The Crumbling of a Dam

In the past, drought provided the impetus for big multipurpose dam projects, with promises of storing the annual mountain snow melt for use in dry periods. Now flooding has become the rationale for fanning some life back into the old Auburn Dam project on the American River above Sacramento.

Auburn was authorized two decades ago as part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project. It was to have been the capstone to the career of former Rep. Harold T. (Bizz) Johnson of Roseville, a patron of the Central Valley Project.

But Auburn was a dubious project from the start, costing $2.3 billion and providing minimal water for such a huge outlay. The bureau had trouble signing up customers for what water would be produced. The dam became even more dubious with the death of the giant canal project that was to have carried Auburn water down the east side of the San Joaquin Valley. It went on life-support systems after an earthquake raised questions about the design of the dam.

But the 1986 floods alarmed Sacramento area officials who watched as Folsom Reservoir, just upstream on the American, filled to the brim and levees threatened to fail. Rep. Norman D. Shumway (R-Stockton) played on fear to try to revive Auburn as a flood-control project, even though he does not represent the major area threatened. While scaled down, Shumway’s Auburn still would cost an estimated $1.4 billion.

Auburn got another blow last week when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that the dam is not needed to protect Sacramento against the worst flood expectable every century. Modifications at Folsom and other works could do the job at far less cost, the corps said.

Thus a big Auburn dam cannot be justified as an irrigation project. It would inundate a scenic canyon. It has been labeled a “dinosaur” by Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento), who opposes it. And it is not necessary for flood control. So what good is it?

When Congress finally pulls the plug on Auburn Dam, it might authorize a modest monument along the American River bearing this legend: “Site of Auburn Dam, a project that never should have been built, and--remarkably--wasn’t.”