After 18 years of wallowing in court, farmers and
conservationists have reached a settlement that allows water to run
again in California’s second-longest river.
The
Friant Dam, built in the 1940s, irrigates 1 million acres of rich
agricultural land in the Central Valley. It also has dried up
sections of the San Joaquin River for a half-century, killing
chinook and plaguing downriver users with polluted and salty water.
The river was once the southernmost habitat for salmon in the
United States.
In 1988, 14 conservation and fishing
groups sued the federal government and an irrigation company over
the destruction of wildlife and habitat. U.S. District Judge
Lawrence Karlton agreed state law had been broken, but postponed
the trial several times to allow the sides to work on a settlement
instead of a court-imposed solution.
The renewed flow
promised under the new agreement will boost groundwater levels,
help provide clean water for 20 million downriver users, and allow
transplantation of genetically similar chinook, says Jared Huffman,
senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of
the plaintiffs. Restoring the 150 miles of river from the dam near
Fresno to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta could cost the state and
federal governments up to $1 billion.
Details of the
agreement are under wraps until final approval by all parties,
which could take until mid-August. “We think it’s a very
workable compromise,” says Ron Jacobsma, general manager of
defendant Friant Water Authority. “It provides some certainty for
water supplies and is also a good opportunity to recreate a viable
salmon fishery.”
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Watch the river flow.
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