By TIM HEARDEN

Capital Press

RED BLUFF, Calif. -- U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was joined by other dignitaries Tuesday as they ceremonially broke ground on the largest Department of the Interior stimulus project in the country.

A new pump and fish passage project to replace the more than 40-year-old Red Bluff Diversion Dam in Northern California received a jumpstart as Salazar, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made brief remarks to some 250 onlookers.

The dam provides water to 150,000 agricultural acres in the northern Sacramento Valley but has been the target of environmental groups.

Salazar announced last April that $109.8 million in drought-relief funds would be allocated to improving the Red Bluff facility, which provides water to 17 different water districts in four counties. The project's total estimated price tag is $230 million.

"We know at the end of the day, water is the lifeblood for agriculture, and agriculture is the lifeblood for these communities in Northern California," Salazar said.

Schwarzenegger said the project pleased everyone from farmers to fishermen and brought all sides together.

"I love when we solve problems, when everyone comes together, unlike ... what you saw of Washington with the health care bill," the governor said. He urged Californians to pass a water funding proposal appearing on the November ballot because it would provide the final $60 million in funding for the project.

The diversion dam's lowered gates form Lake Red Bluff, which enable gravity to carry water from the Sacramento River into canals. However, the lowered gates block threatened and endangered salmon, steelhead, green sturgeon and other fish from reaching spawning grounds.

In response to environmental lawsuits that threatened the dam's use, gates are lowered for shorter periods during the summer months and temporary pumps and fish screens and an existing research pumping station are being used to take up some of the slack.

The dam and temporary fish screens are expected to be in place until the new permanent pumping station is built in time for the 2013 irrigation season or earlier.

"We're hoping to have this project completed by 2012," said Pete Lucero, a spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation's Mid-Pacific Region. "Work is just about ready to begin. The contractor is just getting on site right now and mobilizing."

Built in the 1960s, the Red Bluff Diversion Dam has long been blamed for contributing to declines in salmon and steelhead trout populations. In 2005, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups sued federal authorities over the Central Valley Project's water diversion system.

U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger ruled in 2008 that the Red Bluff dam and other diversions harm the state's salmon population, and he ordered the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the National Marine Fisheries Service to seek ways to protect the fish.

The dam's potential demise worried water users, who produce some $250 million in crops each year and contribute about $1 billion to the regional economy. More than half the farmland served by the dam grows permanent crops, including 58,000 acres of almonds, according to Jeff Sutton, general manager of the Tehama Colusa Canal Authority.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)