Supes Ask Lawmakers to Amend San Joaquin River Settlement Act
By Sarah Elizabeth Villicana, The Porterville Recorder, Calif.
Apr. 4–Tulare County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution advising lawmakers to amend legislation to implement the San Joaquin River Settlement.
The settlement set minimal flows of water from Friant Dam to the Merced River, while still allowing farmers to get water from the river. Every year, sections of the river run dry, resulting in a sharp decline in the Chinook salmon population.
As a result of the settlement, approximately 130,000 additional acre-feet will be released to the San Joaquin during dry years and in wet years the river will see an additional 438,000 acre-feet of water.
Ron Jacobsma, general manager of the Friant Water Users Authority, was at Tuesday’s supervisors meeting to update the board on efforts to add specific legislation assuring the recirculation and recapture of additional water to meet the goals of the settlement and protect the availability of water for agricultural and domestic uses. The FWUA represents 22 water districts.
The terms of the settlement cannot be put into effect until legislation is in place to provide federal funding for the river restoration project.
The proposed San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act would open the dam, restoring river flows and reintroduce salmon into the river over the next 20 years.
“The ongoing concern is how to we get this water back,” Jacobsma said.
Jacobsma said parties of the settlement are taking the unusual step of meeting to come to an consensus on how restore the San Joaquin River while minimizing water supply impacts on Friant water users. The first of what could be many meetings will take place Wednesday in Sacramento.
The resolution passed by the board on Tuesday specifically names a project to “construct new pumping and conveyance facilities on the mainstem of the San Joaquin River above the town of Vernalis required to implement the recirculation, recapture and reuse elements of the Water Management Goal of the Settlement.”
While the resolution recommends a specific project, Jacobsma said it is to early to determine what measures will be included in the final act.
“I would love to be able to point to a solution in a specific project but we’re not quite there yet,” Jacobsma said. “It is a delicate balance of managing the restoration of the San Joaquin and the water supply.”
Chairman Allen Ishida lobbied members of congress to protect the water supply for Friant users in two trips to Washington earlier this year.
“The [National Resources Defense Council], FWUA and federal government all have to agree,” Ishida said on mitigation plans. “This points out very clearly we want concrete mitigation efforts.”
If no mitigation plans take place, FWUA estimates they will have an average of 15 percent less water available for water users.
The San Joaquin River provides water for the cities of Lindsay, Orange Cove and Fresno as well as the Lindsay-Strathmore Irrigation District, Lower Tule River Irrigation District, Porterville Irrigation District and Terra Bella Irrigation District.
Contact Sarah Villicana at 784-5000, Ext. 1045, or svillicana@portervillerecorder.com.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Porterville Recorder, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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