San Joaquin River plan gets hearings this week
Mark Grossi
Fresno Bee
07/26/2009
The first major fix in the long-awaited San Joaquin River revival will come before the public this week at meetings about rerouting the river around Mendota Pool -- a barrier to migrating salmon.
As part of the project, officials also plan to widen more than 10 miles of the existing river channel leading up to the pool, which forms behind Mendota Dam.
The $100 million to $200 million project is considered a linchpin in restoring salmon in the river. The fish need a clear path around Mendota Dam to swim upstream to spawning grounds.
The bypass and channel widening are the first of many projects over the next seven years to re-establish the state's second-longest river. Limited experimental flows from Friant Dam are scheduled to start Oct. 1.
The San Joaquin dried up in long stretches after Friant Dam was built in the 1940s to provide irrigation water for a dying farming industry along the east side of the Valley.
Proposed bypass map
The restoration is the result of a 2006 lawsuit settlement between farmers and environmentalists. Spanning nearly 150 miles at a cost that might approach $1 billion, it is the biggest river revival in the West.
The public is encouraged this week to reveal possible problems, solutions and effects in the bypass project, said Jason Phillips, river restoration program manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Meetings have been scheduled Tuesday in Fresno and Wednesday in Firebaugh.
"I'd say this is the highest priority of all the channel improvements because at the Mendota Pool, there's a dam in the river," Phillips said. "Salmon don't do well with dams."
After six to nine months of study, the bureau is expected to release a range of options for the bypass and the channel widening. The project is scheduled for completion in late 2013.
The existing river channel in the area must be able to carry three times as much water as its current capacity.
The increased flow will help salmon move through the channel.
The big flow also will push water through dry spots along more than 100 miles downstream to the river's confluence with the Merced River. The river channel simply will have to be broader to get the water through, Phillips said.
"It will probably involve building levees that are set back from the river," he said.
The Mendota Pool is 62 miles downstream of Friant. The pool, which is a wide spot along the river, is an important part of the complex plumbing along Fresno County's west side.
Northern California river water for surrounding irrigation districts is sent in canals to the pool, where it is held and distributed to farmers.
The Fresno Slough from the south ends at the pool, carrying Kings River water in years of big snowmelt runoff. Those functions would not be interrupted, project officials said.
The revived river will seep into area underground water tables, bureau officials said.
The ground water dropped dramatically over many decades due to farm water pumping and the lack of recharge from a naturally flowing river.
