Sacramento River flooding damages diversion dam

March 16--The Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation District diversion dam has withstood flooding and droughts in the Sacramento River for nearly 100 years and remained intact.

But the dam met its match this year when releases into the river from Shasta and Keswick dams were cranked up to more than 80,000 cubic feet per second.

Heavy steel stanchions were twisted and in some cases broken off. The base plates that hold the stanchions were also damaged and warped; some were knocked off their concrete abutments.

During last month's high flows, water raced over a walkway leading out to the diversion dam and undercut the concrete-covered embankment near the fish ladder and dam.

Huge chunks of dirt, rocks and concrete were washed out of the embankment, causing part of the walkway to crack and buckle.

The repairs will cost an estimated $400,000, said Mike Battles, the district's general manager. Despite the damage, he said he did not think the damages would delay getting irrigation water to customers in the Anderson and Cottonwood areas.

The district dams up the river near Caldwell Park in mid to late April, Battles said.

"It's going to be tough to make it, but that is what we are shooting for," he said.

ACID typically places boards between the stanchions, which raises the water level and diverts it into a nearby canal. Water travels down the canal from downtown Redding, through Anderson and into Cottonwood in Tehama County.

Battles said about half the steel stanchions that hold the boards are either bent or broken and need to be replaced.

Randy Davis, a maintenance supervisor, said the damage to the dam is the worst he has seen in the more than 30 years he has worked for the district.

Repairing the concrete on the walkway and embankment will be straightforward, but repairing the stanchions and abutments could be tricky, Davis said.

Because the abutments and stanchions are in the river, repairing them could be a complex procedure, he said.

A district pumping station along the river near S. Bonnyview Road also was damaged when the river undercut the earth under the structure, Battles said. The structure has been temporarily repaired, he said.

The biggest problem, he said, was getting the dam repaired so the district could deliver irrigation water to customers.

The district plans to seek grant funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help pay for repairs to the dam, Battles said.

The diversion dam is not the only public structure damaged by the high river flows in February. Redding officials estimate hiking and bicycling trails in along the river suffered about $350,000 damage.

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