Scott V
12-03-2008, 12:41 PM
Taken from Sac Bee:
The long-lived federal Auburn dam proposal is officially dead.
The state water board drove the last nail into the coffin today, voting 5-0 to revoke the water rights it granted for the American River project nearly 40 years ago.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation proposal surfaced in President Harry Truman's administration, won congressional authorization in 1965, was redesigned after a 1975 earthquake and slowly petered out as cost estimates skyrocketed and the values of an unimpeded North Fork of the American rose.
In the end, the proposal died for lack of a dam.
Under California's use-it-or-lose-it water laws, the bureau had to put its rights to American River water to "beneficial use." The bureau planned to store up to 5 million acre-feet behind a 700-foot-high dam for flood-control, power generation, recreation and farming and urban consumption.
But the bureau halted construction more than 30 years ago because of safety concerns that followed an earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale 50 miles north of Auburn. Environmental concerns and ballooning costs have delayed the project ever since.
The long-lived federal Auburn dam proposal is officially dead.
The state water board drove the last nail into the coffin today, voting 5-0 to revoke the water rights it granted for the American River project nearly 40 years ago.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation proposal surfaced in President Harry Truman's administration, won congressional authorization in 1965, was redesigned after a 1975 earthquake and slowly petered out as cost estimates skyrocketed and the values of an unimpeded North Fork of the American rose.
In the end, the proposal died for lack of a dam.
Under California's use-it-or-lose-it water laws, the bureau had to put its rights to American River water to "beneficial use." The bureau planned to store up to 5 million acre-feet behind a 700-foot-high dam for flood-control, power generation, recreation and farming and urban consumption.
But the bureau halted construction more than 30 years ago because of safety concerns that followed an earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale 50 miles north of Auburn. Environmental concerns and ballooning costs have delayed the project ever since.