Looks like the river will flow again, salmon included…good deal all around.
An excerpt.
Historic river accord OK'd
Settlement ends an 18-year lawsuit over revival of San Joaquin.
By Mark Grossi / The Fresno Bee
10/24/06 03:48:16
U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton on Monday approved a historic agreement settling an 18-year lawsuit over the revival of the San Joaquin River, the state's second-longest river.
Environmentalists and farmers in September had reached the agreement to end one of California's longest water lawsuits. The settlement will bring water to 60 miles of seasonally dried stretches in the San Joaquin by 2009 and revive long-dead salmon runs by late 2012.
The river has been fractured since Friant Dam was constructed in the 1940s to capture irrigation water and control floods.
Hal Candee, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, representing environmentalists, said the restoration of the 350-mile river will begin now.
"Today begins the implementation of this monumental agreement, in which the agricultural districts and environmental groups will work together, with state and federal agencies, to bring the San Joaquin River back to life," he said.
Friant Water Users Authority, the quasi-public agency representing thousands of farmers who use river water for irrigation, said the judge did his job.
