An excerpt.
Water officials voice concerns about fire
By: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer Tuesday, September 12, 2006 11:28 PM PDT
Placer County Water Agency officials are concerned about the Ralston Fire's impact on the watershed - the source of the much of agency's water supply - as well as power
generation.
Board Chairman Alex Ferreira said Monday that a major immediate concern for the agency is renewing power generation from the Middle Fork Project's hydroelectric plants.
There has been no major power generation since Friday, when Pacific Gas & Electric transmission lines were damaged by fire.
A major concern both in the short term and long term is the damage from the fire on the watershed, including mountain stream courses, holding ponds and the greater chance of erosion on burned-out forestland.
Ferreira said he was planning on inspecting water agency facilities and fire damage today.
"This is our watershed and it hurts us," Ferreira said. "When you have the kind of hot fires we're having, you get tremendous changes when the rains come. It's scary."
