Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Interview With Richard Welsh Of The U.S. Bureau Of Reclamation: Raising The Height Of Shasta Dam

Bureau of Reclamation
/
Flickr Creative Commons

Drilling work is underway at Shasta Dam where federal officials trying to determine how realistic and how expensive it would be to increase the capacity of the largest reservoir in California. The $1.4 billion plan would add another eighteen and a half feet to the dam. Any higher would create pricey issues at the Pit River Bridge. 

 

NSPR’s Marc Albert spoke with Richard Welsh, construction engineer for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, who’s in charge of the project. It turns out, a higher dam is far from a new idea. Welsh said officials scaled back plans during construction due to labor and material shortages at the outbreak of World War II. Welsh was asked to describe the work currently underway.