Major California river adding key ingredient: water

October 22, 2016 at 1:13 p.m. | Updated October 22, 2016 at 1:15 p.m.

by Associated Press

In this Sept. 28, 2016, photo, Elizabeth Vasquez of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation explains efforts to return water to parts of the San Joaquin River that have long been dry during a tour of the confluence of the San Joaquin and Merced rivers in Stanislaus County, Calif. A decade ago, environmentalists and the federal government agreed to revive a 150-mile stretch of California's second-longest river, an ambitious effort aimed at allowing salmon to again swim up to the Sierra Nevada foothills to spawn. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
In this Sept. 28, 2016, photo, Elizabeth Vasquez of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation explains efforts to return water to parts of the San Joaquin River that have long been dry during a tour of the confluence of the San Joaquin and Merced rivers in Stanislaus County, Calif. A decade ago, environmentalists and the federal government agreed to revive a 150-mile stretch of California's second-longest river, an ambitious effort aimed at allowing salmon to again swim up to the Sierra Nevada foothills to spawn. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Long-dry parts of California's second-longest river soon will be wet.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation says by the end of the month, a 150-mile stretch of the San Joaquin River in Central California should be flowing year-round for the first time in more than 60 years.

The watershed event comes 10 years after the government settled with conservationists who sued over a massive dam near Fresno. It diverted water to irrigate farmland and killed off the native salmon migration.

The goal of returning salmon to the area, once projected to happen in 2012, remains six years off. Work hasn't started on passages allowing fish to swim around dams.

And the cost is ballooning. It's now an estimated $1.7 billion, more than double the government's original projection.

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