$800M in upgrades proposed for San Joaquin Valley canals

Fresno-area representatives say a newly proposed bill to restore major San Joaquin Valley canals could improve water capacity in the bread basket of California.

Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced the $833.4 million bill on Thursday. Called the “Canal Conveyance Capacity Restoration Act,” it was also announced by Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, and Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock.

The canal restoration targets the Delta-Mendota Canal, Friant-Kern Canal and the California Aqueduct.

According to a news release, restoring canals would improve California’s drought resilience and help farmers comply with limits on groundwater pumping under the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

“It’s past the time to repair our aging water infrastructure,” Costa said. “With another drought here, we must act now to repair our broken canals and develop long-term plans for future delivery of water to our communities.”

The federal bill would authorize a one-third federal cost share for restoring canal capacity, while a bill introduced by state Sen. Melissa Hurtado, DSanger, would authorize another third. Local agencies would have to make up the rest.

Hurtado said the federal bill is important for addressing farmworker communities.

“The reality is this investment really benefits the entire nation, because the region creates food for the nation and beyond,” she said. “I look forward to a continued partnership and making sure we get the necessary funding to make sure we can provide safe drinking water, not just for the Valley, but for a lot of California.”

California is facing more drought and has seen several years in the last decade where wells ran dry, and underground supplies were pumped so heavily that parts of the state have literally sunk. Scientists call it “subsidence.”

“We can restore that capacity if we work together at the federal, state and local levels, ensuring that there will be more water for farmers and to combat subsidence,” Feinstein said in a news release. “But our bipartisan bill isn’t just a win for farmers, it would also restore salmon runs vital to the Chinook salmon, helping protect this threatened species.”

About $180 million in the bill is to restore salmon runs on the San Joaquin River, which include fish passages, levees and other efforts to allow Chinook salmon to swim freely from the ocean to the Friant Dam, according to the bill’s supporters.

The bill should improve the outlook for farmers who have had often dealt with restrictive water allocations for their crops, according to Federico Barajas, executive director of the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority.

“Increasing our resilience to climate change demands that we move water in the years when it’s available and store it for the droughts we know will come, like this year,” he said.

Funding cannot be used to build new surface storage or raise existing reservoirs. Canals cannot be enlarged except for temporary reasons.

The bill breaks down like this:

• $180 million to restore the Friant-Kern Canal.

• $183.9 million to restore the Delta Mendota Canal.

• $289.5 million to restore the California Aqueduct.

• $180 million to restore salmon runs on the San Joaquin River.