At 429 feet tall, the government considers the dam "critical infrastructure," necessary to the state and country. It can hold back 1 million acre-feet of water and release thousands of gallons per minute from Pine Flat Lake into the Kings River, about 35 miles east of Fresno.
"It's a beautiful place," Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle told Action News. "It's great to be here in January."
Telle oversees the Corps of Engineers, which operates the dam. The Valley is Telle's first visit west of the Mississippi River since he began his role.
"We're really here to talk today about how we take a very broad spectrum of stakeholders and squeeze every drop of water out of our existing infrastructure, like Pine Flat Dam, here," Telle said.
The Assistant Secretary joined Republican Congressman Vince Fong for a roundtable discussion and tour.
The visit came two weeks after California marked a milestone, when the U.S. Drought Monitor declared there was no drought and no dryness in the state for the first time in 25 years.
"Do you think the tide could be turning for how water works in California," Action News asked Fong.
"We have water at the moment," Fong said. "But how are we planning for water strategies and water supplies in the future?"
Fong wants to increase the lake's capacity by raising the spillway 12 feet. He is pushing Telle and the Army Corps of Engineers to get started before 2028.
"Let's streamline the process," Fong said. "Let's not do, you know, a 10-year process, not just to do the feasibility study, but try to get to construction as quickly as possible."
Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen met with Telle and Fong. He later told Action News that more storage at Pine Flat Lake would have a major impact across the region.
"We use that extra capacity to hold (water) for those following years and be able to take more advantage of that water instead of having to spill it out," Jacobsen said.
Some farmers have expressed frustration with the Army Corps of Engineers' water management.
Amid the LA wildfires last year, officials released water from Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success under orders from President Trump.
"Some farmers said that they were taken a little bit by surprise (by) that. What does communication look like with farmers, with stakeholders going forward?" Action News asked Telle.
"There's a lot more that we can do to help our agricultural interests here, help the economic interests, and in times of natural disaster, get on it and help the citizens who are under threat," Telle said.
To do that, Telle and Fong are examining the snowpack surveys. They want them to be more accurate.
"There are new technologies available related to the forecasting of the weather, related to understanding the snow and the mountains better, that we can use to, like I said, take every drop of water (and) make decisions ahead of time that allow us to conserve when needed or release when needed," Telle said.
The Assistant Secretary said he would return to Central California, and he vowed to work with Congress on water management in the year ahead.
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