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Letters to the Editor

This year’s rain would have filled Temperance Flat. And then some.

Millerton Lake water cascades from the spillway of Friant Dam into the San Joaquin River on Feb. 10, 2017.
Millerton Lake water cascades from the spillway of Friant Dam into the San Joaquin River on Feb. 10, 2017. JOHN WALKER The Fresno Bee file

In reference to the June 11 letter to the editor “Don’t destroy river gorge by building Temperance Flat”:

I googled the amount of water released from Millerton Lake into the San Joaquin River between 1991 and 2011. The figure was around 450,000 acre-feet per year.

The same figure was given by one member of the Madera Board of Supervisors on the recent PBS TV series “Tapped Out.”

If Temperance Flat was built today, holding 1.2 million acre-feet, it would be filled and still we would have already released more than 250,000 acre-feet down the San Joaquin River.

Statistically, it would appear that flood waters have occurred three of every 10 years in the 40-year period, ending in 2015.

Donald H. Smith, Fresno

This story was originally published June 16, 2017 at 11:23 AM with the headline "This year’s rain would have filled Temperance Flat. And then some.."

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