Temperance Flat presentation heard by Water Commission
by John Lindt, December 21, updated 5 hours ago
Some 12 proposed water storage projects shared the stage at a recent California Water Commission meeting with all vying for some share to be apportioned from the same $2.7 billion pot of money available through the Proposition 1 water bond.
Kings County Board of Supervisors Chairman Craig Pedersen attended the meeting and found the presentation by advocates of the Temperance Flat project above Fresno to be the most compelling. “It was just terrific “showing how the new dam’s benefits were widespread,” he said.
“I know some environmental groups offered negative comments, but I would be very surprised if the project does not get commission funding.”
The state agency has said it would make a decision by June. Peterson, like many in Kings County, is a strong supporter of Temperance Flat and a fierce critic of another storage project seeking funding – Semitropic Water Storage District’s Kettleman Reservoir. On the edge of the historic Tulare Lakebed, Semitropic could bank up to 120,000 acre-feet a year of Kings River floodwaters – water which would be conveyed from there via the California Aqueduct to the Semitropic Water Bank in Kern County.
