Ground broken for $1.3 billion Folsom Dam upgrade

With a series of bangs, streaks of light and smoke rose above the Folsom Dam overlook about 1 p.m. Friday in a pyrotechnic display marking the official groundbreaking for a $1.3 billion project that will double the current level of flood protection for the Sacramento area.

"Short of building an ark, this is the best protection we can offer the citizens of Sacramento," Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne told a crowd of federal, state and local officials gathered in the parking area off Folsom Dam Road.

Kempthorne was joined on the dais by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger; U.S. Reps. John Doolittle, Dan Lungren and Doris Matsui; state Sens. Dave Cox and Darrell Steinberg; and Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo.

All hailed the project, which will include construction of an auxiliary spillway, as a model of bipartisanship and cooperation among governmental agencies. The undertaking is a joint effort of the federal Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Central Valley Flood Protection Board and the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency.

The project, to be completed in 2015, is designed to protect the Sacramento area from a 200-year flood. The auxiliary spillway will include a 1,000-foot-long approach channel; a concrete control structure, including six submerged gates; a 3,000-foot-long spillway chute; and a stilling basin. Also included is work to shore up dikes around the lake.

Mike Finnegan, acting regional director of the Bureau of Reclamation's Mid-Pacific Region, said the overlook site will be excavated for the new spillway.

"We've fought a lot over the structures that are needed for the American River," Rep. John Doolittle, R-Rocklin, said.

But, recalling his work with late Sacramento-area Rep. Bob Matsui and former Rep. Doug Ose, he said, "We found common ground and moved forward."

Several speakers noted that Sacramento's flood risks are greater than those of New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina.

Gov. Schwarzenegger thanked the government officials and agencies that cooperated on the Folsom Dam project as well as voters who approved bond measures for levee improvements.

Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, said recent storms are a reminder that "We are at the mercy of Mother Nature and the levees and dams that protect us."

Matsui said federal, state and local governments must continue to make the flood-control improvements a top priority. "We have to continue to fund this project every single year until is finished," she said.