Title I: San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act - San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act - (Sec. 104) Directs the Secretary of the Interior (the Secretary) to implement the Stipulation of Settlement dated September 13, 2006, in Natural Resources Defense Council, et al. v. Kirk Rodgers, et al., in cooperation with the state of California, including measures to: (1) design and construct channel and structural improvements; (2) modify Friant Dam operations to provide Restoration Flows and Interim Flows; (3) acquire water, water rights, or options to acquire water from willing sellers; (4) implement terms and conditions related to recirculation, recapture, reuse, exchange, or transfer of water released for such flows; and (5) develop and implement the Recovered Water Account.
What is the San Joaquin River restoration program?
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The San Joaquin River Restoration Program, a multi-agency effort to restore the upper 152-miles of the San Joaquin River from Friant Dam to the confluence with the Merced River, recently received the Department of the Interior’s highest honor for environmental restoration.
What is the Merced River Settlement Agreement?
The Settlement Agreement is based on two goals and objectives: A restored river with continuous flows to the confluence of the Merced River and naturally reproducing and self-sustaining populations of Chinook salmon. A water management program to minimize water supply impacts to Friant Division long-term contractors.
What is the Merced River restoration program?
A restored river with continuous flows to the confluence of the Merced River and naturally reproducing and self-sustaining populations of Chinook salmon. A water management program to minimize water supply impacts to Friant Division long-term contractors.
What is the restoration allocation and default flow schedule?
The final Restoration Allocation and Default Flow Schedule was made on May 13. This allocation was based on a forecasted unimpaired inflow into Millerton Lake (Friant Dam) of 1,072,000 acre-feet. This is a “Normal-Dry” water year type for the period October 2021 to September 2022. The Restoration Allocation totals 232,470 acre-feet.
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What is the San Joaquin River Restoration Project?
The San Joaquin River Restoration Program is a multi-agency effort to restore self-sustaining fish populations to the San Joaquin River, with a current focus on threatened spring-run Chinook salmon.
What happened to the San Joaquin River?
Because of the uniform topography of the San Joaquin Valley, floods once transformed much of the lower river into a huge inland sea. In the 20th century, many levees and dams were built on the San Joaquin and all of its major tributaries.
Is the San Joaquin River restored?
The river reconnected to the Merced River confluence in 2016 and the following year saw heavy flood flows. Water releases are used to restore the San Joaquin River and to provide habitat for naturally reproducing populations of chinook salmon and other fish.
Is the San Joaquin River Drying Up?
According to American Rivers, “More than 100 miles of the San Joaquin's main stem have been dry for over 50 years, and water diversions along the tributaries take more than 70 percent of the natural flow.”
Why is the San Joaquin River important?
The San Joaquin is Central California's largest river, supporting one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world and providing water to local communities and habitat for endangered fish and wildlife.
Can you swim in the San Joaquin River?
Upper San Joaquin River Parks and recreational areas on the San Joaquin River are important habitat areas for wildlife and provide opportunities for boating, fishing, bird watching, and swimming.
Are there salmon in the San Joaquin River?
Spring-run adult Chinook salmon. Photo courtesy of USBR. The San Joaquin River – the second longest river in California – was once home to one of the largest populations of spring-run Chinook salmon, a species of fish that is now classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Can you fish in Devils Postpile?
Reds Meadow - Devils Postpile The river offers nine miles of superb fishing for anglers of all abilities. Fly fishing is popular on this stretch of the San Joaquin River, especially along the meadow sections.
What was the major cause of such a drastic change in the wetland characteristics of a part of the San Joaquin Valley?
The once thriving river has lost 95 percent of its wetlands. Due to current operations of dams, bypasses and diversions, the river no longer flows for roughly 60 miles. Wildlife has been lost as habitat has been reduced to a small fraction of its former extent.
Where does the San Joaquin River get its water?
Because the Central Valley receives relatively little rainfall (12 to 17 inches a year, falling mostly October through March), snowmelt runoff from the mountains is the main source of fresh water in the San Joaquin River.
Can you float down the San Joaquin River?
Fresno Rafting float trips on the San Joaquin River provides affordable, family-friendly rafting float trips on the San Joaquin River in Northern Fresno. These low-risk rafting trips that are perfect for inexperienced rafters, families, or those just looking to get away and relax along the beautiful San Joaquin River.
Is San Joaquin River saltwater?
