The Arroyo Canal Fish Screen and Sack Dam Fish Passage Project is integral to restoring spring-run Chinook salmon to the San Joaquin River. 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. 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 existing Sack Dam are operated by Henry Miller Reclamation District #2131 and are the sole diversion and conveyance facilities for the reclamation district, providing agricultural water to approximately 47,000 acres of farmland in the San Joaquin Valley as well as water to Federal and State wildlife refuges and private duck clubs. An ancillary benefit of this project is creating a subsidence-resilient water diversion facility in an area where land has sunk due to groundwater pumping. The current construction schedule is to award the contract in July 2025 with project construction starting Fall 2025 and completed Summer 2028.
Key project components are shown below. CLICK HERE FOR A 360-degree VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE OF THE FINISHED PROJECT!
The project has undergone multiple phases of planning. Key documents include:
A joint Draft Environmental Assessment/Initial Study was publicly released June 1, 2012, and comments were due by 5 p.m. Monday, July 2, 2012.
Draft EA/IS and Draft FONSI/MND
The Final EA/IS was publicly released May 24, 2013. The FONSI was signed Sept. 4, 2013.
Final EA/IS and FONSI
