In this article from today’s Bee the story of the dam’s importance in our life is accentuated by this eerie quote: “When the dam was completed in 1956 after eight years of construction, an enormous storm filled it up in just one week -- rather than the year that engineers had expected. Sacramento was saved from a flood.”
Let’s hope the next storm that would flood Sacramento waits until the Auburn Dam gets built, and we are saved again.
Here is an excerpt.
Folsom Dam at 50
Protective landmark awash in local history
By Deepa Ranganathan -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Sunday, May 21, 2006
It's kind of tough to be the Folsom Dam.
You provide drinking water and power for hundreds of thousands of people. You hold back storm water that would flood cities. You cool things off for the fish at Nimbus Hatchery. You're the reason there's a beautiful lake in Folsom.
And what thanks do you get?
"People don't think about the dam on a daily basis. They think about it just in months like April, when it rained like crazy," said Dave Kane, assistant general manager at Citrus Heights Water District.
Saturday, hundreds gathered at Beal's Point in Folsom to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the dam's completion.
The daylong event was a chance to reflect on the way things were before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the 1,400-foot concrete dam on the American River: a cycle of floods and droughts that regularly devastated farmers and city dwellers alike.
"Over the past 50 years, this massive concrete wall has held back rainfall and snowmelt," said Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, the dam's long, rocky berm stretching behind her. " ... It's one of those pieces of history you sort of take for granted."
When the dam was completed in 1956 after eight years of construction, an enormous storm filled it up in just one week -- rather than the year that engineers had expected. Sacramento was saved from a flood.