The fresh water inflow and outflow of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is critical to its vitality and survival. Freshwater flows from the Delta meets saltwater from the ocean near Suisun Marsh located to the east of San Francisco Bay.
Is the San Joaquin River polluted?
Due to this runoff, San Joaquin Valley's water supply contains many contaminants, including nitrates, arsenic, coliform bacteria, pesticides and disinfectant byproducts. Nitrates, the most prevalent contaminant, were detected in 97 percent of wells sampled throughout the valley.
How was the San Joaquin River formed?
San Joaquin River, river in central California, U.S. It is formed by forks rising on Mount Goddard in the Sierra Nevada and flows southwest and then north-northwest past Stockton to join the Sacramento River above Suisun Bay after a course of 350 miles (560 km).
How did the Friant Dam affect the wildlife of the San Joaquin River?
After Friant Dam was completed, parts of the San Joaquin River began to run dry as more and more water was diverted into canals for agricultural irrigation. This disconnected the salmon from their habitat and eventually they were eliminated from the upper San Joaquin River.
What feeds the San Joaquin River?
The San Joaquin River has three major tributaries: the Merced, Tuolumne, and Stanislaus rivers. The Cosumnes (a tributary to Mokelumne River), Mokelumne, and Calaveras rivers also flow into the San Joaquin River where the river joins the tidally influenced Delta.
Water Management Goal
To reduce or avoid adverse water supply impacts to all of the Friant Division long-term contractors that may result from the Interim Flows and Restoration Flows provided for in the Settlement.
Restoration Goal
To restore and maintain fish populations in “good condition” in the main stem of the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam to the confluence of the Merced River, including naturally reproducing and self-sustaining populations of salmon and other fish.
What are the restoration goals of the San Joaquin River?
These include among others: expanding channel capacity, improving levees, and making modifications necessary to provide fish passage through or around certain structures in the river channel. Also called for are year-round flows in the San Joaquin River, including those areas that have been without continuous flows for decades, to sustain naturally reproducing Chinook salmon and other fish populations in the 153-mile stretch of the river between Friant Dam and the confluence of the Merced River.
When did the California settlement happen?
On September 13, 2006, the Settling Parties filed the Settlement, including proposed Federal implementing legislation, with the Court. The Settlement Agreement is based on two goals and objectives:
What is the settlement for the Friant Dam?
The Settlement identifies a number of funding sources to support implementation of these projects, including current payments from farmers and cities served by Friant Dam, state bond initiatives, and authorization for federal appropriations – although without a commitment to appropriate federal funds. These funds are to be used to meet both the Water Management and Restoration goals.
When did the FWUA remand issue?
From 1998 to 2003, without direct involvement by Federal defendants, FWUA and NRDC attempted to settle the remanded issue. In 2003, those discussions were terminated, and on July 19, 2003, the plaintiffs amended their complaint by adding the Secretary of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries Service as additional defendants and adding claims asserting that the long-term renewal contracts do not conform to the requirements of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA). In an Order issued on August 27, 2004, Judge Karlton concluded that Reclamation violated § 5937, and scheduled a trial on the issue of remedy for that violation.
Where is the Friant Dam located?
Friant Dam is located on the upper San Joaquin River, where it forms Millerton Lake, and became fully operational in the late 1940s. Our understanding is that about 15,000 farms rely on Friant water supplies.
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What is the San Joaquin River Restoration Program?
The San Joaquin River Restoration Program (SJRRP) is a comprehensive, long-term effort to restore flows to the San Joaquin River from Friant Dam to the confluence of Merced River and restore a self-sustaining Chinook salmon fishery in the river while reducing or avoiding adverse water supply impacts from Restoration Flows. Please visit our Background and History page for information about the Settlement and goals.
When did the Friant Dam release water?
The first water releases from Friant Dam in support of the SJRRP, called Interim Flows, began October 1, 2009. Restoration Flows began January 1, 2014. Visit the Restoration Flows and Surface Water pages for more information. Photos ».
When was the San Joaquin River Restoration Program approved?
The San Joaquin River Restoration Program is the direct result of the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement reached in September 2006 by the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Commerce, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Friant Water Users Authority (FWUA). The Settlement, which followed an 18-year lawsuit, received Federal court approval in October 2006.
What is water management?
Water Management: To reduce or avoid adverse water supply impacts to all of the Friant Division long-term contractors that may result from the Interim Flows and Restoration Flows provided for in the Settlement.