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Today's New York Times (9/14/06) contained a pertinent article about trying to un-do some of the damage that has been done in the San Joaquin river.
September 14, 2006
Accord Reached on Diverting Water From Farms to Restore San Joaquin River
By JESSE McKINLEY
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 13 — For most of the last 60 years, much of the San Joaquin River has not really been a river. Dammed and drained for agricultural purposes in the arid Central Valley, the San Joaquin is dry for mile after mile, a symbol of the cost of progress and the miracles of modern irrigation.
It has also been the subject of extensive litigation.
On Wednesday, a coalition of environmental and fishing groups announced the settlement of an 18-year-old suit against the Interior Department and a group of California water users, ending one of the longest-running environmental skirmishes.
The proposal, which Congress will vote on, would create a multimillion-dollar project to restore more than 150 miles of the San Joaquin to the lush riverbed it once was.
“This is one of the most important and historic restoration efforts in the West,” said Hal Candee, a senior lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which filed the suit in the Reagan administration. “This is really bringing a dead river back to life.”
Under the plan, announced in Sacramento, billions of gallons of water would eventually be released from Friant Dam, just north of Fresno, spilling into the historic river channels. The new flow, environmentalists and fishermen hope, will create a healthy environment for Chinook salmon, which once spawned — and thrived — in the San Joaquin.
In exchange for losing 15 percent to 20 percent of their yearly water, depending on rainfall, farmers and other long-term water users would be assured of a supply.
“For the next 20 years, we know what the water commitment is going to be, and that was important to us,” said Ron Jacobsma, consulting general manager of the Friant Water Users Authority, which represents 22 water districts that span five counties.
Fed by downstream tributaries, the San Joaquin, the second-longest river in California, flows as it meets the Sacramento River east of San Francisco, forming an enormous delta that provides water to 22 million Californians. Since the 1940’s, the upper reaches of the river, from Friant Dam to its convergence with the Merced River, have been siphoned off to water a million acres of crops through a vast irrigation project that has helped turn the Central Valley into one of the most prosperous agricultural regions.
The proposed restoration would carry a hefty price, with estimates from $250 million to $800 million, a cost that the federal government and state would probably share.
Some support seems to have been mustered. Mike Chrisman, secretary for state resources, signed off on the accord on Wednesday, as did Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, and Representative George P. Radanovich, a Republican. Mr. Radanovich, who represents the Fresno region, said he would hold a hearing on the plan on Sept. 21.
After years of machinations and stalled negotiations, legal pressure on the government intensified in 2004, when a federal district judge in Sacramento, Lawrence K. Karlton, ruled in the environmentalists’ favor, saying the California Fish and Game Code, which guarantees water to fisheries, could be applied to the federally owned Friant Dam.
Judge Karlton had set a trial date for earlier this year to consider remedies. But as that date approached, the two sides returned to the table to find a more nuanced middle ground.
“The judge had made statements along the lines of all he had was a meat cleaver,” Mr. Jacobsma of the water users’ authority said. “And what we needed was a scalpel.”
Kirk Rodgers, a regional director for the Federal Bureau of Reclamation, said the project would “probably be unprecedented in terms of its magnitude and challenges.”
“In some cases,’’ Mr. Rodgers said, “you’re going to have to define a channel through mechanical means. In some cases, you’re going to have to build structures to put the water that’s being diverted back in the channel. It’s a very complicated and very ambitious project.” Some water spilled into the riverbed would also be recirculated to farmers, he said.
A tentative timetable calls for water to be diverted to the river by 2009 or 2010. Fish would be introduced two or three years later, with most construction and physical restoration finished by 2016. The project, if approved, would run through 2026.
Thanks Nan for the interesting story about the San Joquin River Restoration. Hooray for the NRDC. Additional info can be found at the Bureau of Reclamation web site. After reading Marc Reisner's account of the billions wasted on unneeded dams, it seems ironic that the Bureau may now be positioned to further perpetuate itself through projects to undo the damage.
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