This story from Saturday’s Bee is wonderful news. According to Congressman John Doolittle, the house resource leadership, and local Bureau of Reclamation leadership, feels the 1965 authorization for Auburn Dam is still in effect and he plans to begin directing funding towards building it.
However, we still feel the current design’s storage capacity, at 2.3 million acre feet, needs to be expanded to ensure that Auburn Lake can hold the water from the pineapple-express storms that cause the Lower American River to be used as a flood conveyance vehicle (water being released from Nimbus Dam at several thousand cubic feet per second (cfs), up to 130,000 cfs during the 1986 storms) to open space in Folsom, causing severe damage and reducing the recreational and environmental conditions in the Parkway.
We need to take this opportunity to not only protect the citizens of Sacramento from disastrous flooding, but also to preserve the integrity of the Parkway.
Here is an excerpt.
"Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's energy and water subcommittee that funds such projects, said he now is convinced that a flood control dam at Auburn is vital.
"Hobson recently toured Sacramento-area levees from a helicopter, along with Reps. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, and Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, chairman of the full House Appropriations Committee.
"At a March 2 hearing where he described the helicopter tour's impact, Hobson said that before the trip, "I wasn't on John's side on building Auburn dam as I am now."
"It's scary," Hobson said of Sacramento's plight. "They are going to need it."
"Work planned and under way to improve Folsom Dam and the levees that confine the American River eventually will give Sacramento 200-year flood protection - less than New Orleans had before Katrina struck.
"A dam at Auburn would at least double the city's protection, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. But such a dam would be costly, perhaps $3 billion or more for a multipurpose dam, and has been highly controversial because it would inundate a recreational area that is popular with river rafters.
"But what may emerge, at least initially, is something less than the full-scale dam that retains water year-round. Hobson said he favors a "dry dam" popular in Southern California that impounds water only during heavy flooding, and then slowly releases it as the river recedes.
"We know how to build dams - and I know Representative Doolittle won't like this - in a way that doesn't have to be wet," Hobson said.
"Doolittle recently has said he won't accept that. But in an interview Wednesday he said that in 1996 he supported a dry dam that was designed to be convertible to a full-featured structure, and he would be willing to go along with that again as an interim step.
"If I have to take a half a loaf, an expandable dam is better than nothing," he said.
"Hobson's endorsement comes as Doolittle, the leading advocate of an Auburn dam in the Congress, said he will seek money to build his dream dam without first asking for congressional approval of a revived project.
Rather than following the twice-trodden path of trying to get Congress to authorize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a flood-control dam, Doolittle said he intends to pursue a multipurpose dam under a law authorizing the Bureau of Reclamation to build it in 1965.
"More than $400 million was spent on construction and land acquisition before work on the dam was stopped in 1975 because of earthquake concerns. Later studies concluded that the dam could be built safely a bit farther downstream, but by then costs had escalated and Congress never resumed construction.
"When the Sacramento-area congressional delegation tried to authorize a flood control dam at Auburn in 1992 and 1996, it lost - in 1992 on the House floor in a 273-140 vote, and in 1996 in a 35-28 vote of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
"Doolittle said he now believes that the original 1965 authorization is still active and that it can be used to restart the project.
"It wouldn't have to be reauthorized," Doolittle said. "We already have an authorization. That's what I believe, and that's what I believe the two chairmen believe."
"The two chairmen are Hobson and Lewis, a longtime supporter of an Auburn dam. Neither could be reached for comment.
"If Doolittle is right, it would be possible for congressional appropriators to start pouring money into an Auburn dam right away.
"Doolittle said that's what he intends to do, starting with $4 million to $5 million in the upcoming 2007 budget for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to update the project's feasibility studies.
"I am more hopeful now than in a long time," said Doolittle, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and its energy and water panel. "I think we are in for some major developments for our region."
"So far, however, New Orleans' experience has not made converts in the Senate. California's two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, are longtime opponents of an Auburn dam.
"Both have urged enhanced federal spending on levee repairs around Sacramento, citing the experiences of Katrina and the city's vulnerability. Howard Gantman, Feinstein's communications director, said nothing so far has caused the senator to rethink her position on the dam.
"No proposal has been brought forward that would convince her to change her mind," Gantman said.
"Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, is more amenable, if only slightly.
"I am open to additional ideas as to how to make Sacramentans safer, as long as they are achievable and do not slow down or come at the expense of projects that are in the pipeline," she said in a statement.
"As far as Auburn dam is concerned, Sacramentans are mindful of the fact that the debate over Auburn held up flood protection for a decade," she said. "It is essential that any proposal for additional protection never again threaten progress on the vital projects that are already under way."
"Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, a leading environmental leader in the House, said Doolittle is in for a fight if he tries to move forward with an Auburn dam.
"This would be just like New Orleans," Miller said. "They needed levees, but they went off and spent the money on something else. And now Doolittle is trying to use Katrina to get something done that he couldn't do over the last 20 years. I think this is going to have rough sledding."
"But according to Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken in Sacramento, an Auburn dam "is still an authorized project."
"It has not been decommissioned," he said. "That means the agency has congressional authority to construct it and that the next step would be funding."
"McCracken said the bureau could do the work even if funded in stages, first as a dry dam that would fill only when there's a flood, and later as a multipurpose dam retaining a large reservoir and producing power. "
