General
The Friant Division impounds or diverts the entire flow of the San Joaquin River, except for flood control and irrigation releases. Friant Dam sends irrigation water south through the Friant-Kern Canal, and north through the Madera Canal.
The main features of this division are all constructed and operated by Reclamation:
- Friant Dam
- Friant-Kern Canal, and
- Madera Canal
Construction
Because of the dual complexities of moving water from one watershed to another and diverting the natural flow of the San Joaquin, a number of water rights claims had to be settled before construction progressed.
California water law provides for riparian rights entitling a land owner on a stream to the full beneficial use of the stream's natural flow. Reclamation could not divert water away from a stream until it settled the question of downstream water rights. Miller & Lux held the most important water rights claims on the San Joaquin. After negotiations stretched across the latter half of the 1930s, Reclamation eventually settled with Miller & Lux in the spring of 1939.
Plan
No text for this section
Other
No text for this section
Overview
Friant Dam
Friant Dam is a concrete gravity dam 319 feet high with a crest length of 3,488 feet on the upper San Joaquin River in the Sierra foothills of Fresno County, California near the town of Friant.
The dam, completed in 1942, forms Millerton Lake and was built by the Bureau of Reclamation, which owns and operates the dam. The lake and dam are about 15 miles (24 km) north of downtown Fresno. The lake storage capacity is 520,500 acre feet for irrigation of the San Joaquin Valley, which is distributed by the Madera- and Friant-Kern-Canals.
The dam controls the San Joaquin River flows and provides for:
- Downstream releases to meet water delivery requirements above Mendota Pool
- Flood control, conservation storage and water diversions into Madera and Friant-Kern Canals
- Delivers water to a million acres of agricultural land in Fresno, Kern, Madera and Tulare counties in the San Joaquin Valley
- Delivers water releases as part of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program
Its secondary uses include flood control and recreation.
The 25 megawatt Friant Power Plant in front of the dam produces hydroelectricity for the Friant Power Authority. There are two smaller power plants that produce power with the minimum-flow release water and the water for fish hatchery operations.
Friant-Kern Canal
The Friant-Kern Canal carries water more than 151.8 miles in a southerly direction from Millerton Lake to the Kern River, near Bakersfield. The water is used for supplemental and new irrigation supplies in Fresno, Tulare and Kern counties. Construction of the canal began in 1945 and was completed in 1951.
Madera Canal
The 35.9-mile-long Madera Canal carries water northerly from Millerton Lake to furnish lands in Madera County with a supplemental and a new irrigation supply. The canal, completed in 1945, has an initial capacity of 1,000 cfs, decreasing to 625 cfs at its terminus in the Chowchilla River.
History
No text for this section
Contact
