Doolittle: You've Got Mail (vol. 5)

Highlights from the letters sent to the Sac Bee in resonse to the feature on the Auburn Dam:

Election politics of Auburn dam

It's amazing that with Rep. John Doolittle being mentioned with the Jack Abramoff scandal and with a Republican challenger (Mike Holmes) in the primary, the same worn-out idea of a dam at Auburn is being recycled.

Republicans have controlled everything in Washington for the past five years, but Doolittle couldn't get funding for his dam. Why can he now? This sounds very much like a ploy to get him through this election.

We will be hearing all sorts of brash ideas to save the current crop of bums, but it is time to throw them out and try someone new. We older folks should also remember that Doolittle and his ilk pushed to privatize Social Security and still have that on their agenda.

- Don Warden, Roseville

Just don't build in the flood zone

In the March 11 article "Doolittle, Auburn dam win key ally," Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, said, "To those that oppose it, I ask: Show me your alternatives." Here's one: How about not building in flood zones?

Thousands of structures have been built in areas that were underwater during the 1986 floods, yet little work has been done to strengthen the levees that are the only logical defense against future flooding.

We all know that the Auburn dam site sits over a known seismic fault and that there are no buyers for the water or the hydroelectric power, yet Rep. John Doolittle and his puppets such as Placer County Supervisor Bruce Kranz insist on building it. An Auburn dam would do nothing to stem the flows of the Sacramento or Feather rivers or the South Fork of the American River.

I found it laughable that a representative from Ohio was chairman of a committee on water. If anyone knows water it's Ohioans, since it was their river, the Cuyahoga, that caught fire seven times between 1912 and 1969.

- Bill Stephenson, Meadow Vista

California's missing earmarks

Re "Bid for levee funds denied," March 9: If levees failed, submerging low-lying areas, I'm sure our political leaders would dust off their Hurricane Katrina oratory and lament that they were caught off guard. I'm sure prayers would be offered and promises from President Bush and FEMA would follow. The truth is that the funds to rebuild our infrastructure have been squandered. The federal budget of 2006 is a classic case of missed opportunities.

We need to ask a few simple questions of our representatives: Did you vote to give earmarks to Alaska to the tune of over $1 billion ($985 per capita). Why did California's earmarks amount to only $6.62 per capita? Of the funds received by California, why were $2.3 million wasted on landscaping the Ronald Reagan Freeway?

Why are we currently funding a $1 million feasibility study for Auburn dam (our bridge to no where) when lives are at stake? We need to set priorities. Our California delegation is dysfunctional.

- Michael Stark, Rocklin