Qualla: Temperance Flat Dam

Temperance Flat Dam: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

California keeps planning dams it never builds. Temperance Flat is the latest in a long tradition: a proposed 665-foot concrete wall across the San Joaquin River that would double the water storage downstream of Friant Dam, generate 160 megawatts of hydroelectric power, and cost somewhere between $2.5 billion and $3.35 billion depending on who you ask. If constructed, it would be the second tallest dam in California and the fifth tallest in the United States. But as of 2020, the project sits on indefinite hold - a monument to the gap between the state's thirst for water and its willingness to pay the price, financial and ecological, of capturing it.

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Temperance Flat Dam: The Canyon That Refused

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The proposed dam site lies at river mile 274 on the San Joaquin, west of the small community of Auberry in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The Bureau of Reclamation originally evaluated three potential locations along the river - at river miles 274, 279, and 286 - before narrowing t...

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Temperance Flat Dam: Sacred Ground and Spotted Salamanders

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The environmental stakes extend well beyond scenery. Local Native American tribes have identified thirty sensitive sites within the Temperance Flat study area, one of which the Native American Heritage Commission designated as sacred. The proposed reservoir footprint is home to b...

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Temperance Flat Dam: The Bill Nobody Wants to Pay

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In February 2014, Representative Jim Costa introduced legislation to authorize construction. The Bureau released a draft environmental impact statement that September. Voters passed a $7.5 billion water bond in November 2014, earmarking roughly $1.25 billion for Temperance Flat a...

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Temperance Flat Dam: Water's Unfinished Argument

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Temperance Flat sits in a broader context that makes the debate personal for millions of Californians. The San Joaquin Valley is one of the most productive agricultural regions on Earth, and its farms depend on managed water storage. Friant Dam, completed in 1942, already transfo...

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