In today’s Sacramento Bee, Matt Weiser reports:
A new study puts the cost of constructing an Auburn dam somewhere between $6 billion and $10 billion—at least twice the cost of earlier estimates.
The report, released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, yielded other sobering revisions to previous assessments of building a concrete dam on the American River near Auburn: As originally designed, the dam would provide far less drinking and irrigation water than once believed and would cause more harm to adjacent recreation areas. The study also found the dam would not protect Sacramento from a worst-case flood.
And according to the Auburn Sentinel, “State Assemblyman Ted Gaines spoke at the Gold Country Rotary club last week. Gaines said the Auburn dam is a ‘dead issue’ and alternatives to the project are being sought. Gaines was on the Placer County Board of Supervisors, representing District 4, until his November election to the state Assembly.”
For images and more details, see the Sacramento Bee article, “Auburn dam price tag soars.” You can download the complete report from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Auburn-Folsom South Unit Special Report page.
Auburn Dam has been declared dead many times before. Unfortunately, there are people who would profit from building a dam, or from developing property they own next to a new reservoir. These people will never give up, so lets remain vigilant for the new, revised Auburn Dam proposal whenever it comes out.
Tom Philp’s Waterlog at Sacramento Bee is a great blog for information on California water politics. Auburn Dam article search at Sacramento Bee provides updates on the coverage of this issue in the newspaper. I am also blogging about this at River Conservation – BRT Insights.
Conservation. The City of Sacramento currently pays for everyone’s water. Give people a water bill, and they will begin to conserve. Auburn “Lake” would be a foul body of water, attract jetskiers and friends of jetskiers and would fracture during the next earthquake, flooding all of Sacramento. When Californians elect an Austrian body-builder/Hollywood star, I wonder.
Auburn Dam Information Directory links to websites from government agencies, news media, etc. Let me know about other sites that should be included in the list.