More dust than water from a Temperance Flat dam
Local political leaders, including several candidates, should stop misrepresenting the merits of a dam at Temperance Flat. They are doing a disservice to our community. I seriously wonder if most of them really know just how little water this project will yield our farmers.
Perhaps the proposed size of the reservoir, 1.2 million acre-feet, is what excites them or perhaps calling for new dams is just the politically correct thing to do. Building a million acre-foot reservoir doesn’t mean it will yield that much water. Based on the last 50 years of flood-release records, Temperance Flat would only yield about 61,00 to 76,000 acre-feet of water on average.
Temperance has a projected cost of about $3 billion. The water would be so expensive, no Valley farmer would buy it, so it would go on the market, probably ending up as municipal water in Southern California.
Stop misleading the public. Stop putting up signs along our freeways that lead the public to believe that more dams will solve the water crisis.
Ronald Bohigian, Fresno
This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 6:01 AM with the headline "More dust than water from a Temperance Flat dam."