FRIANT, Calif. — In the crucial days before the New Year's floods, as rains pounded the state and a whopper storm approached, federal dam operators on the San Joaquin River stockpiled precious irrigation water rather than make room for the coming deluge.
When the predicted onslaught hit, they were forced to make an emergency release of flood water from Friant Dam that broke through levees downstream, and they nearly lost control of the dam. "We came that close," said Tony Buelna, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation veteran who oversees the dam above Fresno.
Was the delay in relieving Friant a mistake that flooded thousands of acres of farmland along the San Joaquin and risked a full-on catastrophe, or did the operators act prudently to save water in a state prone to drought?
The question is being pressed by politicians, farmers, environmentalists and lawyers as runoff from Friant and the nearby New Don Pedro Dam continues to inflict havoc in the valley and in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
It is an inquiry likely to echo this weekend as edgy dam operators brace for another monster storm that could unleash a new round of flooding. This time, though, dams are making significant releases in anticipation of heavy runoff out of the saturated Sierra Nevada.
A reconstruction of the crucial days and hours preceding the New Year's deluge and resulting levee breaks, based on records and extensive interviews, reveals a telling mind-set. Seared by years of drought and complaints from farmers about shortages of irrigation water, some dam operators opted to hoard rather than make room for flood control, even as the state meteorologist predicted a storm of historic weight.
"I'm a water marketer," Buelna said. "Almost all of our water is sold to farmers. . . . We were in a conservation mode."
Buelna said the wish to save water for the long summer ahead did not compromise Friant Dam's ability to prevent flooding. No one could have anticipated the storm's fury, he said, and even if early releases had been made, they would have done little to soften the effects of the flood waters.
But some hydrologists who have studied what flowed in and out of Friant Dam before the storm say that the Bureau of Reclamation could have averted major flooding through prudent early releases.
Phil Williams, a Bay Area hydrologist who has worked for environmental groups and the federal government, said five days of releases at 8,000 cubic feet per second would have cleared enough space behind the dam to handle the storm's brunt.
