Ever wonder what the end goal is in California? Between the relentless attacks on business (see “3 Simple Charts That Help Explain Why 9,000 Businesses Have Left California In Just 7 Years“) and blatant pandering to environmental interests we often wonder whether politicians would prefer to just turn the entire state into a National Park. At least there would be a great high speed rail for park visitors.
During the Great Depression a small fortune was spent on public works programs that put people back to work building probably the best water distribution infrastructure in the world. Now there seems to be a race in California to see how quickly it can all be dismantled in favor of various fish species.
One such project that will leave you shaking your head is the San Joaquin River Restoration Program. For those not familiar, the project is meant to restore 63 miles of the San Joaquin River, stretching from the Millerton Lake to the Merced River (see map below), so that the Chinook Salmon can have more space to frolic. The river was dammed in 1942 with the construction of the Friant Dam near Fresno which was intended to provide water to residents and farmers in the Central Valley. After the water storage project reduced downstream water flows the Chinook Salmon runs in the river faded away. In 1988 a group of environmentalist sued the federal government saying that diversion of the river broke state laws protecting fish. After nearly 20 years of legal battles a settlement was reached in 2006 to restore the 60-mile stretch of river.
According to comments made to Reuters by Shane Hunt of the Bureau of Reclamation the costs of the project have skyrocketed and currently stand at $1.5 billion or roughly 6x the original estimate.
Costs have ballooned, rising from an estimated $250 million to $800 million in 2006 to $1.5 billion today, said Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Shane Hunt.
The latest projected completion date is 2029.
As usual, farmers stand to lose the most from the project with up to 20% of annual water captured in the Friant Dam being released each year to restore downstream water flows. In wet years, the restoration project will divert roughly 200,000 acre feet of water which, at an assumed 4 acre feet of consumption per acre, is enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of land. To put that in perspective, 50,000 acres is enough to produce 1.3 billion lbs of oranges, 1.0 billion lbs of table grapes or 125 million lbs of almonds annually. A farmer described the project to Reuters as “a giant waste of time and money.”
On the bright side, at least El Nino “saved” California from its drought. According to the California Department of Water Resources Millerton Lake is at 57% of its total capacity…we guess average ain’t bad.
via http://ift.tt/2aNjBND Tyler Durden