Aging, sinking Friant-Kern Canal to get $187 million facelift

The ailing Friant-Kern Canal is getting a facelift seven decades after the 151-mile federal water project was completed.

Local, state and federal officials broke ground Jan. 26 on a $187 million repair of a 10-mile stretch of the canal that will improve water flow after land subsidence reduced water delivery by up to 300,000 acre-feet.

"It hasn't been easy," said state Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger, whose legislation to provide state funds for the repairs was watered down and then vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom who wanted the bill to include other water projects.

"When I first introduced SB 599 to fund the repairs of the canal, everyone spoke in terms of this is a payout for Big Ag," said Hurtado during the groundbreaking ceremony whose attendees were mostly farmers.

Hurtado said "it's not a payout for Big Ag. It's an investment in all of California. It really is because we provide food for the state, we provide food for the nation, and we provide food security."

Farmworkers and their communities will benefit from the canal repair work, she said. The canal serves farmers and more than 250,000 residents on the east side of the Valley from Lake Millerton to Arvin.

Tanya Trujillo, U.S. Department of the Interior assistant secretary for water and science, said it took the work of state and federal officials to come up with the fix known as the Friant-Kern Canal Middle Reach Capacity Correction.

"We have challenges and opportunities from the top of the border to the Salton Sea in California, and many, many opportunities in between," said Trujillo.

Representatives Jim Costa, D-Fresno, and David Valadao, R-Hanford, stressed the bipartisan work to deliver the money.

"We need to make the same kind of investments our parents and grandparents made a generation and two ago," said Costa. "We've been living off these investments. It's long past due that we make similar kinds of investments for the next generations of Californians and Americans."

Valadao noted that the permitting process to start the work needs to be sped up.

"We've gone through three administrations before it got to this project since the original legislation was done," said Valadao.

Cliff Loeffler, chairman of the Friant Water Authority, said member farmers were key.

"Today, we celebrate the fact that a group of independent farmers could agree to move ahead so that the legacy of providing water to the eastern portions of the San Joaquín Valley can be preserved, even enhanced for future generations," said Loeffler.

The repair will include constructing 10 miles of new, concrete-lined canal to replace the canal in an area where the land near Terra Bella has sunk 13 feet due to farmers over-pumping groundwater faster than it can be replenished.

Once restored, water flow will go from 1,600 cubic-feet-per second to 4,000 cubic-feet-per second. The work is expected to be finished by January 2024.

"It's an emotional day for me today because I would say that in Sacramento three years ago, nobody knew about the canal. Nobody knew about the importance of it," said Hurtado.