acres for the inlet/outlet tower, a realigned Maxwell-Sites Road and construction haul roads. It also agreed to buy another 1,200 acres for the Golden Gate Dam facilities. Over the full build, the project plans about 46 miles of road improvements and work at 14 bridge crossings. That includes a new Sites-Lodoga Bridge, which the Authority says the project will fully pay for.
The Part Maxwell Has To Decide
The biggest open questions are in town. They involve Colusa County, the Maxwell Public Utilities District and Maxwell Unified, more than the dam contractor.
The Maxwell Community Plan final draft from May 2025 puts worker housing first on its list of objectives:
Provide flexibility and support to allow for creative short-term housing solutions to accommodate an influx of workers during the construction of Sites Reservoir.
The plan also calls for more capacity and reliability in the PUD's water and wastewater systems. It sets a goal of reviving existing businesses by "capitalizing on opportunities related to the construction and operation of Sites Reservoir."
A draft implementation matrix dated September 2025 spells out how that might work. The county would consider zoning changes that let landowners host temporary RV housing for workers, with temporary utilities and a requirement to restore the land afterward. Trailers, restrooms, fencing and other temporary infrastructure would come out when reservoir construction ends. The Authority's January 2026 presentation calls temporary housing and project facilities a "leave behind" asset "designed to support Maxwell growth plans." It names no site, unit count or date.
The utility list is specific:
- Replace aging concrete wastewater pipe with PVC
- Expand water treatment capacity or find a replacement for Well #6
- Run water and sewer lines east of I-5
The matrix assigns those items to Maxwell PUD, with support from the county. None of the documents show funding or a committed timeline for them. Maxwell PUD is on the Authority's list of agencies that may want an impact alleviation agreement. As of June 2026, the Authority described those agreements as ongoing work.
Truck traffic follows the same pattern. The matrix proposes keeping project vehicles on truck routes named in the environmental documents and off unapproved Maxwell streets. Oak Street is flagged for limited use because of student crossings. No haul-route map has been published.
The school district's numbers are still being negotiated. The Authority paid the full cost of an independent impact analysis for Maxwell Unified School District. That study found no significant historical or hidden fiscal impacts. It did identify possible costs of up to $5,000 a year for bus reroutes and up to $372,000 a year for staff retention incentives, plus roughly $154,000 to $338,000 for facilities. The consultant's report proposed paying these costs as they come up. The district disagreed with the consultant's findings, and more talks were planned. Local fire, sheriff and CHP representatives have also met with Barnard about emergency response. They plan to meet again once the contractor for the conveyance work is selected.
What The Project Says It Will Leave
The lasting benefits on paper are recreation, roads and jobs. The draft certification names the Peninsula Hills and Stone Corral Creek recreation areas and a day-use boat ramp. The Authority puts the new public recreation acreage at about 500. In June 2026, Governor Newsom's office projected 187,000 recreation visitors a year once the reservoir is complete. The schedules put recreation construction between 2027 and 2032.
On jobs, the Authority projects 4,300 job-years of construction work and $588 million in wages and benefits. After that, it expects 35 operations positions paying about $5 million a year in total. The Sacramento Bee reported the workforce policy's local goals. At least 20% of labor would come from Colusa, Glenn and Yolo counties, and 50% from seven nearby counties. These are goals and projections. No actual local hiring figures have been reported yet. The county's development agreement lists property and sales tax, payments in lieu of lost tax revenue, community-benefit fees and local workforce training. The ordinance doesn't give dollar amounts.
So after November 4, the next things to watch are local. Look for a Sites-Lodoga detour date, a site for worker RV housing, funding for the Maxwell PUD pipe and well work, and a final agreement with Maxwell Unified.
If you own land, a home or a business near the project area and want to talk through what these schedules and plans could mean for your property, Amber West Torres follows Sites Reservoir decisions closely and is glad to share what she's seeing. Request your free home valuation and we'll go over it together.
