Floods Raise Questions About Dams’ Policies

FRIANT, Calif. — In the crucial days before the New Year’s floods, as rains pounded the state and a whopper storm approached, federal dam operators on the San Joaquin River stockpiled precious irrigation water rather than make room for the coming deluge.

When the predicted onslaught hit, they were forced to make an emergency release of flood water from Friant Dam that broke through levees downstream, and they nearly lost control of the dam. “We came that close,” said Tony Buelna, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation veteran who oversees the dam above Fresno.

Was the delay in relieving Friant a mistake that flooded thousands of acres of farmland along the San Joaquin and risked a full-on catastrophe, or did the operators act prudently to save water in a state prone to drought?

The question is being pressed by politicians, farmers, environmentalists and lawyers as runoff from Friant and the nearby New Don Pedro Dam continues to inflict havoc in the valley and in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

It is an inquiry likely to echo this weekend as edgy dam operators brace for another monster storm that could unleash a new round of flooding. This time, though, dams are making significant releases in anticipation of heavy runoff out of the saturated Sierra Nevada.

A reconstruction of the crucial days and hours preceding the New Year’s deluge and resulting levee breaks, based on records and extensive interviews, reveals a telling mind-set. Seared by years of drought and complaints from farmers about shortages of irrigation water, some dam operators opted to hoard rather than make room for flood control, even as the state meteorologist predicted a storm of historic weight.

“I’m a water marketer,” Buelna said. “Almost all of our water is sold to farmers. . . . We were in a conservation mode.”

Buelna said the wish to save water for the long summer ahead did not compromise Friant Dam’s ability to prevent flooding. No one could have anticipated the storm’s fury, he said, and even if early releases had been made, they would have done little to soften the effects of the flood waters.

But some hydrologists who have studied what flowed in and out of Friant Dam before the storm say that the Bureau of Reclamation could have averted major flooding through prudent early releases.

Phil Williams, a Bay Area hydrologist who has worked for environmental groups and the federal government, said five days of releases at 8,000 cubic feet per second would have cleared enough space behind the dam to handle the storm’s brunt.

“If they had started releasing just moderate amounts of water on Dec. 22, they could have bought a lot of storage space,” Williams said. “There’s a good chance this extra cushion might have prevented Friant from having to release [so much] at once.”

There are questions, too, about the handling of New Don Pedro Dam on the Tuolumne River 100 miles to the north. The irrigation district that runs the dam did make early releases ranging from 4,000 to 7,000 cubic feet per second, but the flows were not nearly big enough to make a difference.

Like so much else in the arid West, the decisions made at Friant and New Don Pedro were based in a complex reality. The dams that harness the Sierra rivers are asked to wear many hats: irrigation, flood control, recreation and power generation for Los Angeles and other cities.

It is a system calibrated for water shortage, not water abundance. Often, experts say, flood control gets the short end of the stick.

“[Our] water demands keep increasing and our supply doesn’t. So when you make storage available for flood control, you decrease your water supply,” said Tim O’Laughlin, a Northern California water attorney. “When we’re all flooding, we think [flood control space] is great. But when we’re in the middle of the drought, we think it stinks.”

Water experts concede that Monday morning quarterbacking is not always fair in the esoteric and variable world of hydrology and it is certainly less fair when nature throws down an epic storm. It is also true that dam operators at Friant and New Don Pedro had their hands somewhat tied.

The Army Corps of Engineers regulates how much water dams may release, in order to protect gravel-mining operations and other developments that have cropped up in once-wild river channels. Only in an emergency can dam operators increase the flows, and then only on an hour-by-hour basis after consulting with the corps.

A more fundamental problem at New Don Pedro, many experts agree, was the amount of space reserved for flood control. Only 17% of the dam’s storage was set aside for flood control when it was built in 1971. In other words, releases designed to protect the downstream city of Modesto are typically made only when the dam reaches 83% of its capacity.

This buffer at New Don Pedro is one of the smallest in the state and is half the share set aside for flood control at Friant. At Folsom Dam on the American River, about two-thirds of the capacity has been devoted to flood control in the wake of a 1986 flood that threatened Sacramento.

That considerable safety zone, which dictated sizable releases from Folsom throughout December, is being credited with saving Sacramento from major flooding. “There was a significant operational difference between Folsom, where you had no flooding, and Friant and Don Pedro,” said Patricia Schifferle, a water consultant and former state Assembly staff member.

At Friant, state reports show, Buelna’s staff continued to hold back on releases late into December, even as the dam became three-quarters full and the state’s weather forecaster warned of a tropical storm that could melt a good chunk of the Sierra snowpack.

Not until Dec. 28, five days after the reservoir rose into the buffer area set aside for flood control, did operators turn up the valves to the maximum outflow allowed by the Corps--8,000 cubic feet per second.

Buelna has directed operations there for seven years. When the storms hit last month, he was recuperating at home from ankle surgery. He bristles at critics who have suggested that his crew wasn’t up to the task and delayed pulling the trigger on releases.

“We didn’t know what was on the horizon,” Buelna said.

What complicated operations at Friant is that half of its flood control buffer is in a hydroelectric dam higher up the mountain. Friant operators not only must monitor their dam, but constantly keep tabs on the Southern California Edison facility far upstream.

Some hydrologists say this juggling introduces more variables and can cut into the safety margin.

On New Year’s Day, the Pineapple Express was about to deliver its full blow, a punch that melted enough snow to send 95,000 cubic feet per second of water down the mountains into Friant. Just after midnight Jan. 3, Friant Dam had taken on more water than it had in its 50-year history--and was 12 inches from the top of the 580-foot wall.

But it wasn’t until four hours later--with water spilling into the emergency control room and the phone link to the Army Corps gone dead--that Friant operators decided to open the spigot.

Even so, the water crested two feet higher than the dam’s wall. Buelna’s crew cranked open the drum gates and let additional water spill through the top. For a full 24 hours, Friant bled at 35,000 cubic feet per second, a far higher flow than desired in the San Joaquin River channel.

“If they would have pulled the trigger just four days before, they could have bought themselves another 30,000-50,000 acre-feet of flood storage,” said hydrologist Williams. “That’s about the amount they released in the flood wave.”

In preparation for this weekend’s storm, which is predicted to dump as much as 9 inches on the Sierra above Friant, Buelna said the dam Friday began releasing 8,000 cubic feet per second.

At New Don Pedro, critics say, the battle was lost before it ever began. “As far as we’re concerned, the smoking gun is why they didn’t have more space in that dam set aside for flood control,” said Stephen J. Ringhoff, a Modesto attorney who has lined up homeowners along the Tuolumne River for a class-action suit against local dam operators.

Under the glare of legislative hearings last week, boosters used the floods to argue for new dams. Environmentalists say dams simply need to be managed better--with more space for flood control.

“We’re in the process of reviewing all of our operations,” said Jeff McCracken, a spokesman for the reclamation bureau. “We did that at Folsom in 1986, made the changes and it worked like a clock this time.”

* NEW RAIN: Levees were bolstered in Northern California as a new storm moved in. A15