The Genesis of the Placer County Water Agency

a Heritage of Water: The Golden Anniversary of the Placer County Water Agency 1957-2007

Prepared by the Water Education Foundation

Placer County History Book WEB1 9/10/2007, 3:08 PM Credits

This book was prepared and published by the Water Education Foundation in conjunction with the Placer County Water Agency. The book tells the story of Placer County water from its role in the Gold Rush to the formation of the Placer County Water Agency, which has managed the county’s water resources for 50 years.

Editor: Sue McClurg Authors: Ryan McCarthy, Janet Dunbar Fonseca, Ed Tiedemann, Ed Horton, Cheri Sprunck, Dave Breninger and Einar L. Maisch Design and Layout: Graphic Communications Printing: Paul Baker Printing Photos: Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley • William Briner • California State Archives (F3757:3) • California State Library • California State Parks – Auburn State Recreation Area Collection • Dave Carter • City of Rocklin • Placer County Water Agency • Ryan Salm/Sierra Sun • Special Collections, University of California, Davis • U.S. Bureau of Reclamation • USDA NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) • U.S. National Forest Campground Guide • Karina Williams/Lincoln News Messenger • Bill Wilson On the cover: Hell Hole Reservoir (top) and building the Middle Fork Project

PLACER COUNTY WATER AGENCY P.O. Box 6570 717 K Street, Suite 317 144 Ferguson Road Sacramento, CA 95814 Auburn, CA 95604 (916) 444-6240 (530) 823-4850 www.watereducation.org www.pcwa.net

ISBN 1-893246-97-3

Placer County History Book WEB2 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM Foreword

by David A. Breninger General Manager Placer County Water Agency

On behalf of the Placer County The book strives to depict through Water Agency Board of Directors, I am words and photographs the past and pleased to introduce A Heritage of present of the rich water resources that Water. This book commemorates the nurture the watersheds throughout our Agency’s Golden Anniversary of service county and the water resources that are to the people of Placer County. interwoven into the very fabric of life This 50th anniver- enjoyed in Placer sary edition is a signifi- County. cantly updated version A Heritage of Water A hallmark of the of a booklet first highlights some of the prepared by the Agency Agency’s half-century historic water resource in 1977 by the late is the outstanding issues important to the Placer County writer leadership that has county at Lake Tahoe Janet Dunbar Fonseca governed the and the Truckee River (1920-2005). While the basin; the Rubicon Agency. These elected, initial volume focused River and the North on formation and the dedicated public and Middle Forks of first 20 years of the policy leaders have the American River; Agency, this revised demonstrated vision and the Yuba, Bear and edition is greatly and foresight in American River expanded and takes in systems. preparing the many important accom- A Heritage of Water plishments of the Agency for the is a means to extend Agency as we celebrate 21st Century. appreciation and our 50th anniversary. gratitude to the tireless

Placer County History Book WEB3 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM Foreword

Continued

dedication and energy of previous elected, dedicated public policy generations to preserve and protect leaders have demonstrated vision and Placer County’s water resources for foresight in preparing the Agency for this and future generations. This the 21st Century. edition particularly recognizes the And working day in and day out many people who conceived and built for a half century have been dedicated the Agency’s Middle Fork American teams of employees who administer, River Hydroelectric Project. Their operate and maintain the Agency’s foresight led to development the activities, facilities and services. It is Agency’s water rights and construction to all of these men and women that of the Agency’s extensive hydroelectric I extend a THANK YOU for your power generation system. And, this dedication and “service above self’.” achieved all within our county’s own Our current and retired employees are “area of origin” on the Middle Fork the heart and spirit of the water agency American River. today. They reflect the image and We anticipate that you’ll find A dedication – built over 50 years – that Heritage of Water interesting and the public has come to know and respect informative about our first 50 years and as the Placer County Water Agency. the basis for the Agency to build upon This book traces the Agency’s in the decades ahead in serving the evolutionary history of governance people of Placer County. and management as well as the ever- A hallmark of the Agency’s half- expanding scope of services and century is the outstanding leadership activities involving evolving around that has governed the Agency. These our county’s water resources. •

Placer County History Book WEB4 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM Contents

Chapter 1 7 The Genesis of the Placer County Water Agency Chapter 2 19 Securing Placer County’s Water Chapter 3 35 Building the Middle Fork American River Project Chapter 4 47 New Challenges Chapter 5 57 Drought And Later Demands For Water Chapter 6 69 A Half-Century of Service

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Placer County History Book WEB6 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM ONECHAPTER

TheThe GenesisGenesis ofof thethe PlacerPlacer CountyCounty WaterWater AgencyAgency

or a half-century the Placer County Water Agency has served an area rangingF from its western border in the valley with Sacramento County to the Sierra Nevada and Lake Tahoe on the east. Then- Governor Goodwin Knight signed the law that established the new government agency on September 11, 1957 to develop its water rights within Placer County for an adequate supply of water for the people of the county. But the beginning of the Placer County water story reaches back to the Gold Rush and before. The region is blessed by spectacular water resources. From Lake Tahoe and the Truckee River on the east, to the rushing American River and its tributaries in the center, and the Bear River and many local streams flowing west from the foothills – the county boasts abundant supplies of fresh, clear mountain water. The same rivers, running for millennia through California mountains eroded gold-bearing quartz lodes and sent the precious yellow mineral into stream beds. Just such a gold deposit in the Sierra foothills caught the eye of James Wilson Marshall in January 1848 along the South Fork of the American River where he was building a sawmill in

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Placer County History Book WEB7 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM GRANDPA HAYFORD, STANDING WITH PICK, AND OTHERS BUILD A WATER FLUME IN 1882 NEAR SECRET Coloma. His discovery led to the TOWN EAST OF COLFAX. PARTS OF THE PLACER California Gold Rush. COUNTY WATER AGENCY SYSTEM DATE BACK TO THE GOLD RUSH. Four months later another man, 37-year-old Claude Chana – born into in the ravine in 1848. More interested a peasant family in France, he’d come in farming than mining, the native to America first to New Orleans and of France later brought land on the had joined the California Company south bank of the Bear River close to to travel west in 1846 – left from Johnson’s Ranch and planted an Johnson’s Ranch near the present orchard. boundary between Placer and Yuba The ’49ers who followed the 1848 counties. Chana planned to travel to gold discoveries to come to California the site of the gold find in Coloma and the Sierra foothills quickly learned when he stopped 15 miles away at the that water was crucial in the hunt for Auburn Ravine. the precious mineral – and its extrac- In an account he provided decades tion. “Placer” comes from an early later, Chana recalled dipping a dish- Spanish gold mining term meaning a shaped wooden basket known as a place near the bank of a stream where “batea” in the water and finding gold gold could be found. “Placer mining”

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Placer County History Book WEB8 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM became known as washing for gold or mining used canons to shoot water at minerals with water. mountain sides, with the resulting Panning for gold in rivers and muddy stream directed through a sluice streams – the practice often shown in to catch bits of gold. “The mountain drawings of a bearded miner hoping to torrents of the Sierra,” a mining history strike it rich – mimics the action of said of the rivers, “caught on their way waterways that separate gold, which is to the Pacific have been forced to pause heavier than other common minerals to do the work of man.” and rocks. Swirling sediment in the The Gold Rush was a glorious but pan washes out lighter minerals. not always prosperous episode in Placer Along with the simple work of gold County history. “Auburn is, at the panning, miners built ditches to present time unusually dull,” the Placer provide water to wash gold-rich soil. Herald newspaper stated in July 1854, They also diverted water into channels “this is owning no doubt, to the fact to work dry river beds. Hydraulic that the mines within our district are not paying sufficiently to warrant miners working in them at this season HYDRAULIC MINING USED CANONS TO SHOOT WATER AT MOUNTAIN SIDES, WITH THE RESULTING MUDDY STREAM DIRECTED THROUGH A SLUICE TO CATCH BITS OF GOLD.

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Placer County History Book WEB9 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM THE FORESTHILL COVERED BRIDGE OVER THE AMERICAN RIVER CIRCA 1875-1911 of the year.” Hydraulic mining – blasting hillsides with water to separate Sales of irrigation water to growers gave gold from dirt, spurred protests from a new life to canal companies that had farmers about the debris sent into rivers supplied the mines. by the practice – was among new By the late 19th century preserving enterprises that extended gold’s role in Placer County waters for local use grew the region. But a landmark California paramount. Supreme Court ruling in 1884 helped A newspaper during that era noted to end hydraulic mining. As gold mines the importance of the resource in the faded, the network of water ditches first region. “Give us plenty of water and built to get gold and that still ran Placer is exceedingly rich. Did we say through Placer County served a new give us the water?” the paper continued. enterprise. Orchards of plums, peaches, “That was wrong. Water we have in pears and apples – picked, packed and abundance. We should have said give us transported by the Central Pacific trains nerve and endow us with sufficient that ran on the railroad tracks built in enterprise to conduct the large streams, the 1860s – were Placer’s new gold. now running through our mountain

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Placer County History Book WEB10 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM passes to the sea, into These local before the State Water channels made by man water resources Commission in 1877 where it will be properly were not going to divert water from under man’s control and unnoticed outside the Truckee River by at his disposal, and the region. boring a tunnel from wealth unsurpassed and the Truckee area to unheard of before will be Soda Springs on ours to boast of and to Donner Summit. Also enjoy.” proposed were stone These local water dams on the Truckee resources were not going River and a stone-lined unnoticed outside the region. canal from Soda Springs along the Outside interests had their eyes on North Fork of the American River to Placer County water. Entrepreneurs Auburn. A large reservoir near Auburn elsewhere in the state saw promise in would store the water for eventual the water and power business. Studies transportation. But the ambitious about transporting water from the proposal died, facing opposition that Sierra began as early as 1870 when a included Placer County voters who congressional bill provided a grant of refused to pay a $250,000 local share land to the Lake Bigler & San Francisco sought by state lawmakers. Water Company for construction of a San Francisco’s thirst for Sierra water water supply system from Truckee to from the Truckee and American rivers the San Francisco Bay Area. Lake then switched to the Tuolumne River in Bigler? The alpine lake now known as what is today’s Yosemite National Park. Tahoe was earlier so named for a The city later built a dam across the California governor. Hetch Hetchy Valley to provide water The proposed supply system eyed in and supply hydroelectric power to San 1870 was to send 1 million gallons of Francisco. water daily from Lake Tahoe to the Bay A water project in the Sierra impor- region. A.W. Von Schmidt, represent- tant to Placer County was completed in ing San Francisco, presented a plan 1893 at Lake Spaulding near Emigrant

