The future of the proposed Temperance Flat Reservoir Project is in doubt. For 20 years investors for the project have had to focus instead on a cascading series of water crises.
Now the project is unlikely to meet a critical deadline for drafting an operating plan and is not likely to move forward to the next stage of development in conjunction with the Bureau of Reclamation, according to the reservoir authority.
The San Joaquin Valley has been facing a number of issues that have forced the water districts that would invest in the project to focus more locally. The top priority has been preparing plans for the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Safe drinking water and related water quality issues have also been growing in importance, especially in socially disadvantaged communities. Earlier, the San Joaquin River Settlement Agreement took much of the attention from the reservoir project.
In a Water Commission meeting yesterday, the authority’s Aaron Fukuda hoped that funds already invested in the project can instead go to benefitting the Central Valley in other meaningful ways.
