Arroyo Canal Fish Screen and Sack Dam Fish Passage Project - San Joaquin River Restoration Program

Project Update

Construction on the Arroyo Canal Fish Screen and Sack Dam Fish Passage Project is underway! Crews have completed vegetation clearing the east bank of the project area, including installing sheet piling to protect the project site from flows.

An excavator removes vegetation from the project site. — An excavator removes vegetation from the project site in advance of constructing the main project components.

A vibrating hammer drill rig is used to drive sheet piles into the riverbank in order to protect the project site from water. — A vibratory pile driver is used to install sheet piles along the riverbank in order to protect the project site from water.

An aerial view of cleared riverbank with heavy machinery and a wall of sheet piling encircling the project site. — The eastern bank of the project site with sheet piling installed. Sack Dam is in the foreground.

Construction crews drill test piles that will be used to support project components.

Project Overview

The Arroyo Canal Fish Screen and Sack Dam Fish Passage Project, like the Mendota Pool Bypass and Reach 2B Project, is integral to restoring spring-run Chinook salmon to the San Joaquin River. View a project fact sheet here!

This project implements two of the highest priority projects identified in the 2006 Settlement: fish passage around Sack Dam and a fish screen on the Arroyo Canal to prevent entrainment of juvenile Chinook salmon in the canal.

An artist rendering of the proposed Arroyo Canal Fish Screen and Sack Dam Fish Passage Project looking upstream.

This project is necessary in order to allow salmon to freely move up and down the river to complete their lifecycle (downriver to the ocean and upriver to spawn).

The project furthers the Department of the Interior’s efforts to restore Chinook salmon and other fish to the San Joaquin River and is authorized in the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act (P.L. 111-11). Arroyo Canal and Sack Dam are owned and operated by Henry Miller Reclamation District #2131.

The dam and canal are the sole diversion and conveyance facilities for the reclamation district and provide agricultural water supply to approximately 47,000 acres of farmland in the San Joaquin Valley along with conveyance of water supply to Federal and State wildlife refuges and private duck clubs. The project was awarded in July 2025 and project construction started in November 2025. Project completion is expected in Summer 2028.