Dam plans washed out; river stretch restored

In the end, a river runs through it again.

But this time, with an E-ticket-ride bonus.

Down the steep canyon from this overlook near Auburn, the American River flows unfettered for the first time in four decades – 40 years in which the federal government attempted to create what became a storied public works white elephant.

An Auburn dam will likely never rise here after years of controversy and dispute – and $400 million in construction and study. Now with the natural river run restored, recreation will return, just like the scrub brush is struggling to do on the stripped canyon walls.

Paddlers could start lining up to run the enhanced changes along the renewed river stretch that will guarantee a 1,000-foot ride of thrilling rapids.

There's nothing like it on the river.

An architecturally designed permanent river bottom – a series of pools lined with stone embedded in concrete – will create a swirling stretch of rapids equal to Class III as long as the water levels are up, according to several government agencies that spent $30 million to restore the riverbed.

Because of the attraction, the designers also created a concrete "portage" path alongside the river where paddlers can easily hoist out their kayak, canoe or raft and carry it back for another ride down the rapids.

"I'll guarantee you, I'll jump in my kayak when I can," said Bill Center, owner of Camp Lotus resort on the river's south fork and a longtime kayaker. "I think it's going to be real interesting to see, a real field of dreams."

Mired in controversy over economics and safety, work on an Auburn dam stopped in 1977, leaving an idle construction site that had derailed the river several miles below the confluence, where two forks of the American meld before flowing on to Folsom Lake. Workers had long diverted water into a tunnel that short-circuited a bend in the river to keep the site dry.

After work stopped, the state attorney general's office sued the federal government to restore the river, and after several years, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation finished the job and closed off the tunnel to restore the natural flow in September.

Center was one of the intrepid who, years ago, defied authority and paddled downriver through the tunnel.

Hardly treacherous, he says now. "You could see the other end of the tunnel," he said. "It was a piece of cake."

Though this sweep of river is not the natural relentless thrill offered by the upriver stretches of the American, where commercial whitewater rafting tours abound, the reconnected link will be perfect for families, anyone looking for scenic, gentle rides, and for paddling instruction, Center said.

"It really does open up a really sweet section of the river," he said.

Center, a former El Dorado County supervisor, said tweaking natural settings to boost recreation is growing in popularity with similar attractions on the Truckee River through Reno, and in Colorado and Montana.

"They did a win-win-win," he said of the American River restoration.

The river bed, exposed by low flow one morning earlier this week, bottoms a steep, stone-scarred gorge that is seemingly remote, even though the outskirts of Auburn spill over the edge.

The restoration work here also included a water-pumping station, a discreet, low building overlooking the riverbank that will serve 55,000 homes a year for the Placer County Water Agency. Builders created a chute alongside the left bank that will channel a stream that filters into the pump station.

The station dwarfs the original scope of what federal planners had hoped to build here with promises of flood protection and abundant water until fiery debate arose over earthquake safety, mounting cost and evidence the dam would never justify its price tag.

It is an abandoned vision that would have submerged the very canyon that will become another asset of the Auburn State Recreation Area.

How recreation will shape up for the area is still on the drawing board, said Jay Galloway, the park superintendent, but he expected widespread public use by May.

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