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At whose cost?

WHERE dams are concerned, the most ridiculous arguments are put forward by their proponents. The most expensive dam in the US history is proposed to be built on the American river in California. The Auburn dam is awaiting nod from the Congress. The dam is supposedly being built to protect the Sacramento region from floods, that even the dam's proponents say, is likely to occur about 6nce every five centuries. The dam is designed to last only one century.

The environmental damages include the destruction of up to 80.45 km of deep, richly forested canyons that provide habitat for wildlife and support recreation for 500,000 people a year. The high cost of the dam would mean that citizens across the nation, many of whom live with far more serious flood threats than what the American river poses, would pay 75 per cent of its nearly US $1 billion cost. Proponents of the dam argue that this enormous investment would save us $16 billion in future flood damage costs.

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