$131 million federal boost to repair Friant-Kern Canal damage

More than $131 million in federal water money was steered toward San Joaquin Valley infrastructure repairs, with the biggest share going to the Friant-Kern Canal, the 152-mile artery that carries water from Millerton Lake in Fresno County to Kern County. Congressman Jim Costa announced the package on May 22, and the stakes are straightforward: if the canal’s sinking sections are not fixed, farms, cities and water districts across Fresno County and beyond keep absorbing the cost of lost deliveries.

The largest award, $65.8 million, went to the Friant-Kern Canal Capacity Correction Project. Another $53 million was set aside for the O’Neill Pumping Plant Main Transformer Replacement Project, $11 million for O’Neill Pumping Plant unit upgrades and $2 million for Fresno Irrigation District flow-metering improvements. Together, the projects target the machinery and conveyance system that supports water deliveries to more than 15,000 farms and cities including Fresno and Lindsay.

The need for the work traces back to subsidence tied to groundwater overdraft during drought years. Friant Water Authority said the problem was discovered in early 2017, when water running at full capacity began hitting bridges it normally passed under. A 33-mile section in Tulare County lost 60% of its carrying capacity, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation says the middle reach has lost more than half of its original design capacity because of both a design deficiency and regional subsidence. In some water years, that has reduced deliveries by as much as 300,000 acre-feet.

That shortfall carries direct economic consequences for Fresno County agriculture and the broader regional water market. Reclamation says the Friant-Kern Canal and the Friant Division of the Central Valley Project serve about 1 million acres of farmland and more than 250,000 people from Fresno to Bakersfield. If repairs do not keep pace with continued land movement, farms, districts and municipal users would be left with less reliable deliveries from a system built to move far more water than it can today.

Work is already underway. The Middle Reach Capacity Correction Project was completed in spring 2024, the first phase of a two-phase effort. Negotiations for the second phase began in late December 2024, with the goal of restoring conveyance from about 1,600 cubic feet per second back to the canal’s original 4,000 cfs.

The O’Neill Pumping Plant work matters too. The plant is a critical link in the federal Central Valley Project, moving water from the Delta-Mendota Canal into the O’Neill Forebay and onward to contractors. Friant Water Authority said earlier in 2026 that a separate $200 million federal investment was already advancing canal restoration, and a 2026 settlement involving Friant Water Authority, Arvin-Edison Water Storage District and Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency showed the groundwater fight behind the canal damage is still active.