$3M OK’D for Dam Project

By The Monterey County Herald, Calif.

Jun. 11–The California Costal Conservancy has approved $3 million in funding for final project plans and permits to remove the San Clemente Dam on the Carmel River.

The decision was made Thursday during the Conservancy’s board meeting in Sacramento.

California American Water Company will contribute up to an additional $3 million for the project phase.

The total cost for demolishing the dam and rerouting the river through the San Clemente Creek is estimated at $83 million.

Cal Am, which owns the dam, is expected to pay $49 million, with the rest coming from state, private and possibly federal funds.

In 1992, the dam was declared unsafe by the state Department of Water Resources’ Division of Dam Safety because of a risk it could collapse in the event of a magnitude 5.5 earthquake on the Tularcitos Fault, or a magnitude 7 quake on the San Andreas Fault.

Experts involved with the project have said the river needs to be rerouted and the dam needs to be taken down to prevent its failure and a large release of accumulated slit.

Trish Chapman, project manager for the Coastal Conservancy, said removal of the dam will benefit the ecology of the Carmel River, including opening 25 miles of unrestricted access to migrating steelhead trout and restoring sediment supply to portions of the river below the dam.

Work on the dam’s removal is scheduled to begin in spring of 2010.

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Copyright (c) 2008, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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