Action News goes to top of Pine Flat Dam with Asst. Sec. of Army to discuss water policy, management

PINE FLAT LAKE, Calif. (KFSN) -- Action News got a uncommon and exclusive look astatine Pine Flat Dam connected Friday arsenic national leaders from Washington arrived for a visit.

At 429 tall, the authorities considers the dam "critical infrastructure," indispensable to the authorities and country. It tin clasp backmost 1 cardinal acre-feet of h2o and merchandise thousands of gallons per infinitesimal from Pine Flat Lake into the Kings River astir 35 miles eastbound of Fresno.

"It's a beauteous place," Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle told Action News. "It's large to beryllium present successful January."

Telle oversees the Corps of Engineers, which operates the dam. The Valley is Telle's archetypal sojourn westbound of the Mississippi River since helium began his role.

"We're truly present to speech contiguous astir however we instrumentality a precise wide spectrum of stakeholders and compression each driblet of h2o retired of our existing infrastructure, similar Pine Flat Dam, here," Telle said.

The Assistant Secretary joined Republican Congressman Vince Fong for a roundtable treatment and tour.

The sojourn came 2 weeks aft California marked a milestone, erstwhile the U.S. Drought Monitor declared determination was nary drought and nary dryness successful the authorities for the archetypal clip successful 25 years.

"Do you deliberation the tide could beryllium turning for however h2o works successful California?" Action News asked Fong.

"We person h2o astatine the moment," Fong said. "But however are we readying for h2o strategies and h2o supplies successful the future?"

Fong wants to summation the lake's capableness by raising the spillway 12 feet. He is pushing Telle and the Army Corps of Engineers to get started earlier 2028.

"Let's streamline the process," Fong said. "Let's not do, you know, a 10-year process, not conscionable to bash the feasibility study, but effort to get to operation arsenic rapidly arsenic possible."

Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen met with Telle and Fong. He aboriginal told Action News that much retention astatine Pine Flat Lake would person a large interaction crossed the region.

"We usage that other capableness to clasp (water) for those pursuing years and beryllium capable to instrumentality much vantage of that h2o alternatively of having to spill it out," Jacobsen said.

Some farmers person expressed vexation with the Army Corps of Engineers' h2o management.

Amid the LA wildfires past year, officials released h2o from Terminus Dam astatine Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam astatine Lake Success nether orders from President Trump.

"Some farmers said that they were taken a small spot by astonishment (by) that. What does connection look similar with farmers, with stakeholders going forward?" Action News asked Telle.

"There's a batch much that we tin bash to assistance our cultivation interests here, assistance the economical interests, and successful times of earthy disaster, get connected it and assistance the citizens who are nether threat," Telle said.

To bash that, Telle and Fong are examining the snowpack surveys. They privation them to beryllium much accurate.

"There are caller technologies disposable related to the forecasting of the weather, related to knowing the snowfall and the mountains better, that we tin usage to, similar I said, instrumentality each driblet of h2o (and) marque decisions up of clip that let america to conserve erstwhile needed oregon merchandise erstwhile needed," Telle said.

The Assistant Secretary said helium would instrumentality to Central California, and helium vowed to enactment with Congress connected h2o absorption successful the twelvemonth ahead.

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