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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Plan
to restore San Joaquin River approved<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=byline1><span style='font-size:8.0pt'><a
href="mailto:kzito@sfchronicle.com"><span style='color:#015660;text-decoration:
none'>Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writer</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=date1><span style='font-size:8.0pt'>Thursday, March 26, 2009<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>In one of the boldest river restorations in
the Western United States, a 63-mile stretch of the San Joaquin River will be
transformed from a dusty ditch into a fish-friendly waterway under
legislation approved Wednesday that ends a decades-long dispute between
farmers and environmentalists.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:6.0pt'><b><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222;
text-transform:uppercase'>Images<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/03/26/MNTD16N3QD.DTL&o=0"><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#015660;
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src="cid:image001.jpg@01C9ADF2.8A24FAE0"
alt="http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2009/03/25/ba-wilderness032_SFCG1238037671_part1.jpg"></span></a><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/03/26/MNTD16N3QD.DTL&o=0"><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:windowtext;
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color:#015660'><img border=0 width=7 height=7 id="Picture_x0020_23"
src="cid:image002.gif@01C9ADF2.8A24FAE0"
alt="http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/utils/plus-green.gif"></span></span><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;color:#015660;text-decoration:none'>View Larger Image</span></a>
</span><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<ul type=disc>
<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:
auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;display:none'><span style='font-size:9.5pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";display:none'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/03/26/national/w000657D88.DTL"><span
style='color:#015660;text-decoration:none'>Obama turns to Web to take
questions from public</span></a> 03.26.09 <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>The $400 million project, approved by
Congress as part of a landmark wilderness bill, 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.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>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.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>President Obama is expected to sign the
legislation, sponsored by California Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and
Dianne Feinstein. It seals a settlement reached in 2006 that followed two
decades of battles between environmentalists and fishing groups - who filed a
lawsuit in 1988 - and agricultural interests.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Both sides praised the bill, which spells
out funding for the program and authorizes a timetable for water releases
beginning this fall.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>"After recent dry years and a
collapsing salmon fishery, passage of this bill is good news for fisherman,
farmers, and the more than 22 million Californians who rely on the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for their water supply," said Monty
Schmitt, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of
the plaintiffs in the 1980s suit.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>The San Joaquin River, California's
second-longest behind the Sacramento River, once maintained plentiful runs of
spring and fall salmon and fed pristine freshwater into the delta.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Old-timers remember when the river surged
with so many salmon they were scooped up and used as hog feed. Once the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation built the 319-foot-tall Friant Dam, however, the river
became a seasonal dribble.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Farms and communities - including the city
of Fresno - grew up across 1 million acres of fertile land, employing
thousands of people and producing millions of dollars worth of produce.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Farmers argued that re-establishing the
salmon populations would destroy their livelihood. But when it became clear
that a federal judge overseeing the lawsuit could enact severe water
cutbacks, the farmers came to the table.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>"Having a federal court serve as a
water master on our river system was disconcerting to our folks," said
Ron Jacobsma, general manager of the Friant Water Users Authority, which
serves the 15,000 farms in the region. "The water supply certainty,
money certainty and opportunity to get additional water drove our folks to stay
on board with the settlement."<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Of the $400 million to be doled out over the
next decade, about $200 million will come from California, with the rest
coming from the federal government and special fees paid by the area's water
districts.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>The funds will pay for environmental studies
on increasing river flows (large-scale releases are to begin in 2014),
bolstering levees along the river, fixing damaged canals and recharging
underground aquifers. The plans target a section of San Joaquin River between
Friant Dam and where the Merced River merges with it.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Peter Moyle, a nationally known UC Davis
professor of conservation biology, acknowledged the challenges in
replenishing a river that some have compared to an agricultural drainage
ditch. But he is optimistic.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>"I really think this can be done,"
said Moyle, who has worked in the San Joaquin region on fish restoration
since 1969. "For the past few years, a lot of work by many people has
been put into figuring out how to restore flows and fish to the river. Now it
looks like it will actually happen. Amazing.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>"Think of it: A 150-mile-long river
that has been dry or heavily polluted for much of its length may actually
support salmon runs again," he added.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Moyle said the river bed just below the dam
- where the last chinook salmon in the river spawned - is an ideal spot for
the salmon's return because it has deep, cold gravel pools where the fish
need to rest in between May and September before they spawn.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>In the late 1940s, the last chinook spawned
there after being trucked by the hundreds up the river. Their progeny died
that year, Moyle said, because the Bureau of Reclamation refused a request by
the state Department of Fish and Game to release more water so the fish could
return to the ocean.</b><span style='font-size:9.5pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/03/26/MNTD16N3QD.DTL">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/03/26/MNTD16N3QD.DTL</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker, JcT</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends
of Trinity River</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>PO Box 2327</span></i><span
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<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810
land</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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