The State - News from Nov. 23, 1986

Sacramento can’t be fully protected from the threat of a major flood without another dam on the American River, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said. “The only way we can identify is additional (water) storage space on the American River above Folsom Dam,” said Joe Countryman, chief of the civil design branch of the Corps’ Sacramento office, in testimony before the state Reclamation Board. He said Folsom Dam alone cannot control the maximum possible flood expected on the American River once every century. Countryman emphasized that the Corps wasn’t endorsing completion of the controversial Auburn Dam. “It could be Auburn Dam or a smaller flood-control dam,” he told reporters later. “We’re not saying just what it should be.”