Schwarzenegger Calls For More Dams In California

Arnold Schwarzenegger announced in his State of the State address that he plans on building more water storage in California. While the Governor did not outline any specific projects in his speech we can only assume that this is not good news for rivers in California. “While we would like to hope that these storage projects would not have a negative impact, to our knowledge the only way to put more water in reservoirs is to take more water out of rivers,†according to Dave Steindorf, California Stewardship Director for American Whitewater. This construction of new dams comes at a hefty price. According to the Los Angeles Times new dam construction is slated to cost 4.5 billion dollars. Top candidates could include the Sites Valley pumped storage facility along the Sacramento River or the Temperance Flat dam on the San Joaquin.

“In an era when we are just beginning to repair some of that harm caused by dams built over the last hundred years, it seems odd to be discussing building new ones,†said Steindorf. Restoring flows below the Friant Dam on the San Joaquin to protect Salmon made front-page news this year. Paul Martzen, an AW volunteer who has spent years working on the San Joaquin, commented that, “Building another project just upstream would seem to make little senseâ€. What was lacking in the Governor’s proposal was a program to see that the water that we have is used more efficiently. With one of the highest per capita water consumption rates in the world much more can be done in the area of water conservation. American Whitewater will keep you posted as more details on this plan are released.