Margaret S. Petersen
Was that a big change for you, or was it something you had been working with a little bit
already?
We (the hydraulics branch) were responsible for many design memos [design
A:
memorandums] on the Arkansas and the dams included some economics. Certainly, I
worked a lot with costs, less with benefits. But the economics section in Sacramento was
in the planning branch and they were directly responsible for the detailed economic studies.
So you had worked very closely with them on your
A:
Yes.
Morrison Creek Stream Group Study
Now, when this work that you were doing on the Sacramento didn't go through, what did you
move on to?
A:
In the meantime, I was also working on the Morrison Creek Stream Group study in the
Sacramento area. This is the other study I started soon after I went to Sacramento. The City
of Sacramento is leveed all along the American River and along the Sacramento River, and
the area south of the American River is drained by two systems of small streams. The
streams originate in the foothills and at the toe of the Sierras and drain out through borrow
pits and small lakes along a railroad running along the east bank of the Sacramento River,
and eventually into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This was a local flood protection
study.
About the time we finished initial studies of the Morrison Creek basin, at the end of 1969,
NEPA was passed. Sacramento County had a plan for urban development in the lower basin,
and conservationists were strongly opposed to such development. I'm not sure what has
happened in recent years. The project was authorized for construction in about 1976, but I
don't know if or when construction funds were allocated for it. In the meantime, Sacramento
County constructed segments of the project, based on the Corps' plan, as the basin became
urbanized. The original plan included a small flood control reservoir, but the reservoir was
not constructed, and the area is all urban now. The county required developers in the basin
to make a contribution for infrastructure, including drainage. The county acquired one large
track of land in the lower basin, in the Beach-Stone Lakes area for a county park.
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