Legal News

San Joaquin River project approved by Congress

By Richard Binder

California's second longest river stands to get water again as part of a massive public lands bill.

The $400 million project, approved by Congress, will increase the amount of water released from the Friant Dam near Fresno into the San Joaquin River. The flows are intended to resurrect the river's salmon fishery, decimated in the years following the dam's construction in 1942.

The 15,000 farms in the region will receive between 15 and 19 percent less water from the reserves stored behind the dam. Funds from the measure will help water districts offset that loss with new storage facilities and repairs to existing canals.

In California, it would establish 700,000 acres in the eastern Sierra and in parts of central and Southern California as wilderness, increasing the state's permanently wild places by about 5 percent. It also adds more than 100 miles of rivers to the protected "wild and scenic" river system.

The bill now goes to President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign it.

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Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on March 26, 2009 (boomark / email).