Tuesday October 13, 2009
Water releases from Friant Dam, called Interim Flows, began on October 1st as part of San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act. The flow was increased from 160 cfs to 350 cfs and is scheduled to increase again to 700 cfs on November 1st. According to the final environmental assessment the purpose of the Interim flows is to allow the implementing agencies to collect relevant data concerning flows, temperatures, fish needs, seepages losses, recirculation, recapture and reuse of flows. This photo taken October 6th by FISHBIO shows the leading edge of the flow increase. The increased flow is part of an effort to restore salmon to the San Joaquin River. The construction of Friant Dam in the 1940s, resulted in the extirpation of chinook salmon when nearly 95 percent river’s flow was diverted.
Read more on the flow increase in this recent article .
San Joaquin River Restoration Program