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Placer County History Book WEB11 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM Gap, 25 miles northeast of Colfax. that R.L. Dunn surveyed some years The South Yuba Water and Mining ago with a view of taking the water to Company enlarged the reservoir two San Francisco,” the newspaper said. decades later using special trains to Within years Dunn, vice president of deliver gravel for the project. Lake Sierra Water Company, finished his Spaulding drew its name from Gold proposal. He planned four separate but Rush pioneer John Spaulding of New interdependent commercial projects: York. Shortly after coming to Califor- • A large hydroelectric development nia, he’d written, “As soon as the snows on the North and Middle forks of melt, I plan to leave here and go back the American River. into the mountains about 100 miles. • Lumber manufacturing from There a group of us plan to build a forests on the watersheds of the canal to carry water to the mines.” North and Middle forks. The American River was still seen • A large irrigation and domestic as a potential water source for the Bay water distribution system for lands Area and Sacramento. Directors of the in southwestern Placer County chamber of commerce in Sacramento and northwestern Sacramento met in 1898 to hear how water could County. come to the capital city from the • Buying, subdividing and selling North Fork of the American River farm and orchard lands where near Auburn. Water, chamber officials water would be supplied for were assured, could be piped in from irrigation and domestic use. a 47-mile line. Water rights, a sawmill and a lumber In the 1890s engineering surveys of railroad were among property planned the American River began for a separate to be sold to provide funding for proposal. The Colfax Sentinel reported Dunn’s project. “Hydroelectric power in April 1901 that “some work is being or development cannot be completed done on the Giant Gap survey near without timber manufacture preceding Green Valley,” referring to the area it,” his report stated, “as reservoir around Dutch Flat and Alta, 25 miles construction indispensable to complete northeast of Auburn. “This is the area power development cannot economi-

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Placer County History Book WEB12 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM FRUIT LABELS FROM PLACER COUNTY ORCHARDS.

cally be undertaken until several river bed, a comparison of the past and thousand acres of timber land, includ- present seems like a dream,” a Placer ing the reservoir sites, are cleared.” newspaper recorded early in the 1900s. The ambitious plans didn’t gain “Where half a century ago all was financial backing. bustle and excitement, now quietness By the early 20th century the glory reigns, and nothing is heard but the days of Placer County’s gold mining splashing and dashing of the river as it were mostly a memory. “As one meanders toward the valley below.” traverses the trail of the North Fork Water that no longer served mining River ditch, which winds along the interests, was still seen as a crucial mountain side high above the rocky commodity.

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Placer County History Book WEB13 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM “Water! Water!” the Argus news- Water Agency – with representatives of paper in Auburn headlined a story the American River Water and Power about a proposed water project. “Not Company. San Francisco lawyer Jay E. plenty of water in winter when it rains Russell, who owned 820 acres on both and is not wanted, but plenty of water sides of the American River outside in summer, when it does not rain, and Auburn just below the confluence is needed. Not a small, sluggish mud where the North and Middle Forks laden stream, but a river of water; clear, meet, pushed a plan in 1908 to take sparkling and swift-flowing.” river water to San Francisco. Like many Roseville was interested in water the such efforts, it fizzled. privately owned North Fork Ditch As electricity came into wide use – Company had for a half-century often made possible through the use of diverted from the American River two hydroelectric power relying on rivers – miles outside Auburn through 25 miles Placer’s potential was apparent. Pacific of canals to the Folsom area. “Let’s go Gas & Electric Company captured after the water and get it,” the Tribune Yuba and Bear River water in reservoirs newspaper in Roseville declared. A and transported it through Placer $500,000 project could store flood County canal systems for hydroelectric water at sites including a reservoir operations. PG&E also began selling formed from an immense, abandoned water to county residents for their hydraulic mining pit in Canyon Creek domestic and agricultural use. near Gold Run, 10 miles outside Local water projects, including Colfax. enlarging old mining ditches, were Other plans to deliver Placer County undertaken to meet growers demand water to other northern California for irrigation. Workers in 1909 used communities were explored. Officials horse teams and wagons to build the from the East Bay Municipal Utility dam for the eight-acre, 25-foot deep District in Oakland inspected French Lake Arthur north of Auburn in just Meadows east of Foresthill – decades in two months. later part of the site of the Middle Fork The resources in the Sierra foothills project developed by the Placer County continued to win notice. Mountain

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Placer County History Book WEB14 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM rivers and canals, the Sacramento Daily Country region that included Placer Record newspaper said, “make Placer County. “Much of the Mother Lode,” County one of the best-watered proclaimed the 1925 book California: sections of the world. Where Life is Better, “is now one great “Here there can be no such thing as orchard.” drought, for with water and irrigation Meanwhile, year after year, the each and every farmer theoretically waters of the American River rushed controls his own seasons,” said the downward, sometimes flooding low- Record. lands before flowing to the Sacramento- With water from the canal network San Joaquin Delta and on out through begun in the Gold Rush, fruit growing San Francisco Bay to the ocean. remained the new identity of the Gold Controlling and using this water resource was a constant interest. Early studies of the American River were LAKE ARTHUR DAM DURING CONSTRUCTION.

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Placer County History Book WEB15 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM periodically dusted off and discussed, hold mining debris. Congress provided only to be again shelved amid politics. nearly $7 million for the work, includ- Placer County officials still feared other ing funding for the North Fork Dam sections of the state would take the on the American River, where Lake region’s water to help supply rapidly Clementine outside of Auburn was developing California. formed with the dam’s completion in Hard times in the 1930s spurred a 1939. bid to bring back the hydraulic mining Dams were built, but hydraulic once prominent in Placer County. mining didn’t revive. Sierra winters Congress passed measures easing had left equipment damaged and the requirements for the industry and mining industry faced issues such as Congressman Harry Englebright, a PG&E’s lawsuit in 1935 contending Nevada City mining engineer, secured hydraulic mining contaminated Bear legislation for high dams to be built to River water. Grit and sand were de- stroying turbines in the Halsey and

WORK UNDERWAY IN 1939 ON THE NORTH FORK Wise Powerhouse the utility operated DAM THAT CREATED LAKE CLEMENTINE OUTSIDE OF AUBURN.

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Placer County History Book WEB16 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM in Placer County, counties are begin- PG&E said, naming ning to wake up. You Bet Mining Unfortunately some Company, Remington have delayed too Hill Placers and long. We should Liberty Hills Gold proceed with reason- Mines. The utility able diligence to won an injunction protect Placer halting all hydraulic County’s water.” mining in the river A September 1948 watershed. CONGRESSMAN CLAIR ENGLE resolution by Placer The next decade County Supervisors saw increased concern over the fate of authorized the Upper American River Placer County’s water riches. Congress- Project to develop the water resources man Clair Engle, who succeeded of Placer County. The resolution Englebright in representing the district declared that Placer County would that included Placer County, warned in apply for water, power and storage 1943 that in a conflict over water rights on the American River and its resources outside interests were set to tributaries. The measure also proposed jump in to take the water. Engle urged working with El Dorado County the county Board of Supervisors to officials to develop a water project. “preserve local water rights.” The five Placer County Supervisors, “Protect Placer County’s water,” he five county planning commissioners advised. “A lot of eastern congressmen and one at-large member were ap- are not sympathetic with us.” Laws pointed to a steering committee for allowed county boards of supervisors to the Upper American River project. hold water rights in the name of the In neighboring El Dorado County, counties, he added. “The county of the Sacramento Municipal Utility origin has first claim on its water District would secure water rights to rights,” Engle stated. “You have made develop hydroelectric power for the (some) filings and other mountain Sacramento area.

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Placer County History Book WEB17 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM A Heritage of Water 18

Placer County History Book WEB18 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM TWOCHAPTER

SecuringSecuring PlacerPlacer County’sCounty’s WaterWater

ocal concerns grew as federal officials viewed the American River as La water source for the huge Central Valley Project, a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) effort begun during the Great Depression to provide flood control and supply water to agriculture in the Central Valley. The project’s service area extended from Shasta County in northern California to Kern County in the southern San Joaquin Valley. Local fears were renewed in the early 1950s with a federal proposal to construct Folsom Dam and reservoir on the American River. Local officials discovered the plan did not include meeting Placer County’s water needs – and that the vast federal effort by Reclama- tion could place obstacles to Placer County’s ability to do so. The Upper American River Project Board, supported by El Dorado and Sacramento counties, adopted a joint policy statement presented to Congress: “A proposal to build a 1 million acre-foot structure completely ignores the legiti- mate claim to these waters made by the counties of origin,” the three counties said.

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Placer County History Book WEB19 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM “We do not agree with the Bureau of who represented the Sierra foothills, Reclamation’s proposal, nor do we warn that “Placer County has an asset agree that the Bureau of Reclamation worth millions of dollars – or nothing! should enter into the management of As California is developing, the water the waters of the American River.” is running out. You must look ahead The resolution also noted that Placer and take every step possible to have County had contracted with the the water when you need it.” California Division of Water Resources Lindsay, a key spokesman for (later the Department of Water Re- mountain counties fighting for their sources) and funded water development share of the water that originated surveys. “It is our intention to use the locally, wanted to undertake projects water and we will do so,” said the without assistance from Washington, document by Placer County. D.C. “I believe we should develop our Early in 1953, the Upper American own water without the so-called help River Project panel heard state Assem- of the federal government,” he said. blyman Francis Lindsay of Loomis, “I challenge anyone to prove to me that the local people of the foothills are

FEDERAL OFFICIALS SCOUTED SEVERAL POTENTIAL DAM SITES ON THE AMERICAN RIVER.

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Placer County History Book WEB20 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM incapable of develop- superintendent ing their own water. involved in building “I know we don’t many of the largest have to wait for the bridges in the West. great ‘white father’ in Both his father and Washington to dole mother came from out a few nickels each farm families and year for our desper- they wanted to return ately needed projects to the land. They had in California,” done that in Loomis, Lindsay said. ASSEMBLYMAN FRANCIS LINDSAY but during the A strong entity Depression year of allowing Placer County to aggressively 1932, his parents lost the ranch they’d protect and develop its water resources paid on for 13 years after the bank was needed. County government had foreclosed on the property. Lindsay’s completed the preliminary work but a father returned to construction work new, independent agency was needed. and was superintendent of the pier Lindsay, who helped make that construction for the San Francisco- agency possible, had long roots in the Oakland Bay Bridge. county. His family had come to the A graduate of Roseville High School, Loomis area in 1919 during a land Lindsay completed college in 1936 at boom that followed World War I. the University of California, Berkeley. He said his passion for farming – He was elected to the Placer County Lindsay owned more than 100 acres Soil Conservation District and in 1948 of plum and pear orchards and was a to the State Assembly. “Farmer, Mine pioneer in using sprinkler irrigation – Owner, Conservationist” were listed came from the boyhood he spent on as his occupations. His wife Margaret his family farm west of Loomis. He was born on the Placer County ranch attended a one-room schoolhouse for where the couple resided. Her father his first six years of education. His was a pioneer orchardist in Placer and father was a successful construction Yuba counties.

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Placer County History Book WEB21 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM Legislature the bill July 3, 1957 and it became law Creates PCWA Sept. 11, 1957. County supervisors Assemblyman Lindsay’s bill created were appointed ex-officio directors; a the Placer County Water Agency policy amended nearly two decades covering all 1,500 square miles within later to provide for a five-member the county’s border. The California independently elected Board of Legislature approved the measure and Directors. Governor Goodwin J. Knight signed Ralph Brody, one of California’s foremost water

AUBURN IN 1955. THE HISTORIC COURTHOUSE IS CENTER.

