California has approved the first major water storage project in the state in decades. The Sites Reservoir will build two large dams and nine smaller ones to store water from the Sacramento River, inundating about 15 thousand acres northwest of Sacramento. Construction on the seven-billion-dollar project is expected to start next year and finish by 2034. Plans for a reservoir in the region have been discussed since the 1950s, with the current project discussions starting in 2010. Sites will be California's largest new reservoir since 1979, holding up to one and a half million acre-feet of water. Governments will cover a third of costs, including just over one billion dollars from a state bond. The reservoir will collect water from the Sacramento River during wet years to manage what experts say will be times of more rain and less snow as the climate changes.