U.S. project could doom Auburn dam, revive river

Mercury News ^ | 7/1/02 | Paul Rogers

[NormsRevenge]

Thirty-five years after federal engineers descended into the canyons near the Gold Country town of Auburn and drained all the water from a scenic stretch of the American River to construct a 700-foot-tall dam, an astounding moment in dam-building history is about to occur.

[NormsRevenge]

We're gonna need a lot of water the next hundred years .. but some folks would rather be able to white water raft .. :-|


DUMP DAVI$ & the Den of Socialists



GO SIMON

[trad_anglican]

We're gonna need a lot of water the next hundred years .. but some folks would rather be able to white water raft

Why, exactly, should the rest of the country foot the bill for your water? Maybe that area is better suited to white water rafting than building cities?

[Restorer]

Large dams in earthquake zones with major cities downstream sound like an excellent way to kill a lot of people. Just because a project has been proposed doesn't necessarily mean its a good idea to build it. Some projects are just stupid, tax-dollar consuming boondoggles. (I don't know enough about this one to say whether it is one of them.)

[CedarDave]

In the late 1960s when the river was first removed from its channel by engineers and crews with steam shovels, there was no Endangered Species Act or Clean Water Act, she said. There was no whitewater rafting industry.

In today's world most of the west's landmark water reclamation projects would never have been built because of environmental concerns.

[CedarDave]

True enough. Here's one that was built that definitely shouldn't have been:

Teton Dam Failure, June 5, 1976

[Hugin]

Yeah, we're gonna need a lot of water for all those illegal immigrants.

Personally I agtree with the tree huggers on this one. It's stupid and envronmentally destructive to breach existing dams, but I'm not for daming every existing river. Besides, Auburn Recreational Area isn't just for whitewater rafting. It a great place for gold propecting and fishing too.

[NormsRevenge]

Ok, Fine! Then How about DeSalinization Plants? Either way, the water will be needed by the entire West, not just California. And regarding Faults, they are everywhere it would appear.

Geesh.. And to think one of my favorite old movies was "The DamBusters" about an RAF Squadron that did what enviros only seek to do these days.

[Kaisersrsic]

You mean there's gold in them thar hills!

[Hugin]

You mean there's gold in them thar hills!

Boy howdy! They got nuggets so big ya throw the small'ns back!