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Placer County History Book WEB22 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM rights attorneys, was retained as legal sources. With offices throughout the consultant in 1957 and began work on United States, the firm was known the legal issues to establish a function- worldwide for its engineering expertise. ing water agency. The new, reorganized firm of The prestigious international McCreary-Koretsky Engineers suc- engineering firm of Porter, Urquhart, ceeded them. Engineer Sanford McCreary and O’Brien was selected to Koretsky outlined a proposed Middle prepare a general plan for the develop- Fork American River Hydroelectric ment of Placer County’s water re- Project, located in the mountains east

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Placer County History Book WEB23 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM of Foresthill, to Agency matters and Agency directors, who other issues. authorized the firm to Tiedemann, who proceed with the would later receive design of the project. his law degree and Attorney Ralph represent the Water Brody withdrew as the Agency in his new Agency’s legal counsel role as legal counsel, in January 1959 to recalled that the become a special water Middle Fork project counsel for newly GOV. GOODWIN KNIGHT hinged on finding a elected Governor power buyer. “You Edmund G. “Pat” Brown. The Agency had to find somebody that would pay then retained the firm of Kronick and enough for the power so you could Moskovitz as legal counsel, the forerun- amortize the bonds that would be sold ner of the Agency’s present counsel, to finance the construction of the Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & project.” Girard. The Sacramento firm advised PG&E, after lengthy negotiations, the Water Agency that a monthly emerged as the candidate to buy power retainer of $400 would cover office work from the Agency. Tiedemann recalled in Sacramento and meetings with the meeting with the president of the utility Agency in Auburn. Additional services in San Francisco. “We would go into his would be at a $150 a day rate, the firm office and some days he would tell us, said. Stanley Kronick had gained his ‘I don’t think we have a project and it experience in water law as an attorney doesn’t look very good. Oil is $2 a barrel for Reclamation for eight years. and the price is going down,’” the At the same time that the Kronick PG&E president would state. and Moskovitz law firm was hired, “But he wouldn’t close the door,” Placer County also hired Edward J. Tiedemann recalled. “The utility Tiedemann as Assistant County president said, ‘Maybe if your engineers Executive Officer to work on Water can sharpen their pencils and the cut

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Placer County History Book WEB24 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM PLACER COUNTY OFFICIALS AT THE CONFLUENCE OF THE NORTH AND MIDDLE FORKS OF THE AMERICAN RIVER AT HIGHWAY 49.

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Placer County History Book WEB25 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM the cost a little, or up the output of “But that’s what the Bureau hoped power and come back I would be to do,” he said, “and it thought be- willing to look at it.’ tween Auburn and Folsom dams it “So we would come back from San would have the whole river. The Bureau Francisco discouraged but we kept wondered why this relatively pipsqueak going and the Board of Directors county was getting in its way. Placer decided to keep pushing it,” had about 50,000 to 60,000 people Tiedemann recounted. “Next time then and it was standing in the way of PG&E would be a little more this huge federal agency.” optimistic.” Reclamation was willing to talk The pre-design work, Tiedemann however, because in order to get the noted “was done before computers and Auburn Dam authorized, the federal this was all pen and ink and slide rulers agency had to go to Congress. Each and they would do it over and over.” congressional representative had his Water rights for the Middle Fork own project; it was very difficult to get project also proved complicated. The a project authorized if you had local Agency in 1957 had filed applications opposition, Tiedemann noted. for the rights with what is now known The Water Agency’s attorneys, as the State Water Resources and Stanley Kronick and Adolph Control Board. The principal challeng- Moskovitz, prepared the case for ers were Reclamation, the city of settling its dispute with Reclamation Sacramento, Sacramento Municipal over American River water rights and Utility District and the California obtaining state water right permits for Department of Fish and Game. Recla- the project. They also assisted the mation was the principal protestor. engineers and special Washington, “The Bureau had built Folsom Dam D.C., counsel in obtaining the federal and was very powerful in those days,” license for the project. Tiedemann recalled. “It thought the In August 1959 Agency directors American River was a Bureau river and supported a motion stating that the it hoped to build the Auburn Dam, proposed Auburn Dam wouldn’t which was not yet authorized.” adversely affect the Middle Fork

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Placer County History Book WEB26 9/10/2007, 3:09 PM Project. “Our basic position,” said the statement on the dam, “is that we support it, provided, first that it does not interfere with the general plan for the county-wide water development” adopted by the Agency.

Voters Support Middle Fork Project The late Auburn civic leader Harry Rosenberry, a native of the foothill community and lifelong resident, was among those who worked to convince Placer County voters to support the Middle Fork Project. “I made speeches up and down “assures western Placer County of its the county before every service group,” full water needs for years to come.” once recalled Rosenberry, chairman of “Prosper with Placer,” read a ques- the Citizens Committee for a “yes” tion and answer sheet supporting the vote. Placer County residents pulled bond. “Vote Yes on Placer County’s together after neighboring El Dorado Future.” County didn’t protect its water rights, The project would store more than he said, and the Sacramento Municipal 400,000 acre-feet of water, the material Utility District acquired them. “The noted. That would be enough to supply project,” an Agency director said, the county’s yearly water needs through

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Placer County History Book WEB27 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM the end of the century, Robert Radovich, a according to the election In this growing Placer County Supervi- information. state of California, sor and supporter of “In this growing state water is becoming the project, wrote of California, water is as precious as gold. about what he saw as becoming as precious as the benefits. “Are we gold. If Placer County getting something for doesn’t take advantage nothing? No. Nobody of this opportunity to ever does. But this develop its own re- project does pay for sources, we are sure itself. We have a somebody else will take the water for customer who is willing to buy our their needs instead of ours,” the electric power until the entire $140 election material stated. million revenue bonds are paid off,” A group called Western Placer Radovich said in reference to PG&E. Landowners submitted an argument Voters on June 20, 1961 approved against the ballot measure. “There is the Agency’s bond issue by a 25-to-1 evidence hydroelectric power will be margin. The vote authorized a $140 obsolete, possibly in 20 years,” the million revenue bond issue to finance group argued. “Electricity from nuclear the project. energy, fuel cell and plasma sources Seven dams, five power plants, five must be taken seriously. tunnels and reservoirs that could hold “Saving water for Placer County is about 350,000 acre-feet or roughly offered as justification for the project,” one-third the capacity of Folsom Lake Placer Landowners continued. “Anyone were planned. Harvey Banks, former who believes southern California will director of the California Department take our water should contact the of Water Resources, served as a consult- officials of the Metropolitan Water ant to the project. District (in Los Angeles County) or On March 5, 1963 a construction write and learn of the ridiculousness joint venture calling itself American of that claim.” River Constructors submitted the only

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Placer County History Book WEB28 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM bid for the project. Henry Kaiser’s other major water projects in the West. Oakland-based firm along with three Tiedemann said Kaiser induced the other major American companies and foreign firms to come into the project, firms from Great Britain and Paris hoping the English and French compa- made up the consortium. nies would share jobs with Kaiser for Kaiser Engineers, sponsor of the the tunnel planned to be built under consortium, had a history going back the English Channel. But that future to 1914 when Henry J. Kaiser founded work did not develop for Kaiser. the corporation that would participate in building Hoover Dam and

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Placer County History Book WEB29 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM The proposed contract required the completion. “The Middle Fork Project project to be built for a guaranteed was bid in a way you don’t bid projects price with no provisions for cost today and you had very, very few of overruns or extensions of time for them bid that way even then,” Tiedemann said. “This was an absolute KENNETH HOLUMS, INTERIOR DEPARTMENT guaranteed fixed price contract.” UNDERSECRETARY, RETURNS PEN TO PCWA CHAIR Minutes before the March 5 dead- FRANK J. PAOLI AFTER APPROVING THE CONTRACT ASSURING INITIAL FILLING OF FRENCH MEADOWS AND line, a Kaiser vice president brought the HELL HOLE RESERVOIRS. STANDING, L TO R, ACTING bid, described by the Auburn Journal as PCWA MANAGER JOHN BERNARD, WILLIAM S. “stuck to the top of a yellow cardboard BRINER, CHAIR OF THE PLACER COUNTY BOARD OF box with ‘Packaged With Pride’ written SUPERVISORS AND JOHN HAMILTON, U.S. BUREAU OF RECLAMATION. on its side and containing 40 pounds of blueprints and plans.”

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Placer County History Book WEB30 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM The Federal Power Commission, the deadline for the award of the construc- predecessor of today’s Federal Energy tion contract drew near. Regulatory Commission, issued the Another hurdle involved the pro- Agency the required federal license for posed power sale contract with PG&E. the project. The utility signed a 45-year agreement But before the directors could sign to pay the Water Agency for the power the contract with the consortium that from the project. Insurance was re- included international firms, state quired to compensate if water supplies lawmakers would have to amend “Buy didn’t generate enough power during American Act” legislation – and the the first years of project operation. Dry California Legislature had never done years could mean not enough power that. The consortium’s plans called for would be produced to allow PG&E to the Toshiba Company in Japan to make sufficient payments allowing the make generators. The J.M. Voith Agency to meet its initial obligations to Company of West Germany would the project bond buyers. Lloyds of make turbines. California’s pre-WW II London was the only possible source of Buy American Act prohibited public such insurance. Time was running out. entities from purchasing items not The Agency’s insurance consultants made in the United States. Other negotiated with Lloyds in an effort to agencies had made unsuccessful efforts secure the needed coverage. to obtain exemptions from the Buy American Act. A Drama Over Assemblyman Paul J. Lunardi of Documents Roseville and state Senator Ronald G. The big day of April 30, 1963 Cameron carried legislation to amend arrived with final contracts scheduled the law to provide that California’s Buy for signing, yet neither the insurance American Act provisions did not apply issue nor the Buy American Act to the Agency’s Middle Fork Project. amendment had been resolved. Insur- The initial bill passed both houses but a ance negotiations were still in progress, Senate addendum to it had yet to be and Paul Lunardi was lobbying the State approved by the Assembly. A May 2 Assembly for final passage of his bill.

