Deal likely near for San Joaquin River

By Samantha Young
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tuesday, June 20, 2006

SACRAMENTO - A federal judge on Monday gave farmers and environmentalists until the end of the month to reach an agreement that seeks to restore year-round water flows to parts of the San Joaquin River, negotiations aimed at bringing salmon runs back to one of California's most important waterways.

Attorneys for both sides told U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton that they have resolved key substantive issues to reverse the negative effects of a dam built nearly 60 years ago.

A final agreement remained elusive, however, as attorneys continue to negotiate details with state officials. Those details focused on how the state Department of Water Resources would implement the final accord, they said.

"Our hope and expectation is we'll be able to close (discussions) off by the end of June," said Phil Atkins-Pattenson, an attorney representing the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Details of the tentative agreement remain confidential under a court order.

Attorneys representing Central Valley farmers, environmentalists and the federal Bureau of Reclamation had negotiated through Monday in hopes of meeting a court-ordered deadline for a final plan to release more water from Friant Dam, which was built in 1949 and created a reservoir that is now a state recreation area.

The case dates to a 1988 lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The environmental group was seeking to restore salmon runs after the dam choked the flow of water along the San Joaquin, leaving many downstream sections filled with tumbleweed.

The expected agreement would set in motion the largest river-restoration project in state history, ensuring the river would run year round from below the dam to where it enters the Delta near Stockton.

The San Joaquin is a crucial link in the state's vast water-delivery network. It helps irrigate Central Valley farm land and is part of the Delta, which supplies drinking water to more than 20 million Californians as far south as Los Angeles.

"What we're trying to do is get fish back to the delta without sacrificing the country's most productive agricultural economy," said Gregory Wilkinson, a partner with Best Best & Krieger who is representing the Friant Water Users Authority, a group that represents 15,000 farmers.

At a previous court hearing in April, the judge had threatened to impose his own solution if the parties failed to reach an agreement by a deadline he set for Monday. But as the deadline day arrived, Karlton said he was "significantly encouraged" that an agreement appeared close and ordered the attorneys to submit a written report by the end of the month.

"Last time we said we'd get this buttoned up by today," the judge said. "Here we are getting closer."

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