Did You Know...

... that the Central Valley of California was able to avert a disaster from the New Year's Flood of 1997? Without several major dams, water levels would have overtopped levees and major urban areas would have been flooded, adding millions of dollars of damage and greater loss of life.

For instance, the City of Sacramento avoided major flooding of its downtown and other areas because of Folsom Dam. According to the Bureau of Reclamation, flows in the American River would have overtopped levees by 10 feet without Folsom in place. Shasta Dam also played a major role in minimizing flood levels by storing more than one million acre-feet during the Flood. Oroville Dam played an equally important role in controlling a peak inflow of 300,000 cfs. Typical inflows to Oroville for the same time of year are about 26,000 cfs. Don Pedro Dam also stored more than 700,000 acre-feet of flood waters on the Toulumne River.

Dams have played a major role in recent California history in preventing major flood events from causing more disastrous consequences. Historically, dams have also minimized damages and loss of life in the major floods of 1964 and 1986. Without dams to control floods, millions of people would have suffered damage to their homes, and the state's infrastructure and businesses would have experienced much greater losses.

Thanks to Ron Corso, Mead & Hunt, Inc., for contributing this "Benefits of Dams."

(reprinted from the USCOLD Newsletter, July 1997, page 3)