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Placer County History Book WEB31 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM Ceremonies were set for May 2, workers. School boards anticipated an 1963 on the steps of the Placer County increase in enrollments. When the Courthouse in Auburn. Members of board members returned from its noon the Agency Board, lacking authority to recess, they were joined by representa- proceed, met instead in chambers and tives of the builders American River conducted regular business. Spectators Corp., PG&E, local officials, attorneys, jammed the board room while TV news newspaper reporters and members of crews stood by. Directors nervously the public. awaited word from their insurance In Sacramento, Assemblyman consultants in Los Angeles and London Lunardi mustered all his forces, gather- and from legislators in Sacramento. ing 56 votes – two more than needed At 11 a.m., a messenger brought word to pass the bill. He dashed to the that Lunardi’s amendment to the Buy governor’s office only to find that the American Act was still being argued on governor had retired for the day. Armed the floor of the Assembly. His first with the necessary document, Lunardi attempt at passage failed by a vote of drove to the old Governor’s Mansion 50 to 19; the measure required 54 votes on 16th Street, securing an audience for approval. with Governor “Pat” Brown. Impress- The Board of Directors recessed at ing the governor with the urgency of noon with no word on the fate of the his mission, Lunardi got the governor’s legislative measure. As the directors left signature and then, borrowing the the courthouse for lunch, they passed governor’s phone, he called Agency the long table and empty chairs that Chairman Frank J. Paoli and advised had been set up for their historic event. him of the bill’s success. They must have wondered if this regalia “Now no one can toss a lawsuit in would be returned to storage unused. our laps and delay construction of the In the rest of the county, however, most project,” Paoli would comment of the people were unaware of the drama successful amendment to the Buy unfolding at the courthouse. Merchants American Act. were looking for an increase in sales due The Board still awaited word from to an influx of Middle Fork project its insurance consultants who were at

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Placer County History Book WEB32 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM DIRECTORS OF THE PLACER COUNTY WATER AGENCY AND OTHER OFFICIALS GATHER MAY 2, 1963 AT THE HISTORIC COURTHOUSE IN AUBURN FOR THE SIGNING Sanford Koretsky, one of the project OF CONTRACTS FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE MIDDLE FORK PROJECT. engineers, said “From now on the people of Placer County who voted for that moment convincing the cautious this project will actually be seeing what Lloyds of London to write the Agency’s they voted for. It’s not just a plan insurance. Soon, an 11th hour call anymore. It’s a reality.” A PG&E vice arrived with the assurance that “Lloyds president attending the courthouse is on the dotted line.” signing said, “We admire the enterprise The Board was now able to sign which the directors and their associates contracts for construction of the displayed in surmounting many Middle Fork American River Hydro- difficulties which arose in the forma- electric Project and for PG&E’s pur- tion of the project.” chase of the project’s power. It was late On May 21, at the securities vault afternoon when a weary Board, staff, of Bank of America’s headquarters in interested parties, the press and the San Francisco, the bonds financing the few county employees walked to the project went into a vault for safekeep- waiting tables on the courthouse steps ing before their transfer to buyers. where the belated contract signing Work on the Middle Fork Project ceremony took place. could begin.

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Placer County History Book WEB33 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM A Heritage of Water 34

Placer County History Book WEB34 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM THREECHAPTER

BuildingBuilding thethe MiddleMiddle ForkFork AmericanAmerican RiverRiver ProjectProject

P lacer would be hailed as the first county in California to develop its own water and the Middle Fork effort as “a local project for local people.” PG&E, which signed the pact to pay for power generated by the project’s hydroelectric plants, called the Middle Fork a “bold and imaginative undertaking” that would allow Sierra water to flow into western Placer County to spur the agricultural economy and serve a growing population. Engineering studies showed that the area’s water needs would be satisfied for at least a half-century through the project, the utility said. Frank Paoli, chairman of the Board of Directors for the Water Agency, said “Without the partnership agreement with PG&E it would not have been possible to proceed with this project. Without the guaranteed annual income we could not have gone to bid. This contract was the only reason the bonds were sold and the

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Placer County History Book WEB35 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM bare hands and a club, balked at Agency plans to relocate the cabin and barn he owned where French Meadows reservoir was planned. New facilities were built for Dobbas six miles from the site of his former cabin and his dispute with the Agency was eventually resolved. Hundreds attended the groundbreaking ceremony held in June 1963 in a tent set up at French Meadows. Mrs. Frank Paoli, wife of the chairman of the Agency, pushed a plunger to set off a 1,000-pound blast of TNT for the project, praised as “the strongest and boldest water development in the AN OCTOBER 1964 REPORT ON THE MIDDLE FORK PROJECT BY A CONSTRUCTION COMPANY state.” TRADE MAGAZINE SHOWED HOW ROCKS ROSE AT Construction of the Middle Fork HELL HOLE DAM. Project brought an immediate economic benefit to the county. Construc- only reason we obtained such a favor- tion activities brought more than 1,000 able interest rate.” workers and a monthly payroll of $1.75 A reliable mountain water supply for million. Workers spent thousands of Placer County was in sight – even as dollars at county businesses and local declining groundwater levels and new entrepreneurs provided services to the growth in western Placer County project. The undertaking in the remote accelerated the need for such supplies. region of Placer County came with its Work on the project ran into a surprises: a labor foreman working near minor roadblock when 6-foot 6-inch Hell Hole suffered a rattlesnake bite on cattleman Bernard Dobbas, said to have his foot. And a newspaper noted that once killed a mountain lion with his among the hundreds of workers only a

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Placer County History Book WEB36 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM CONSTRUCTION UNDERWAY ON THE MIDDLE FORK single woman labored – a field clerk. PROJECT. “Her clear soprano voice is a familiar one to workers on the radio network viewed the area from helicopter. “I have and the telephone,” the story said. The worked on the building of a lot of only problem stemming from her job, dams,” he told Agency directors, “and she told the reporter, was that “when I the Hell Hole site is one of the best go to other towns and pay a bill or cash locations for a dam I have ever seen.” a check, it is hard to convince the The Middle Fork undertaking people my address is Hell Hole, Calif.” benefited by innovations such as a An 80-year-old dam building expert helicopter laying down a telephone was among those involved in the Middle wire linking the Ralston Power Plant Fork project. Consultant J. G. Growdon on the Rubicon River with the planned

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Placer County History Book WEB37 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM OFFICIALS, INCLUDING JOHN BERNARD, GENERAL MANAGER FOR THE PCWA, AND DIRECTOR FRANK Oxbow Power Plant a mile away. PAOLI, TOUR THE MIDDLE FORK PROJECT. The aerial effort accomplished in 12 minutes what would have taken two the new dam on the Middle Fork of workers spending five days, the the American River at French Mead- Auburn Journal noted. The water ows. Work continued on the unfin- project was getting international ished dam at Hell Hole Reservoir on interest. In February 1964 two govern- the Rubicon River. The Hell Hole mental officials from Chile met with area, a Water Agency report would Agency representatives to discuss the note, “is so remote and its terrain so project and make an aerial inspection arduous that 19th century maps show under sponsorship of the California it as unsurveyed.” Department of Water Resources. Officials in 1964, Tiedemann By October 1964, the huge water recalled, wanted the rains to come to project was reported nearly half- fill up French Meadows because they finished. The federal government wanted to produce power. But it was a approved filling the reservoir behind dry fall with no rain in October or

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Placer County History Book WEB38 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM November. Concern rose that they By December 23, 1964 torrential might have to file a claim with Lloyds rains had dropped 67,000 acre-feet of of London insurance. Then late in water in French Meadows, filling it to December it started to rain – for 24 more than half of its capacity. Storm hours straight. “Boy, everybody was waters burst through the Hell Hole happy; 48 hours of rain and they were Dam, which was only 20 percent even happier,” he said. “Seventy-two complete. The Christmas week flood hours of rain and they were a little less waters cascaded downstream and happy as Hell Hole was only half knocked out many bridges all the way done. The rain didn’t stop. It filled to Folsom Lake. French Meadows.” Hell Hole Dam, The bridge across the American not yet finished, was overtopped and River outside of Auburn that linked washed out. DOWNSTREAM AFTER THE PARTIALLY COMPLETED HELL HOLE DAM BROKE IN DECEMBER 1964.

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Placer County History Book WEB39 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM company’s quarry properties. Ets- THE RALSTON AFTERBAY DAM. THE MIDDLE FORK OF THE AMERICAN RIVER AND THE RUBICON RIVER Hokin Corporation of San Francisco, FEED INTO THE SITE. headed by developer Jeremy Ets-Hokin – best known for later buying the site Placer and El Dorado counties fell of San Francisco’s Playland at the after logs and debris swept down the Beach – sued over flood-related waterway and struck the bridge. damages to several of the Middle Fork “It appeared to sigh, sag and project powerhouses the company was collapse,” a newspaper reporter wrote building for the Agency. of the structure. More legal problems came when Legal issues now complicated the the American River Constructors filed uncompleted Middle Fork Project. a $44.6 million lawsuit against the Diamond Springs Lime Company, Agency and its engineering firm in which had a quarry outside of Auburn 1966. The Water Agency responded just within the El Dorado County by hiring as a special attorney Joseph border, filed a $450,000 lawsuit in Alioto, later Mayor of San Francisco. May 1965 against American River Alioto filed an antitrust action in Constructors, the Agency’s engineers federal court against the contractor. and the Agency, contending the Hell The action contended price-fixing and Hole Dam failure damaged the collusion to eliminate competitive

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Placer County History Book WEB40 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM Work on the project bidding in 1963 continued and in marking the opening boosted the Middle June 1968, of the system of dams, Fork Project cost. ceremonies were reservoirs, power An El Dorado held outside plants and tunnels. A County Superior Court Foresthill at Ralston Sierra College co-ed, jury in June 1967, after Dam marking the who was the Maid of a 29-day trial said to be opening of the Placer County, served the longest in that system of dams, as theme girl for the dedication. Members county’s history, ab- reservoirs, power solved the Agency and of a Boy Scout Troop plants and tunnels. its engineers of negli- in Foresthill presented gence but found the the colors. Placer was project contractors liable the first county in to pay $396,000 to the California to develop Diamond Springs Lime Company for its own water resources and claim flood damage. water rights to local supplies. Sixteen of the 19 members of the “The Middle Fork Project has come Placer County Grand Jury signed an to reality through the vision, the interim report in November 1967 enterprise and the determination of alleging mismanagement of the project the people who will reap its benefits,” and recommending that the engineers William R. Gianelli, director of the be discharged. The engineering firm California Department of Water filed a $6.2 million libel suit against Resources, said at the dedication the 16 grand jurors who signed the ceremony, “Placer County’s alert people report, suing them as individuals and have shown unusual foresight in stating that the firm had suffered developing their water resources to the corporate damage as a result of the utmost in an unusual do-it-yourself report. undertaking.” Work on the project continued and Robert Radovich, one of the in June 1968, ceremonies were held Agency’s five elected directors, said, outside Foresthill at Ralston Dam “In a time when there are more people

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Placer County History Book WEB41 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM tearing down things than building gates, sending thousands of gallons of them up, it is good to see just what water into the American River. some of the builders are building.” More than a year later The Sacra- Chairman Frank Paoli pushed a mento Bee printed a photo of a 31-inch, button that opened the Ralston Dam 10-1/2 pound brown trout caught at the French Meadows Reservoir –

THE MIDDLE FORK PENSTOCK, A PIPE TO CARRY PROJECT WATER THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS.

