Expensive
A new dam is too expensive.
The $125 million quoted in the Environmental Impact Report does not cover all the
finance charges, expenses of road repairs and litigation. The Sierra Club, Ventana Chapter
estimates the real cost of the dam is closer to $350 million,
including:
- Interest, not adequately calculated in the Environmental Impact Report
- $15 million in steelhead trout trapping and transport to river runs above the dam.
- $12 million for new Cal Am facilities -- and at least an additional $1.5 million in
operating costs per year, increasing each year.
- The "costs of dismantling and rehabilitation" as stated by the National Marine
Fisheries Service will be extremely high and will "increase the total cost for the
dam by millions."An example of how extraordinarily large this cost will be, is
"the Matilija Dam, a 52-year-old dam, built to store drinking and agricultural water
for the Ojai Valley. Today, however, it is full of mud, provides little water and is
crumbling. Though decaying sections have been removed, it still stands 190 feet tall and
620 feet wide. The costs of removal may be extraordinary, past studies have estimated the
cost at between $3 million and $150 million, although most officials say $80 million is a
reasonable estimate." (source http://
www.gsenet.org /newsstnd/ riverrev.htm)
The expenses of the dam will be shouldered by us, the rate payers - directly, because
Cal-Am is a for profit corporation, headquartered in San Diego, with a parent corporation
on the East Coast and their stockholders to satisfy rather in the public's behalf as a
public utility.
Water Over the Dam