Restoring San Joaquin River Could Take Decades

[WhiteTara]

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=local&id=4555773

But at least they are starting to restore the river. The dam on the Klamath River is being removed too. This is exciting news for the water ways in this part of the country.

The project is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and take many years to complete. The historic agreement puts an end to an 18 year long legal battle. The deal will pump water back into parts of the river bed that have been dry for decades. Restoring what was once California's second longest river will be a long journey toward an undetermined destination.

The wildness of the San Joaquin River was tamed in the 1940's when Friant Dam was built to create a reservoir to feed hungry farmland and growing cities. The San Joaquin once brought steamboats to the valley and supplied native americans with all the salmon they could eat.

Don't look for this 21st century restoration to bring back those times.

snip

Restoration of annual salmon runs is a daunting ambition. Rechanneling and revegetating the San Joaquin river along with redistribution of water flows are complex and problematic challenges. It will take decades and hundreds of millions of dollars to accomplish the task ahead .