A settlement has been reached in a court battle over how much water should be allowed to flow from a dam on the San Joaquin River to restore the salmon population, attorneys said.
SAN FRANCISCO — A settlement has been reached in a court battle over how much water should be allowed to flow from a dam on the San Joaquin River to restore the salmon population, attorneys said.
Terms of the settlement won't be released, and the agreement won't take effect, until all parties -- environmental and fishing organizations, farming interests and irrigation districts, federal agencies and the court -- approve it, attorneys said Friday.
When Friant Dam began operating in 1949, it transformed San Joaquin Valley's main artery from a river thick with salmon into an irrigation powerhouse that nourishes more than a million acres of farmland in some of the country's highest-grossing agricultural fields.
But the 314-foot barrier also dried up long stretches of the river below the dam and made it a more likely home for lizards than spawning salmon.
In 2004, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton agreed with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which claimed the Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency that built and maintains Friant Dam, had broken the law by not letting enough water flow down the river to sustain the salmon.
Since then, the feuding parties had been trying to reach a settlement and avoid a court-ordered solution.
Among the sticking points in negotiations were how much water should be sent down the river, and how to finance and carry out what will likely be one of the most ambitious and expensive river restoration projects in the country, parties said.
Legislators and state officials who pushed for the resolution likely will play a role in its financing and implementation, according to a court document filed Friday.
"We're very encouraged that all these parties were able to work diligently over the last nine months to come to a place that seems to be a reasonable compromise," said Ron Jacobsma, general manager with the Friant Water Users Authority, a party in the case.
Kate Poole, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the approval process for the settlement will take up to six weeks.
"We are hopeful that these approvals will be obtained rapidly, and that the parties to this historic settlement can begin a new chapter -- working together to restore the San Joaquin River in a manner that will benefit not just the environment, but millions of people around the state," she said in a statement.
Source: Associated Press
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