House Approves Denham Amendment to Prohibit Reintroduction of Salmon into Insufficient San Joaquin River Habitat

Press Release

The House passed an amendment by U.S. Representative Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) to H.R. 5325, the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2013, to prohibit the use of funds by the U.S. Department of Interior for the premature reintroduction of salmon into an inadequate San Joaquin River habitat, which currently does not have a complete system to provide for a successful reintroduction.

"Premature introduction of salmon into an unfinished and insufficient San Joaquin River habitat will only lead to their death at a high cost to the taxpayer and the local community," said Denham. "My common sense amendment prevents taxpayer dollars from being wasted on killing an endangered species."

The San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement was established to provide sufficient fish habitat in the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam near Fresno and received Federal Court approval in October 2006. However, federal legislation authorizing Federal agencies to implement the Settlement was not passed until March 2009, delaying the schedule outlined in the settlement by 3 years due to the amount of time that was needed to get legislation signed into law.

Despite the delayed start of the settlement, the deadlines stipulated to be met under the original Settlement were not adjusted to reflect the three year delay. There are still a number of projects agreed to in the settlement along the San Joaquin River that have not been completed; thus, the river is currently not a complete system to provide a sufficient habitat for the reintroduction of salmon while the first phase of the settlement is unfinished.

"Central Valley salmon runs are struggling to regain healthy numbers. This amendment ensures that bureaucrats don't purposely reduce the numbers of available salmon in other streams to plant them into the San Joaquin system and further threaten and endanger current runs," Denham continued. "The Departments of Interior and Commerce, as well as the National Marine Fisheries Services, have all agreed that the river would not support full-scale reintroduction of the salmon, and I'm glad my colleagues have also agreed to save taxpayer dollars from being wasted on such a negligent project."

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