On the day after it appears the future of the Auburn Dam has ended unless the US Congress decides to reopen it, as this article notes, an ARPPS letter is published concerning water storage with the dam as one solution, but that is the nature of policy changes.
Here is our letter.
Time to address state's water needs
Re "California water storage: Underworld and body" (Viewpoints, Nov. 28): Storing water underground, while obviously presenting us with significant technological problems, is a terrific idea and a storage technology that most certainly needs enriching.
In a future with a reduced snowpack and a steadily increasing population, we need to consider all of the approaches mentioned.
We have the option of raising Shasta Dam 200 feet – to the height to which it was originally engineered – and by so doing could triple the storage to about 13.8 million acre-feet. With the building of Auburn Dam – one of the few sites on which a dam could still be built in California – we could add another 2.3 million acre-feet.
With the 10 million to 50 million acre-feet of underground storage envisioned by professor Graham E. Fogg, California would be realizing the level of water storage needed to not only provide for the existing needs of the state but also much of California's future needs.
All of these options do present technological and environmental challenges, but California does have the resources to address them, and for the future health of our state, we hope those resources are brought to bear.
– David H. Lukenbill, Sacramento,
senior policy director, American River Parkway Preservation Society
