Pump beefed up at Auburn dam site
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, March 8, 2008
AUBURN – A permanent pump station has been completed in the American River Canyon near the site of the abandoned Auburn dam project, the Placer County Water Agency announced Friday.
The station will allow PCWA to pump as much as 35,500 acre-feet of water a year, increasing the agency's capacity by more than 160 percent.
The $75 million project has been under construction for four years, overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Workers have been testing the pumps since late last year and full operation is planned in the spring, the PCWA said in a news release.
PCWA officials say the pump station restores a "missing link" in the agency's water delivery system. The previous pump station was removed 30 years ago construction of the Auburn dam began.
When work was halted, it left PCWA with a temporary pump station, which was built in 1990 and has remained in use.
– Art Campos
