California water “stockings” stuffed with federal money
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Friant-Kern Canal fix approved over concerns the plan isn’t fully baked
The Friant Water Authority on Thursday approved the final environmental review for a massive project to fix a 33-mile segment of the Friant-Kern Canal despite continued questions about funding and other concerns expressed by some Friant contractors. One water manager compared the plan to several bungled construction projects, including California’s High Speed Rail and a…
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Crews to get water flowing from area ravaged by Creek Fire
Southern California Edison crews will be able to restart some releases from lakes in the San Joaquin River watershed after the Creek Fire overran much of the area through September. Edison spokesman Reggie Kumar said portions of the Big Creek facility went back online Sept. 29 but restoration has been hampered partly because of extremely…
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Happy 50th “Kern Riversary!” 1970 vote brought river into public hands
Fifty years ago this week, the Bakersfield City Council committed an audaciously historic act. On Monday evening Sept. 28, 1970, council members decided to sue Tenneco West for a slice of the Kern River. “The shock was great to many, but from that day forward we had their attention and cooperation,” states the “Kern River…
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Dominoes from the massive Creek Fire teetering over San Joaquin Valley farmers
When the Creek Fire erupted on Sept. 4 and chewed through the forest toward Southern California Edison’s Big Creek power system, little did anyone know how that might affect grape growers in Delano nearly a month later. But the historic fire has put water managers along the eastern flank of the San Joaquin Valley, who…
Read More20-mile replacement canal is preferred fix for the sagging Friant-Kern Canal
A rapid-fire review of potential fixes to the Friant-Kern Canal favors building a replacement canal for 20 miles alongside the existing canal where land subsidence has caused it to sag, severely restricting water flow, according to final environmental documents released Friday. You need to login to view the rest of the content. Please Login. Not…
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California to Friant-Kern Canal: “No $ for you!”
Any hope that California might kick in money to fix the sagging Friant-Kern Canal was killed Thursday when a bill that would have provided $400 million toward the effort was stripped of all funding. The bill, SB 559 by State Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger, had been stuck in the suspense file (a kind of legislative…
Read MoreCould “angel investors” buy a piece of the Friant-Kern Canal?
An investor funding proposal that could substantially increase the Friant-Kern Canal’s historic flow capacity is gaining interest among the Friant Water Authority’s member districts. In theory, that investor money could bump the amount of water that has historically flowed down the canal on the Central Valley’s eastern flank by up to 800 cubic feet per…
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Temperance Flat Dam on indefinite hold after report shows it doesn’t pencil out for water users
An investment analysis that looked at how much it would cost water users to build and operate the proposed Temperance Flat Dam northeast of Fresno without government funding was finished earlier this year and quietly passed among water districts, which just as quietly asked the federal government to shelve work on the project. A small…
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Plans to fix the Friant-Kern Canal moving fast. Funding — not so fast.
Planning to fix the Friant-Kern Canal is moving at a lightning clip even as funding to put those plans into action lags. The massive project went from its initial notice on Dec. 3, 2019, to release of the draft environmental impact statement on May 8, 2020 — just five months. Comments on the draft environmental…
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