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Placer County History Book WEB42 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM CONSTRUCTION WORK UNDERWAY ON PART OF THE stocked with trout by the Department MIDDLE FORK PROJECT. of Fish and Game. The angler used salmon eggs, hooked the fish on his first case and fought it for 35 services with attorney Joseph Alioto for minutes before landing the trout, the anti-trust action was on a contin- the paper said. gency. With the settlement, Tiedemann Fishing, boating, camping and other recounted, “What was he entitled to?” recreational opportunities serve as Alioto told the Agency he’d let its additional benefits of the Middle Fork attorneys figure out what he should be Project. paid. Concluding Alioto had put in little time on the case, the Agency’s Litigation Resolved counsel recommended about $50,000 Lawsuits connected with the project in fees. “Joe Alioto went through the dragged on for years but by September roof and then he sued our firm, the 1972 most were settled out of court. county, etc.,” Tiedemann said. “Eventu- Only the Diamond Springs case went ally there was an insurance payoff and to trial and ended with a verdict in the he got paid $80,000.” Agency’s favor. Other litigation was The libel suit against 16 Placer resolved. The Agency’s contract for legal County Grand Jury members for

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Placer County History Book WEB43 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM THE JUNE 29, 1968 DEDICATION OF RALSTON DAM, allegedly questioning the competency PART OF THE MIDDLE FORK PROJECT, DREW MANY SPECTATORS. of the engineering firm was settled. Engineers were awarded an undisclosed amount of damages detailed in a sealed “The project was built, it’s been agreement. Sanford Koretsky, who had there, it’s been working very fine,” earlier outlined the proposed Middle Tiedemann said. “The project has done Fork Project to Agency directors, was what it is supposed to do.” honored in New York City as “Engi- Operated under a 50-year license neering Man of the Year” by a national granted in 1963 by what is now the engineering organization for his work Federal Energy Regulatory Commis- on the project. sion, the project’s contract allows The Middle Fork Project developed PG&E to buy all power, pays for a surface water supply for Placer project operation and maintenance and County and by every measure, despite for retirement of the revenue bonds the many difficulties and obstacles, is sold to finance its construction. That a success. contract ends in 2013.

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Placer County History Book WEB44 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM Summary of Middle Fork Project Features

Power and Energy Production Five Power Plants Total Installed Capacity 223,750 Kilowatts Total Dependable Capacity 210,100 Kilowatts 40-year Average Annual Energy Production 1.03 Billion Megawatt Hours (Based on 40 years operation 1967 – 2006) Maximum Total Static Head 4,162 Feet Water Supply and Regulation Seven Dams Total Gross Storage 345,560 Acre-feet Total Tributary Watershed 429 Square Miles Ultimate Annual Yield 237,000 Acre-feet

Major Project Features L.L. Anderson Dam and French Meadows Reservoir Height: 231 Feet Elevation: 5,273 Feet Gross Storage: 134,993 Acre-feet Surface Area (max. pool): 1,408 Acres

Hell Hole Dam and Reservoir Height: 410 Feet Elevation: 4,650 Feet Gross Storage: 207,590 Acre-feet Surface Area (max. pool): 1,253 Acres Ralston Dam and Afterbay Reservoir Height 89 Feet Elevation 1,189 Feet Gross Storage 2,278 Acre-feet Surface Area 84 Acres Tunnels 23 miles

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Placer County History Book WEB45 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM A Heritage of Water 46

Placer County History Book WEB46 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM FOURCHAPTER

NewNew ChallengesChallenges

fter completing the Middle Fork Project in 1967 the Agency and PG&EA began serious negotiations about acquisition of PG&E’s water systems serving central south Placer County. The Placer County Water Agency Act provides that when local areas need specific benefits or services the Agency may provide them through the establishment of service zones to acquire improve and construct water systems. By the late 1960s the original PG&E water system, a remnant of the Gold Rush in Placer County, needed significant improvements and was under-funded. PG&E sought to get out of the water delivery business. Aware of the deficiencies in the utility’s water system, various citizen groups and public officials wanted the Agency to acquire the system from PG&E. At the time, PG&E water systems in other communities were being sold to public agencies – transfers approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. which regulates utility companies. However, the new owners of some of those systems increased water rates dramatically in order to make much-needed improve-

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Placer County History Book WEB47 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM A FLUME CARRIES WATER IN THE PLACER COUNTY MOUNTAIN COMMUNITY OF ALTA, EAST OF COLFAX. ments to those systems. The rate boosts placed a burden on rate payers. Placer County citizen committees worked and Rocklin all adopted resolutions with the Agency and devised a plan that urging the purchase. The City of would meet multiple interests. Roseville declined to participate with The Civic Interest Committee of the the Agency and instead entered into an Newcastle Community Club conducted agreement with the Reclamation to the most conclusive study. Some of the obtain federal Central Valley Project rate increases in sales of similar systems water from Folsom Reservoir to meet amounted to as much as 73 percent, the city’s needs. the committee noted. The club recom- Five concepts guided the ultimate mended that the Agency purchase the decision by the Water Agency to system from PG&E and establish an purchase the PG&E water system: advisory committee to guide its 1. The Agency would be able to progress. deliver water at consistently lower Placer County Grand Juries in 1966 rates than a private owner could. and 1967 recommended that the 2. Improvements could be financed Agency purchase the PG&E system. through the sale of revenue bonds The cities of Auburn, Colfax, Lincoln to be repaid from water rates.

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Placer County History Book WEB48 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM 3. A public agency would be eligible county to own their own system. for funds for improvements not Negotiations continued. available to a private investor. An election was held August 8, 1967 4. Agency ownership would end the in what would become the Agency’s profit element and allow revenues water service Zone 1 – Auburn, to pay for the system expenses. Bowman, Ophir, Newcastle, Rocklin, 5. Increases in rates would be Lincoln, Penryn, Loomis and part of delayed as long as possible and, Granite Bay. By a 2-to-1 margin, the once established, the rate boost voters favored buying PG&E’s system. would not reach that of a private The system had been appraised at operation. $5 million, but many months of Supporters of the purchase hoped to negotiations by Agency directors, buy time before any rate increase would attorneys and management brought the be needed. PG&E’s last increase had purchase price down to $1.1 million. been 15 years earlier in 1952 and costs Officials raised the money by issuing of maintenance and operation had since some of the Agency’s remaining Middle grown significantly. The inevitability of Fork Project revenue bonds. a rate increase was obvious. The early months of the Agency’s In its explorations, the Newcastle operation of the newly-acquired Zone 1 committee concluded it was in the water system proved challenging. interest of the Placer County Water Thrust into the retail water business, Agency to retain low water rates for the Agency found itself with a task for consumers. However, the panel added, which employees had not been fully “We are also in favor of financial and prepared. Some accounting department fiscal responsibility.” Newcastle ac- personnel had been drafted from knowledged the possibility of a need to county staff. All employees had to learn increase water rates. Two private new skills to handle face-to-face concerns had indicated they wanted to dealings with water customers. buy the PG&E system. But the utility’s These internal matters were cor- position was that it was in the best rected over time. A public relations interest of the public for people of the program was put in place. Agency

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Placer County History Book WEB49 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM THE AUBURN WATER TREATMENT PLANT ALONG LINCOLN WAY IN THE 1960S. THE VACANT FIELD NEXT TO THE PLANT IS NOW THE SITE OF RALEY’S Land Use Changes SUPERMARKET. At the same time, residential subdi- visions were being built on former directors developed regulations to solve farmland that relied solely on canal many of the problems and concerns of water. Frequently, a farmer selling off customers. a few acres would allow the buyer to The Agency’s purchase included a hook onto his private “farmer” line. network of canals, water treatment Sometimes, when several parcels had plants, storage tanks and distribution been sold, the buyer of land at the end lines plus the right to purchase 100,000 of the line would call the Agency to acre-feet of water each year from complain of low or nonexistent water PG&E for Zone 1. Users would pay for pressure. To correct this problem, the water purchased from PG&E. customers were informed that they

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Placer County History Book WEB50 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM must install and connect As Placer County’s conditions. At the their own individual population grew, time, projections pipelines to the Agency’s additional demands indicated that the canals. This was often at for water service Auburn area Zone 1 considerable expense to arrived daily at water operations would the customer. Agency offices. soon be conducted on Placer County’s a deficit unless new population in 1970 income could be reached 77,306. The found. The Agency had same year environmental operated in the black legislation was enacted for three years and had that would alter how the Water Agency postponed any rate increases. and other governmental operations Meanwhile, water users became undertook projects. The California frustrated as the tired old system gave Environmental Quality Act led to the out in one area after another. They development of environmental impact demanded improved service and reports. The separate California Endan- delivery. Revenue earned through new gered Species Act also was enacted. water sales had been spread as thinly as As Placer County’s population grew, possible to cover expenditures since the additional demands for water service Agency’s acquisition of the PG&E arrived daily at Agency offices and the system. Additional income was required Board of Directors saw the need to in order to show potential bond expand the Zone 1 water system. New purchasers that the Agency could facilities would be needed to meet the finance expansion and improvements. demands of a growing county and In 1974 a special election was held directors adopted an improvement in Zone 1 to approve a bond issue and plan. It first appeared that more bonds a state of California Davis-Grunsky would need to be sold so that immedi- loan to pay for the first major improve- ate system improvements could be ments to the system. The plan called made, but these plans were shelved due for building two water treatment to unfavorable interest rates and market plants, storage tanks and more than

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Placer County History Book WEB51 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM 11 miles of pipeline to deliver treated development, we could lose those water over a greater area of the zone. A precious water rights we now have in state Economic Development Agency reserve.” grant supplemented project funds. In the early 1970s, as Reclamation Continued improvements won the continued its Auburn Dam project, support of Francis Lindsay, who as a federal officials, under threat of con- state Assemblyman had authored the demnation, insisted that the Agency legislation that created the Agency. remove its existing water pumping “Placer County is a water ‘rich’ county plant and diversion facilities on the now,” Lindsay wrote in 1974, “but if North Fork American River near we do not continue a program of Auburn. The pumps had been constructed a decade earlier as part of the WORK ON AUBURN DAM WAS HALTED IN 1977 Middle Fork Project. The Agency was WHEN ENGINEERS DISCOVERED THE DAM WAS forced to remove its permanent pump SITUATED ON THE SAME ACTIVE EARTHQUAKE FAULT THAT ROCKED OROVILLE.

