Restoring the San Joaquin River will take longer and cost more than originally projected, the paper reports today.
The 2012 deadline to reintroduce spring-run chinook salmon to the river has been pushed back to 2016. The cost has swollen from the original range of $250 million to $800 million to almost $900 million. And it could soar higher.
“The delay is mostly because of the need to carefully study those large projects, none of which have yet been constructed,” the story said, citing sources in the U.S. Department of Reclamation.
So a billion-dollar peripheral canal, or tunnel, can be fast-tracked without full analysis of its environmental impact — or even a cost-benefit analysis — but we’ve got to study fish screens to death. Suggestively selective caution.
