ShareThisWASHINGTON -- Long-stalled legislation to bring life back to California's dried-up San Joaquin River and restore its historic salmon run has cleared a significant hurdle with approval from a Senate committee.The bill passed Wednesday by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee now joins similar legislation approved by a House committee in November. The legislation would pay for restoring the once-mighty river, which foamed with spawning salmon until it was dammed in 1942.The two bills are expected to be consolidated and brought to the floors of the House and Senate for final approval later this year."This is badly needed good news for West Coast fishermen who are faced with the complete closure this year of the salmon fishery," said Monty Schmitt, project manager and senior scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Restoring the San Joaquin and bringing back its salmon will produce tremendous benefits not only for fishermen, but for all Californians."Environmentalists have characterized the draining of California's second-longest river as one of the most egregious examples anywhere of habitat destruction to quench civilization's thirst for water. It provoked an 18-year battle among ecologists, federal water regulators and agricultural interests over the various demands to revive the river.The fighting was supposed to have ended when a federal judge in Sacramento approved an agreement in 2006 to restore year-round flows to the San Joaquin and reintroduce salmon to its waters and wildlife and forests to its shores.But the legislation necessary to pay for the restoration, known as the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act, stalled in House and Senate committees while supporters searched for ways to offset the costs.The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., would fund one of the most ambitious environmental restoration projects in California history.The San Joaquin once supported both fall and spring runs of chinook. Then, in 1942, the 319-foot Friant Dam was completed a few miles north of Fresno, plugging the river gorge and holding back nearly the entire flow of the waterway.Starting in the 1950s, San Joaquin water was diverted to more than 1 million acres of desert farmland from Chowchilla (Madera County) to the Tehachapi Mountains. The river's flow was reduced to a seasonal trickle. In the summer, 63 miles of the once-teeming river became a dry, sandy gravel bed, home mainly to lizards and jackrabbits.The salmon, which old-timers say used to splash around on top of one another and were so plentiful they were scooped up and used as hog feed, were wiped out. The river is no longer a constant source of freshwater to San Francisco Bay.The lawsuit that led to the 2006 agreement was filed by environmentalists in 1988, prompting years of courtroom sparring as the government and farmers attempted to protect their rights to the water. In 2004, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's operation of Friant Dam violated state fish and game codes by eliminating the salmon.The settlement agreement, supported by almost every member of the California congressional delegation, anticipated spending as much as $800 million to restore a 150-mile stretch of river. Farmers would pay about $330 million, and the rest would come from California bonds and the federal government.E-mail Peter Fimrite at pfimrite(at)sfchronicle.com.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Effort to revive San Joaquin River advances
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