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Placer County History Book WEB52 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM WORKERS ON THE AMERICAN RIVER PUMP STATION, WHICH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT REQUIRED THE AGENCY TO ABANDON WITH CONSTRUCTION OF THE AUBURN DAM. water delivered into western Placer station to accommodate the Auburn County by an alternative arrangement. Dam project under an agreement with Moreover, the Agency had originally the federal government. At the same intended to build the American Bar time the Agency and Reclamation Reservoir, south of Foresthill and below agreed that until the dam was com- the present Oxbow powerhouse, in pleted, the federal government would addition to French Meadows and Hell assist in getting Middle Fork Project Hole. The American Bar Dam and

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Placer County History Book WEB53 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM Reservoir was to include a large hydro- Agency would receive water from electric plant and an afterbay, and could Auburn Dam in place of supplies from have perfected additional water rights the agency-financed project. Auburn for Placer County. Dam, federal officials said, would allow The Water Agency relinquished its the Agency to transport American River proposal to build the American Bar water into western Placer County Dam after federal officials said the without expensive pumping from the deep river canyon to the Agency’s THE WATER ADVISORY BOARD ASSUMES BOARD OF tunnel under Auburn. An agreement DIRECTOR DUTIES FOR THE AGENCY IN 1975. L TO R: NEW DIRECTORS EDWIN COSTER, ROSS reached between Reclamation and the RIOLO, JAMES NORMAN, ED HORTON AND ROY Water Agency required the federal RUHKALA. COUNTY SUPERVISOR ROY THOMPSON agency to provide the alternative water STANDS NEXT TO RUHKALA. supply of the pumps until Auburn

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Placer County History Book WEB54 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM Dam was constructed. But construction case and that the East Coast firm on Auburn Dam, which began in 1967, would undertake the legal action on was halted in 1975 by earthquake a contingency basis. The lawsuit that related concerns. For decades Reclama- was filed was tried in San Diego tion would annually install each spring County – a site selected because a temporary pump station to connect PG&E didn’t want the case heard in to the Agency’s tunnel. By fall the Placer County and the Water Agency pumps would be removed. didn’t want the trial in counties where In January 1975 the Agency installed the utility had a major presence. The its first independent governing board, San Diego County Superior Court ending Placer County supervisors would rule in the Water Agency’s favor serving in their dual role as directors of but PG&E successfully appealed the the Water Agency. An amendment to ruling and the case was returned to the the Placer County Water Agency Act trial court. After this ruling, following authorized a separate and independent- the dictates of the appellate court governing board for the Agency. process, the Water Agency appealed, but lost. Legal Battle Over While legal issues worked their way Power through court, the Agency continued The value of power had risen to move forward. Groundbreaking dramatically since the Middle Fork ceremonies held April 17, 1977 at the Project was completed. The Agency Newcastle site of the Foothill Water asked Bear Sterns, a New York financial Treatment Plant marked a major new company, if the bonds could be retired, phase in growth and development of the contract with PG&E for power the Water Agency. Upgrading and terminated and the hydroelectric power replacement of pipelines and opera- sold at market rates. Bear Sterns put the tional units in the system exhumed a Agency in touch with the New York law century-old redwood pipe conveyance firm of Mudge Rose. system, exposing a part of Placer The firm, the leading bond counsel County’s history dating to the earliest in New York, said the Agency had a days of the Gold Rush era.

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Placer County History Book WEB56 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM FIVECHAPTER

DroughtDrought AndAnd LaterLater DemandsDemands ForFor WaterWater

C alifornia experienced a severe drought in 1976-1977, and Placer County in 1977 was declared one of the hardest hit of all California counties. In the 1975-76 rainfall years, water had been released from PG&E reservoirs to make room for an anticipated normal water year – which failed to materialize. By the beginning of 1977 there was little snow or rain and no relief in sight. As reservoirs dropped, PG&E reduced the Agency’s water allotment for Zone 1 in the Auburn area by 50 percent. The Agency began a water conservation campaign and many of the conservation practices adopted during that drought have since been retained later as part of an overall water conservation plan. For example, in 1975 the Agency began a public education campaign of “water conservation is a moral obligation,” a message used for many following years. “Placer People Save Water” was found on buttons, flyers, newsletters, bill inserts, and on signs in schools and in restaurants. This education provided the foundation for the Agency’s successful water use efficiency program during the drought.

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Placer County History Book WEB57 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM Water supplies were a major issue By the end of 1977, Placer was for residents. More than 300 people nearly alone in the state by having attended a 1977 hearing on water ended the drought with a small reserve conservation at a meeting held in the of precious water. Temporary pumps Placer High School Auditorium in installed by the federal government on Auburn. In fact, the meeting was the American River at Auburn carried moved there from the county adminis- Middle Fork Project water up the trative center because of the large canyon through the Agency’s three-mile crowd. The Raley’s Supermarket in tunnel to the community of Ophir on Auburn on Lincoln Way closed its Auburn Ravine, bringing precious garden shop for the year “in the interest additional water to western Placer of water conservation,” a sign at the County. store said. CALIFORNIA EXPERIENCED A SEVERE DROUGHT IN 1976-1977, AND PLACER COUNTY IN 1977 WAS DECLARED ONE OF THE HARDEST HIT OF ALL CALIFORNIA COUNTIES.

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Placer County History Book WEB58 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM In January 1978 directors formally Subdivision well and water distribution declared the drought over and ended system. So began the Agency’s water water use restrictions for customers. service to Zone 2. Two decades later Having survived the crisis, the the Agency converted these customers Agency again set about the task of to treated surface water through an upgrading and expanding reliability of intertie with the city of Roseville. its Zone 1 water system. The Foothill In 1979 the Agency completed plant was enlarged to a capacity of 25 construction of the Foothill Water million gallons per day, 10 million Treatment Plan near Newcastle and gallons of storage was added and a tie removed from service water treatment with the city of Roseville’s water system plants in Penryn, Loomis and Rocklin was completed. Some old canals were that PG&E had built in the 1940s. The abandoned as pipelines were installed. Agency also completed construction of In 1979, at the request of residents the Bowman Water Treatment Plant to living southwest of Roseville, the serve that community as well as Auburn. Agency assumed ownership and New facilities were needed as new operation of the Bianchi Estates residents continued to come to Placer

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Placer County History Book WEB59 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM By the end of 1977, County. In 1980 the Residents asked the population reached Placer was nearly Agency to purchase the 117,247. alone in the state system with water users In 1982 residents in by having ended in the area paying for an area stretching from the drought with a the purchase through Christian Valley to small reserve of their water rates. In Meadow Vista, precious water. 1982 the Agency Applegate, Colfax, purchased the Upper Dutch Flat and Alta System, and formed asked the Agency to Zone 3. The Agency purchase PG&E’s had become the “Upper Placer Canal System.” This county’s major water purveyor. acquisition came about after much On the Agency’s 30th anniversary, serious review. The system was old and Agency directors honored the late state in need of repair. PG&E was deter- lawmaker credited with a key role in mined to dispose of it and there had the origin of the Placer County Water been inquires from several would-be Agency. A plaque at the directors first purchasers. Community meetings were meeting of 1987 noted the work of held in the areas which might be Francis Lindsay, the state assemblyman involved in the purchase. instrumental in getting legislation Many of the same concerns that passed creating the Water Agency, had arose with PG&E’s South Placer system undertaken. His wife Margaret Lindsay were present with the utility’s Upper received a framed a copy of the resolu- System. The deteriorating system tion on behalf of her husband, who had obviously required updating and died in October 1986. history indicated that private invest- ment ownership could, if approved by Placer’s Era of the California Public Utilities Commis- Rapid Growth sion, lead to rate increases unless a local Placer’s population continued on an governmental entity such as the Agency upward course. “The pace of growth,” acquired the system. Agency General Manager David

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Placer County History Book WEB60 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM Breninger would say, “is ever escalat- employees began working in small ing.” During the years of 1980 to 1994, metal buildings or trailers. As the the county’s population increased number of water system customers dramatically, from 117,247 to 200,100. expanded, more employees were hired County government and the Water and more vehicles and equipment were Agency raced to keep up. purchased to handle the population It had long been clear that office boom. Finding a place for them to space in county facilities was no longer work became a very difficult and adequate to continue to house the continuing battle. By 1990 Agency Agency and new quarters were needed. personnel, along with computers and The Agency settled on an existing PLACER COUNTY UNDERWENT DRAMATIC GROWTH, building at the Auburn Water Treat- NEARLY DOUBLING ITS POPULATION BETWEEN 1980 ment Plant corporation yard and AND 1994. DEVELOPMENT CONTINUES TO BOOM INTO THE 21ST CENTURY.

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Placer County History Book WEB61 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM other office equipment, were crammed By 1993, plans were approved for a into any available space. The Board of Placer County Water Agency Business Directors recognized the need for an Center in Auburn. Construction of the Agency headquarters and began to save 25,000-square-foot building took one money for a building fund. year and in August 1994 many Agency

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Placer County History Book WEB62 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM employees moved into new quarters. County dominated by one of the most For the first time, most business famous mountain lakes in the world. operations were housed under the same roof. The Agency’s employees for the Serving Lake Tahoe and Middle Fork Project remained head- Eastern Placer County quartered in Foresthill. Treatment plant In his book Roughing It, Mark Twain buildings, after many years of housing a wrote about the wonders of Lake variety of Agency staff, returned to their Tahoe. “So singularly clear was the intended purposes. water,” Twain observed, “that where it The Agency serves an area reaching was only 20 or 30 feet deep the bottom from its western border with Sacra- was so perfectly distinct that the boat mento County to the Sierra Nevada seemed floating on air…It was a vast and Lake Tahoe in the east. Beyond

Auburn and Foresthill, the Agency LAKE TAHOE. THIS CALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARY continues to serve an area in Placer PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS THE LAKE IN THE 1870S.

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Placer County History Book WEB63 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM LAKE TAHOE TODAY

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Placer County History Book WEB64 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM oval, and one would Controversy has eastward from Lake have to use up 80 or 100 flared time and Tahoe to Washoe Lake good miles in traveling again over water in Nevada. This plan around it. As it lay there rights, flow releases, met with opposition with the shadows of the lake levels from lakeshore owners mountains brilliantly and lake clarity. and California interests photographed upon its and was never con- still surface, I thought it structed. must surely be the fairest Controversy has picture the whole world flared time and again affords.” over water rights, flow Almost since Twain’s early reflec- releases, lake levels and lake clarity. The tions, the waters of Lake Tahoe and the Tahoe Regional Planning Authority was Truckee River have been immersed in created by Congress in 1969 to reverse politics and so-called “water wars.” The a trend of declining lake clarity. But United States government, the Pyramid this, too, has resulted in debates, Lake Paiute Indian tribe, the states of lawsuits and protracted negotiations. Nevada and California, the Water Many attempts have been made to Agency, the counties of Placer, El achieve fair allocation of Lake Tahoe Dorado, Sierra and Nevada, local water waters. The Water Agency, the county districts in eastern Placer County, the of Placer and eastern Placer County cities of Reno and Sparks, ranchers in water districts were involved in pro- Fallon, Nev., and others have interest longed negotiations between California, in the waters of Tahoe and Truckee. Nevada, tribal representatives and the Competition between users in federal government for an interstate California and Nevada over Tahoe compact governing the use of water water dates to the 19th century when from Tahoe and the Truckee, Carson San Francisco interests planned to and Walker rivers. export Lake Tahoe water to the Bay In 1970 and 1971 California and Area. In 1909, another tunnel scheme Nevada adopted a bi-state settlement, involving Lake Tahoe would have run but the United States government, then

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Placer County History Book WEB65 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM in a policy shift due to passage of the Placer County Water Agency has federal Endangered Species Act, failed vigorously worked to protect water to ratify the pact. In 1988 negotiations resources in eastern Placer County. began again to try to ensure that local water interests were clearly represented. Martis Valley The North Tahoe Public Utility Groundwater District and the Tahoe City Public Groundwater protection in eastern Utility District were joined by the Placer County has been of primary South Tahoe Public Utility District, the concern to the Agency and local water Truckee-Donner Public Utility District, districts within Martis Valley. Ground- the Water Agency and other parties. water sources have become more Successful negotiations led to heavily relied upon by many water congressional approval of the “Truckee- purveyors in eastern Placer County and Carson-Pyramid Lake Water Rights neighboring Nevada County. Eastern Settlement Act” in 1990. This complex Placer has three state-identified aqui- agreement apportions Truckee River fers, the Martis Valley aquifer, the and Lake Tahoe water between the two Squaw Valley aquifer and a third states. The annual allocation of water aquifer that lies along the north and for users around Lake Tahoe in Califor- west shore of Lake Tahoe. nia is 23,000 acre-feet and in Nevada is Protection of groundwater in the 11,000 acre-feet. An additional 32,000 Martis Valley aquifer for use in Califor- acre-feet is allocated to California for nia became a primary concern in the use within the Truckee River Basin in mid-1990s. Working with Placer California. County officials, the Agency in 1998 The Agency, eastern Placer County adopted a groundwater management water districts and the Truckee River plan for the Martis Valley aquifer. Basin Water Group continued negotia- Development of the plan has been tions for a Truckee River Operating coordinated with a similar plan com- Agreement. Known as TROA, it is a pleted earlier for Nevada County. The major component of the 1990 Settle- Martis Valley aquifer is of key impor- ment Act. Throughout all of this the tance to the long-term futures of Placer

