Fresno, CA

The San Joaquin River is the second largest river in California. Spanish Army Lieutenant Gabriel Moraga named the river in 1808. He is considered to be the first non-native to explore the river. In 1850 the county that bordered the river was named “San Joaquin County.” The entire Central Valley eventually became known as the San Joaquin Valley.

The Central Valley Project (CVP) began in 1933 as a long term plan to use water in the San Joaquin Valley, and construction of the Friant Dam began in 1940. Water from the San Joaquin River was diverted to place the dam’s concrete. Completed in the early 1950s, the dam by the 1980s had “long, wide cracks,” according to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation. The cracks were caused by the alkali “carried by the San Joaquin River.”

The water diverted from the river caused the salmon runs to cease. Stretches of what used to be the San Joaquin River are dry, barren places. As a result, the California state legislature created the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust in 1992. The goals of the Trust are namely to implement a 22-mile “greenspace and wildlife corridor” along the river (called the San Joaquin River Master Plan), and buy 5,200 acres from “willing sellers” at fair market value.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation reached an agreement in October 2006 with the Department of Commerce, the Friant Water Users Authority, and environmental organizations concerning the San Joaquin River restoration. According to the Bureau of Reclamation, “The settlement focuses on achieving two equally important goals: first, a restored San Joaquin River with continuous flows to sustain naturally reproducing salmon between Friant Dam and the Merced River; and secondly, a water management program to minimize water supply impacts and provide water supply certainty for the farmers in the Friant service area who have built a million acre agricultural region based on water supplies from the river.”

The San Joaquin River Restoration Act was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2007. Subcommittee hearings were held in March. The Act would require the Secretary of the Interior to implement the agreement reached in October 2006.

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, opposes the settlement. He said in June, “There are major problems with this settlement.” Fellow Republican, Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, supports the settlement, as does Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno.