A look back: Auburn Dam and new pump on river

The Placer County Water Agency released photos on social media Friday looking back at the ill-fated Auburn Dam effort and resulting county water tap at the site. Christmas week floods in 1964 filled Folsom Lake downriver in two days and posed a Sacramento flood threat from spillover, according to Auburn Journal archives. Planned since the 1950s, Congress authorized the dam in 1965 as an integral part of the Bureau of Reclamation's Central Valley Project's flood-control effort. Water and hydroelectric power generation were also part of the package. Construction began in 1968 by the Department of the Interior. The dam was designed to regulate water, bring hydroelectric power and provide more flood protection for the American River Basin and Sacramento Valley. Due to setbacks such as construction costs, design concerns and environmental impacts, the building of the dam was halted on numerous occasions and eventually "shelved." Construction stopped in 1980 after more than $200 million spent on the project. Ten inches of rain fell for 11 straight days in February 1986, melting the Sierra snowpack and causing a huge flood to pour down the American River. The rain rapidly filled the pool behind the initial Auburn cofferdam that soon broke, sending a proverbial mountain of sediment into Folsom Lake. Placer County was quickly designated a Federal Disaster Area. Rampaging streams and rivers incurred some $7.5 million in damages within the county. Folsom Lake filled to dangerously high levels, Arden-Arcade near Cal Expo flooded, but Folsom Dam and downstream levees prevailed after a break in the rain. In 2008, the Placer County Water Agency built a new pump station to replace the one built before the dam project began. Today, the pump station supplies up to 35,500 acre-feet of water annually to the people of western Placer County. Tilted fish screens line the floor of the intake channel to minimize sediment intrusion, eliminate the need to clean equipment and ensure safety for fish and boaters. Kayakers and rafters can experience man-made, Class III rapids through the channel adjacent to the pump station intake.