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Placer County History Book WEB66 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM Another milestone and Nevada counties but in the Agency’s The Agency created remains vulnerable to development was Water Service Zone 4 use by state of Nevada its undertaking of to serve the Martis interests. water delivery to Valley, and an agree- Another milestone in new development in ment with the devel- the Agency’s develop- Placer County’s oper for water service ment was its undertak- Martis Valley. was finalized. Con- ing of water delivery to struction of the zone’s new development in well system and initial Placer County’s Martis distribution system was Valley. concluded in the fall of In 1996 the developer of the project 1997. Since then, the zone has been to be known as Lahontan asked the expanded to other developments. Water Agency to provide supplies using groundwater. The Agency, the county CONSTRUCTION WORKERS AT THE NEW and the developer subsequently signed GATEHOUSE TO THE ENTRANCE FOR A MARTIS an agreement for water service to the VALLEY DEVELOPMENT IN EASTERN PLACER project. COUNTY.

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Placer County History Book WEB67 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM A Heritage of Water 68

Placer County History Book WEB68 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM SIXCHAPTER

AA Half-CenturyHalf-Century ofof ServiceService

A long the American River outside Auburn, it became apparent by the mid-1990s that the Agency would soon need to use the American River water for which it holds entitlements. For nearly two decades, Reclamation had installed temporary pumps to deliver Middle Fork Project water into western Placer County – the agreement reached in the 1970s as work began on Auburn Dam. The agreement was to fulfill the delivery requirements until the completion of Auburn Dam, but the dam remains uncompleted. By 1996 the pumps were no longer adequate to meet the year-round needs of the growing county and the Agency and Reclamation began discussing the need to replace and expand the American River pump station. The new station would have to be bigger and more powerful to meet the growing demand for American River water throughout the year. In a letter sent to federal officials in the summer of 1996, Water Agency directors told federal officials that residents should not be left “high and dry” without the year-round pumping plant. Efforts to secure federal funding for planning and construction of the pump station lasted for several years.

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Placer County History Book WEB69 9/10/2007, 3:10 PM The region’s watersheds, benefiting acres in far western Placer County that from their source in the Sierra Nevada, is not within Roseville, Lincoln or the remained in good shape, according to a South Sutter Water District. The new 1996 report the Water Agency helped zone allowed Agency officials to prepare. The study included a look at negotiate with other water districts for the Bear River watershed and con- supplies. cluded it and others are very clean with Into the early 1990s, the Agency water coming from the mountain range organizational structure had focused to the Sierra foothills. primarily upon its Water System and In 1999, the Agency Board of Power System. In 1992, the Board of Directors approved forming Zone 5 to Directors hired a new general manager, supply irrigation water to Placer David A. Breninger. Together they County commercial agriculturalists. reevaluated the Agency’s priorities and Zone 5 includes approximately 15,000 services to accommodate the Agency’s ever-expanding involvement in regional A WATER CANAL IN THE LOOMIS AREA OF THE SIERRA and state water resource development. FOOTHILLS PROVIDES IRRIGATION FOR ORCHARDS. Directors revised the former county- THE ROOTS OF THE WATER SYSTEM FOR COUNTY AGRICULTURE REACH AS FAR BACK AS THE GOLD RUSH.

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Placer County History Book WEB70 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM Through the years, the Agency’s purpose wide function, greatly and internal • Participation in expanded its purpose, organization have regional and bi-state and renamed it as the evolved to fit the water planning matters Agency-wide function. evolving needs of affecting eastern Placer County, Lake Tahoe Directors also revamped county citizens. the organizational and the Truckee River structure of the Agency system. so that all divisions and • Groundwater man- departments would report directly to agement planning for specific the general manager. aquifers in eastern and western Through the years, the Agency’s Placer County. purpose and internal organization have • Identification of strategies for the evolved to fit the evolving needs of ultimate water needs for the county citizens. The Agency is currently general plans of Placer County and organized and fiscally structured into its cities. three divisions: agency-wide, power • Determining opportunities for system and water system. hydroelectric energy production. Accomplishments of the agency- wide function, adapted over the years to Power System reflect emerging water-related policy The Agency Power System has a issues and other activities throughout main office in Foresthill and operates Placer County, include: hydroelectric and related facilities of the • Protection and development of Middle Fork American River Hydro- Placer County’s water rights. electric Project that includes five • Establishment of water service hydroelectric power plants; two large zones. dams and reservoirs (French Meadows • Participation in regional and state and Hell Hole); several small re- water planning matters relevant to regulation and diversion dams; 23 miles the American, Bear, Yuba and of tunnels and other facilities. Sacramento rivers and Bay-Delta The project makes Placer County system. water resources available for use in

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Placer County History Book WEB71 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM Placer County by providing up to the U.S. Forest Service. Recreational 120,000 acre-feet of water annually opportunities include camping, for Agency customers. The project hiking, fishing, lake and whitewater also generates clean and renewable boating. hydroelectric energy that is being sold The Middle Fork Project is licensed under terms of a 50-year agreement by the Federal Energy Regulatory to PG&E. The project generates Commission. In 2013, the bonded hydroelectric power for homes, indebtedness that financed the original businesses and farms. project will be paid off and the current As part of the Middle Fork Project, FERC license will expire. The Agency the Agency constructed public recre- expects to receive a new license from ational facilities, including several the federal agency and market the campgrounds and day use areas that project’s power output for the benefit are managed through agreements with of Placer County.

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Placer County History Book WEB72 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM Water System FRENCH MEADOWS, A RESERVOIR CREATED BY THE The Water System operates and MIDDLE FORK PROJECT, AND A LEGACY OF THE WORK EAST OF FORESTHILL UNDERTAKEN BY THE delivers wholesale and retail water to AGENCY IN THE 1960S. more than 250,000 people, serving homes, farms, businesses, cities and special districts and private water San Juan Water District. All of the purveyors in many parts of Placer Agency’s water systems are metered and County. The Water System manages the Agency’s rate structure and educa- the distribution of treated drinking tional programs promote conservation. water and untreated irrigation water. Overall, the Water System operates The Water System supplies retail more than 165 miles of canals, customers in western Placer County pipelines, flumes and siphons; eight living in Loomis, Rocklin, Auburn, water treatment plants; six wells; 27 Colfax and Alta as well as to areas in water tanks; nine raw water reser- between and eastern Placer County in voirs; and over 500 miles of treated the Martis Valley. The Agency whole- water transmission and distribution sales treated water to the city of Lincoln lines. It has operational responsibility and others, who in turn, retail the water for the American River Pump Station to their customers. The Agency also near Auburn, including the three- wholesales untreated Middle Fork mile diversion tunnel and outlet at Project water to Roseville and the Auburn Ravine.

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Placer County History Book WEB73 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM AGENCY EMPLOYEES IKE JACKSON (IN STRIPED JACKET) AND KEN YUNK WORK IN THE 1990S ON REPLACING A CANAL WITH A PIPE AT THIS AUBURN SITE AT THE CORNER OF ELM AND LINCOLN AVENUES NEAR HIGHWAY 49.

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Placer County History Book WEB74 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM Groundwater watersheds. The Agency works with Management the Forest Service on watershed stew- Local water agencies are authorized ardship. Flood and fire in the watershed to develop groundwater management affects the quantity and quality of plans under a law adopted in 1992 by the water supply, which brings home the state Legislature. Using provisions the notion that “We all live in a of this law, the Agency and Placer watershed.” County began planning for two of the In 1997, the Agency signed two principal aquifers underlying portions watershed management agreements; of the county. One underlies most of one for the American River Watershed western Placer County in the area west and the other for the Auburn Ravine of Highway 65. The other lies beneath Watershed. The Agency is working portions of the Martis Valley in eastern cooperatively with others to see that Placer County. the watersheds are managed effectively To preserve groundwater resources for the benefit of the people of Placer in both aquifers, Agency directors in County. 1998 adopted groundwater manage- Other significant long-term plan- ment plans. These plans focus on ning efforts include the Truckee River groundwater level monitoring, water Operating Agreement, the American quality, safe yield determination and River Authority, the Sacramento Area how best to preserve these resources for Water Forum and the California-federal Placer County’s future use. government Bay-Delta process. The The Agency also is actively involved outcomes of these will have long-term in watershed management planning for implications upon surface water and all of Placer County. In the mid-1990s, groundwater supplies available for the Agency, the county and the Placer Placer County’s future use. County Resource Conservation District With these and other programs, began an effort to involve local, state the Placer County Water Agency is and federal entities and the general actively engaged in water resource issues public in an effort to initiate watershed confronting the entire county. Through management plans for the county’s this involvement the Agency plays a

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Placer County History Book WEB75 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM WORK ON THE NEW AMERICAN RIVER The American River PUMP STATION BEGAN IN 2003. Pump Station Planning and design of the positive roll in ensuring that Placer American River Pump Station County’s water resources are available project – the Agency’s top water for generations to come in Placer resource priority – began in 2001 as County. Agency officials continued to secure The importance of that undertaking federal funding appropriations. In was emphasized by Ross Riolo when June 2003 a contract for the first he spoke at the end of 1998 after phase of the project was awarded. completing three decades representing The project began in October 2003 the Roseville Area on the Board of and included access improvements, Directors. “We’ve got to make sure major excavation and construction we’ve got things in place for the next of the pumping plant itself. generations,” he said. Riolo urged Included in the work to provide officials to protect the region’s water permanent pumps to draw water from rights. “We’ve got the only water the American River was the closure of around,” he said. “Somebody’s going to an Auburn Dam diversion tunnel that be after it forever.” had sent water away from its historic

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Placer County History Book WEB76 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM course when the federal government the Auburn Dam will be repaired and began working on the Auburn Dam. various recreational opportunities will By late 2006, the first phase was be restored. nearly complete and Reclamation With a new permanent water supply awarded a bid for work including a flowing through the American River river diversion structure, restoration pumps, this multifaceted project of the river to its natural channel and approved in 2004 is designed to closure of the half-mile-long river distribute the water across Placer diversion tunnel. A final phase in- County. The project includes a new cludes public access and recreational pump station and future water treat- improvements. ment plant at Ophir along with several The project has wide benefits: the major transmission pipelines. Agency will be able to use Middle Fork Project water to which it is entitled BOULDERS ARE FITTED INTO PLACE AS PART OF THE AMERICAN RIVER PUMP STATION AND RIVER (35,500 acre-feet annually), the alter- RESTORATION PROJECT AT THE FORMER AUBURN ations to the river channel made for DAM SITE. THE PERMANENT PUMP STATION HAS BEEN A TOP AGENCY WATER SUPPLY PRIORITY FOR THE PAST DECADE.

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Placer County History Book WEB77 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM AGENCY EMPLOYEE JAIME BULAND TAKES DAILY READING OF WATER FLOW WHERE STALLMAN AND BAUGHMAN CANALS INTERSECT IN THE LOOMIS AREA.

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Placer County History Book WEB78 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM Completion of the permanent As owner and operator of the Middle American River Pump Station and River Fork American River Hydroelectric Restoration Project is planned for 2008. Project, the Agency continues to produce clean, renewable hydroelectric The Agency in the energy. At the same time the Agency 21st Century works with Placer County in a strategi- On the Golden Anniversary of its cally planned effort to obtain a new service, the Placer County Water federal license for the project. When Agency can be proud of its many granted in 2013, the new license is accomplishments during the Agency’s expected to bring tremendous long- first half-century. As the county’s largest term public benefits to Placer County. purveyor of water, the Agency has made Marking a half-century of service, great strides in updating water systems, the Water Agency has held true to its building new facilities and meeting the initial purpose to ensure that water water supply needs of fast-growing entitlements are preserved and used to Placer County. benefit the people of the county. While That effort has included such meeting those needs the Agency has extraordinary measures as sending a managed in some years to sell tempo- remote operated vehicle, akin to a rary surplus American River water, submarine, to examine a tunnel in the providing important revenue and an Middle Fork Project in 2000. added benefit to the bounty of the The equipment with cameras and Middle Fork Project. sonar was used to examine the condi- As the primary water resource tion of three shafts of a tunnel that are agency for all of Placer County, the a part of the water project east of Agency has become well-positioned to Foresthill. Agency officials were represent the county’s water interests concerned about signs of erosion since and to ensure the protection of the sediment had worn down turbine county’s water rights for generations to wheels that are part of the Middle come through cooperative efforts with Fork Project. But the tunnel review the county, the cities and local water showed conditions to be satisfactory. districts. Since the start of the 21st

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Placer County History Book WEB79 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM century the Agency has completed and Expansions have been completed and moved forward on a number of signifi- are in progress at major water treatment cant water issues. plants, including Foothill, Sunset and Auburn. Several new water storage Building a Better tanks have been constructed to meet System the growing needs of Placer County. In The Agency continues to upgrade 2001, the Agency completed its largest- and improve the aging water system ever pipeline project, the 5-mile-long infrastructure, much of which dates to Penryn-Lincoln Pipeline. the Gold Rush. Key canals that carry Since 2002, the Agency has been water from the mountains to foothills involved in a regional partnership with have been enlarged and strengthened. Placer and Sacramento county interests to obtain a new water supply diversion

A PLACER COUNTY WATER AGENCY EMPLOYEE from the Sacramento River. This water WORKS ON A FLUME, THE ELEVATED WATER would serve wide areas of western CONVEYANCES STILL COMMON IN THE AREA. Placer County.

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Placer County History Book WEB80 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM The Agency continues to upgrade Water Quality ties are among the and improve the The Agency takes Agency’s efforts to great pride in its ability aging water system improve customer to produce and distrib- infrastructure, service. ute a high quality supply much of which dates In 2005, as part of of drinking water that to the Gold Rush. the relicensing of the meets state and federal Middle Fork Project public health standards. by the Federal Energy The Agency uses some Regulatory Commis- of the most modern and efficient sion, the Agency sponsored a tour of treatment techniques available. Efforts the project facilities for Native Ameri- continue to provide treated water to cans. Cultural resources within the area areas where it is not yet available, were reviewed. Those attending in- including customers who have used cluded descendants of Placer’s earliest canal water and are now seeking a residents – representatives from the drinking water supply. The Agency is Colfax-Todd Valley Consolidated Tribe, actively supporting this evolutionary the Miwok Tribe, United Auburn change. Indian Council and the Washoe Tribe. The Agency continues its many The group traveled to the Oxbow successful water efficiency programs Powerhouse and the Middle Fork of the that helps individual customers, American River near the confluence businesses and communities use their with the Rubicon River. Archeological water supplies in more efficient ways. resources at the Big Meadows Camp- School programs, home retrofit and ground were also reviewed. rebate programs and new water mea- PCWA’s relicensing efforts have been surement technologies in the canal undertaken with the county and a key systems have helped the program win step was taken in January 2006 when recognition on a regional level. the Agency and Placer County formed Computer system and billing the Middle Fork Project Finance upgrades, radio-read water meters and Authority to provide funding for the electronic water measurement capabili- multi-year relicensing project.

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Placer County History Book WEB81 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM Wholesale Water Roseville contracts for 10,000 acre-feet Supply annually and has an option on another The Agency continues its role as a 20,000 acre-feet. These supplies are major supplier of wholesale water. Up delivered via Folsom Reservoir. to 25,000 acre-feet of Middle Fork To reduce groundwater overdraft, Project water is supplied annually to the Agency has also supplied the the San Juan Water District in Granite Sacramento Suburban Water District in Bay, which serves more than 180,000 Sacramento County. The Agency also people in south Placer and eastern provides water to several small local Sacramento counties. The city of suppliers within its own service area, including those along the Interstate 80 THE COMMUNITY OF LINCOLN HAS BOOMED WITH EXTENSIVE DEVELOPMENT, AS SHOWN IN THIS 2004 PHOTOGRAPH.

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Placer County History Book WEB82 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM Thoughtful stewardship of corridor between Placer County serve eastern Placer. Auburn and Colfax. To watershed and water The Placer County improve service to its resources today will Water Agency is an other water purveyor ensure healthy, clean active participant in the customers in Placer and bountiful water CABY Integrated Water County the Agency has supplies for future Resource Management interservice agreements generations to come Planning Program, a with the Nevada Irriga- in Placer County. regional partnership tion District and the city whose acronym comes of Roseville. from the first letters of The Agency has been an early the watersheds for the Cosumnes, supporter of Placer Legacy, the open American, Bear and Yuba rivers. space program in the county, whose Thoughtful stewardship of Placer population by 2007 had reached County watershed and water resources 325,000. The Agency has also backed today will ensure healthy and bountiful the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, which water supplies for future generations. is expected to bring new funding The Agency does so with legal counsel opportunities for key watershed and provided by Ed Tiedemann, who in water resource projects. July 2007 marked 45 years as attorney Working on a regional level with the for the Agency. (Tiedemann also Sacramento Water Forum and the worked with the Agency from 1959- Regional Water Authority, the Agency 1962 as assistant county executive for has been a principal player in settling Placer County.) General Manager generations-old water questions on the David Breninger began that post in Lower American River and other 1992 and has served the most years of waterways. any manager in that executive position. The Agency continues to be involved Directors and staff accept the in eastern Placer County water issues, challenge to continue to safeguard the including those of Lake Tahoe and the water resources that a half-century ago Truckee River, and continues to support led to the establishment of the Placer the many local water purveyors who County Water Agency.

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Placer County History Book WEB83 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM Placer County Water Agency

GOVERNING BOARD Placer County Board of Supervisors ex officio Agency Directors from 1957-1975

District 1: J.B. “Brick” Paolini 1957 -1958 Thomas E. Doyle 1959 -1962 George A. Lambert 1963 -1966 Robert Mahan 1967-1975 Chairman 1972

District 2: John E. Boyington 1957 -1958 Robert Radovich 1959 -1970 Alex Ferreira 1971 -1975 Chairman 1973

District 3: Joe O. Anderson 1957-1964 Will Jones 1965 -1968 Ray S. Thompson 1969 -1975 Chairman 1974

District 4: Frank J. Paoli 1957 -1968 Chairman 1961 -1968 J.B. “Brick” Paolini 1969 -1972 Chairman 1970 Michael Lee 1973 -1975

District 5: L.L. Anderson 1957-1960 Chairman 1958 -1960 William S. Briner 1961-1972 Chairman 1969 -1971 Jim Henry 1973-1975

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Placer County History Book WEB84 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM Placer County Water Agency

Independently Elected DIRECTORS – 1975 to date

District 1: Ross Riolo 1975-1998 Chairman 1981-1984 Pauline Roccucci 1998-2006 Chairman 2000, 2005 Gray Allen 2006-

District 2: Roy Ruhkala 1975-1977 Chairman 1975-1977 Joaquin Farinha 1977-1985 Walter Fickewirth 1985-present Chairman 1989-1993 & 1997 Alex Ferreira* 1998-present Chairman 2001, 2006 * (Previously served on Governing Board as County Supervisor 1971-1975)

District 3: James Norman 1975-1991 Chairman 1984-1989 Richard Azevedo 1991-1996 Lowell Jarvis 1996-present Chairman 2002, 2007

District 4: Edward Horton 1975-1996 Chairman 1977-1981 & 1993-1996 W. Bruce Lee 1997-2000 Mike Lee* 2000-present Chairman 2003 * (Previously served on Governing Board as County Supervisor 1973-1975)

District 5: Edwin Koster 1975-1987 Chairman 1977 Otis Wollan 1987-present Chairman 1999, 2004

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Placer County History Book WEB85 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM Placer County Water Agency

Upper American River Project Board est. 1948

William M. Haines, Chair, 1948 – 1952 J.B. Paolini, Chair, 1952 – 1953 Frank J. Paoli, Chair, 1953 Chester A. Gibbs Gordon Collins Thomas J. Pugh William D. Bethell J.B. McFadden* L.L. Anderson Garret Doty Edward A. Grey Wendell T. Robie Francis Lindsay Charles Geisendorfer John Boyington Wesley Waddle

*Mrs. Edith McFadden, widow of John McFadden, completed his term.

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Placer County History Book WEB86 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM Placer County Water Agency

Countywide Water Committee est. February 26, 1957

A committee organized to develop the Placer County Water Agency Act. Members were selected by the Placer County Board of Supervisors, Placer County Planning Commission, City Chambers of Commerce, County Chamber of Commerce, Placer County Water Users Association, Grange, Farm Bureau and the Japanese American Citizen’s League.

Antone Riolo Eldon Black Charles Lauppe, Chair Ralph Braik Melville Earhart Howard Nakae William Akins Ray Freer Walter Fiddyment Elmer Williams Doulton Burner Gene Fowler Harry Rosenberry

A Heritage of Water 87

Placer County History Book WEB87 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM Placer County Water Agency

Citizen’s Advisory Board, PCWA ZONE 1 est. August 14, 1969 Frank J. Paoli, Chair, 1969 – 1971 William Moore, Chair, 1971 – 1973 Roy Ruhkala, Chair, 1973 – 1975 Wesley Waddle Edwin Koster Ross Riolo Ed Horton James K. Norman

General Managers position established in 1963 John M. Barnard 1963-1971 Robert Johnston 1972-1973 Bill Grant 1974-1983 Ed Schnabel 1983-1991 David A. Breninger 1992-present

A Heritage of Water 88

Placer County History Book WEB88 9/10/2007, 3:11 PM