Nearly $900 million needed to restore San Joaquin River

   The Bureau of Reclamation has released an estimate of the cost of restoring the San Joaquin River in California—$892 million—but has pushed back the deadline for completing a key component of that restoration from December 31, 2012,  to three years from that date. The bureau is aiming to reconnect the San Joaquin River to the Pacific Ocean and to restore its salmon runs, which the bureau had originally planned to complete by the end of the year. The restoration agreement was signed in 2006 by the bureau, local farmers, and environmental groups; at that time, the cost of restoring the river was estimated to be within a range of $250,000 to $1 billion. The new estimate of $892 million could increase to more than $2 billion if certain lower-priority projects are included, according to the bureau.