Farm water officials worked years on the $7.5 billion state water bond that passed Tuesday, offering the possibility of partly bankrolling a new reservoir near Fresno. Now it’s time for round two – actually getting funding for Temperance Flat and other projects.

At the Fresno Irrigation District Thursday, farm water officials joined the California Latino Water Coalition in announcing they would continue pushing for the projects next year at the California Water Commission in Sacramento. The commission will allocate $2.7 billion for water storage projects, based on public benefit, and there will be competition for the money. (The Gualco Group, Inc. is usually the only advocacy firm to participate at the Water Commission.)

“Tuesday was not a finish line,” said Ryan Jacobsen, executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau. “It’s a starting line to make sure projects get the funding.”

The water bond, known as Proposition 1, passed statewide with 66.8% of voters in approval, according to the California Secretary of State. Supporters lamented that California had to go through the intense three-year drought before agreeing to the bond, which will be spent on many kinds of projects, such as water conservation, water treatment and storage.

A new dam at Temperance Flat, upstream of Millerton Lake, would nearly triple the storage capacity. Critics say there’s not enough water coming from the San Joaquin River to justify the dam, but farm water officials say the storage is needed to capture water in wet years.

The debates now will shift to the California Water Commission, which has nine members. Two are from the San Joaquin Valley – farmer Joe Del Bosque and Dave Orth, general manager of the Kings River Conservation District. Del Bosque took part Thursday in the announcement at Fresno Irrigation District headquarters.

“We should savor this (election) victory,” he said. “But we still have work to do. And we’re still not out of the water crisis.”

The three-year drought hit the Valley hard, particularly this year after one of the driest winters on record. Both east- and west-side farmers who get water from the federal Central Valley Project got a zero allocation.

http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/11/06/4221902_farm-leaders-celebrate-water-bond.html?rh=1