Press Releases

U.S. Representatives Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) and Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove) released a letter to key regional federal regulators calling on them to revise plans and take actions to prevent water releases that threaten to leave New Melones reservoir dry this coming summer.

In a joint letter to senior officials at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Reps. Denham and McClintock requested that the agencies meet immediately and enter emergency consultation proceedings to devise a new plan to conserve water in New Melones reservoir and ensure flows down the Stanislaus River through the rest of 2015.

“If the reservoir reaches dead pool, communities that rely on Lake Tulloch for their water supply will be unable to access their water, irrigators downstream of Tulloch Dam will go without water during the hottest months of the year, and ironically the fall-run salmon would end up with no flows upon their return migration,” said Denham and McClintock.

The two Congressmen have been sounding the alarm about the need for federal regulators to provide balance in water storage and delivery. “Pursuing a course of action that leaves no water available during some of the hottest months in the Central Valley and provides no options for returning fall-run salmon is a gross mismanagement of the river system and a failure to avert a preventable disaster,” states the letter.

The letter is available here.