Mail for Mr. Doolittle (vol.6)

A couple letters making the Doolittle GOP machine connection with the push for the Auburn Dam. [Sacramento Bee March 27, 2006]

Fiscal reality and Auburn dam

Re: "Why an Auburn dam is a solid, sensible idea," commentary, March 17: It is baffling to me and others who find government waste appalling that Placer County Supervisor Bruce Kranz and other members of Rep. John Doolittle's Placer County GOP machine continue to call for the building of what would certainly be a shrine to misused government tax dollars.

A true fiscal conservative would faint at the $3 billion price tag. Actually, members of Doolittle's own party in Congress have done just that, rejecting it time and again. Kranz loves to cite polls of support for the dam. Perhaps he should ask residents of Sacramento County if they would agree to a hefty parcel tax to pay for pouring all that concrete into the American River Canyon?

A simple cost-benefit analysis proves that an Auburn dam would be a mistake and far from a "sensible idea."
- Gary Giacomo, Roseville

Using flood fear to push dam

Rep. John Doolittle's protégé Bruce Kranz stretches our credulity when he attempts to capitalize on public anxiety over Sacramento's levee system and use it to promote an Auburn dam.

We are expected to believe that the flood risk to Sacramento is comparable to the flood risk to New Orleans despite the fact that Sacramento is exposed to a pineapple express about once a decade, while New Orleans is a sitting duck for full-fledged hurricanes every year.

Sacramento can get all the flood control it needs much sooner and cheaper than it can waiting for an Auburn dam. Already planned improvements to Folsom Dam and the levees will handle a flood event 50 percent larger than any in the region's history.
- Terry Davis, Sacramento
Conservation Program Coordinator, Mother Lode Chapter, Sierra Club