Letter to the editor: Quenching the state's thirst

Re “Dam project would be the largest in decades,” March 9

The Times' article on the proposed Temperance Flat project mischaracterizes the reservoir as an "agribusiness" project. California needs new storage to meet environmental commitments made to benefit fish protected under the Endangered Species Act.

California also needs locally produced, affordable, safe food -- and some farmers are running out of water because of what the article describes as "increasingly severe pumping restrictions" in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

New storage will be needed as one part of a comprehensive program to restore the environment while assuring reliable water supplies to California cities and farms. That program also must include improved water-use efficiency, additional water recycling, desalination and every other responsible tactic to address water shortages.

All Californians would benefit from that type of balanced approach.

Paul Wenger
Sacramento
The writer is president, California Farm Bureau Federation.

The article does not mention that Temperance Flat would have the potential, in a good year, to increase water storage on the San Joaquin by only about 250,000 acre-feet.

The proposed Madera County Water Bank, a few miles downstream from Friant Dam, would store about the same amount of water but at a small fraction of the cost of a new dam, and accomplish this without flooding one of Fresno County's most scenic and much-used recreational resources, the Bureau of Land Management-administered San Joaquin River Gorge Management Area.

Robert Lovell
Fresno