Representative slowing dam project's flow

Oakland Tribune, Apr 7, 2003 by Mark Sherman, Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Badly needed improvements to Sacramento's flood- control system, including raising the height of Folsom Dam, have widespread political support.

The exception is Rep. John Doolittle, whose district is upstream from Sacramento. He is holding up improvements that would all but end chances for another project that he has long championed but most others had given up for dead: The Auburn dam.

Doolittle, R-Rocklin, holds enough sway among majority Republicans in the House to block other American River projects that might further erode the Auburn dam's diminished viability.

His most recent efforts have focused on preventing Congress from approving raising the Folsom Dam by seven feet. Sacramento officials consider the Folsom project -- the dam is between Auburn and Sacramento -- a critical element in providing the city with enough protection to handle a flood 50 percent larger than any on record.

Storms in 1986 and 1997 showed how precarious the situation is in the state's capital, where 400,000 people live at the bottom of a Sierra watershed.

Mixed in with hyperbolic predictions of mass death and destruction if the Folsom project goes forward, Doolittle acknowledged the link between that project and the Auburn dam.

"I am always looking for a way to further that cause," he said about the Auburn dam. "What is done at Folsom relates ultimately to that issue."

If not for an earthquake in 1975, the issue would have been long settled. Congress approved a dam at Auburn, a former gold-mining town in the Sierra foothills, in the 1960s.

The quake halted work, and the discovery of a fault beneath the dam site led to a redesigned structure that would contain more concrete than Hoover Dam.

By the time the new $1 billion proposal came to a vote in Congress, a combination of environmental and budget concerns defeated the dam. Even when Republicans took control of Congress in 1995, Doolittle failed to push the dam through a House committee that was led by a vocal dam proponent.

The two defeats caused many advocates of the dam to search for something else, said Joe Countryman, an engineer in Sacramento who helped design the Auburn dam when he worked for the Army Corps of Engineers.

"I finally got it through my thick skull that it wasn't going to happen," Countryman said. "I started thinking about what we could do."

Doolittle's continuing fight for the Auburn dam is familiar to budget watchdogs, said Aileen Roder, who studies California water issues for Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based advocacy group.

"Auburn has come to epitomize a member pushing for his own pork," Roder said.

Doolittle is undeterred by the criticism. The Folsom project simply won't provide enough flood protection for Sacramento, he said.

"They are talking about a totally inadequate solution, but one that will spend gobs of money," he said. "How public officials can stick their heads in the sand and possibly endanger hundreds or perhaps thousands of lives, I do not understand."

Rep. Bob Matsui, D-Sacramento, a onetime Auburn dam proponent, said he still would welcome the dam but sees no chance of getting it through Congress.

"If John could get 218 votes for Auburn dam, let's move. Let's do it," Matsui said. "He's got a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican president. Well, deliver it for us then."

Both sides agree that doing nothing poses the greatest risk of all.

Yet the impasse shows no signs of ending. If anything, the dispute has widened to include delaying a new bridge across the American River to replace the road atop Folsom Dam, which authorities closed in February after identifying it as a potential target for terrorists.

The resulting congestion in Folsom has irritated residents and business owners.

"It's a pain in the butt all the way around," said Cliff Bell, owner of the bar inside the Historic Folsom Hotel, which sits next to an alternate route used by commuters.

Bell said the heavy traffic is hurting his business.

"This back parking lot used to be full this time of day. Now, people don't want to deal with the traffic, so they don't stop by," he said.

Doolittle and Rep. Doug Ose, R-Sacramento, whose district includes Folsom, say the road closure is a homeland security issue and want the federal government to pay for a new $66 million bridge, even though regulations typically call for local governments to pay part of the cost.

Their bill won House Resources Committee approval last year but was not taken up by the full House, in part because the Bush administration opposed it.

That opposition remains this year, complicating the Republicans' plans.

Matsui, joined by Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, wants to tie the bridge to the Folsom project. The dam road would have been closed in any event to complete the work on the dam, and the Corps of Engineers is willing to provide $24 million to build a temporary bridge.

The Democrats' plan would take that deal, then get the money necessary to upgrade it to a permanent four-lane bridge through the regular transportation funding process. Folsom would have to come up with $8 million under that scenario.