San Diego plans to pay an engineering firm $100 million over the next decade to thoroughly evaluate the city’s aging dams and create a strategy to prioritize and coordinate repairs and possible rebuild projects.
The strategic plan will include proposals to shore up every dam, including cost estimates and specific timelines. It will also evaluate safety risks and how much each dam upgrade would boost reservoir capacity.
Because four city dams have been deemed safety risks, the city has been forced by the state to reduce how much water they can hold. Those restrictions have lowered the city’s reservoir capacity by 20 percent.
