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The Placer County Water Agency has given itself a well-earned, 50th
birthday pat on the back while saluting Auburn’s Bruce McCreary, the
civil engineer credited with selling county officials on the idea of
building what has become the PCWA’s crown jewel: the Middle Fork
American River hydroelectric project.
PCWA Honors Bruce McCreary — Lowell Jarvis, right, board chairman of the Placer County Water Agency, is shown with Bruce McCreary, the civil engineer whose vision more than a half-century ago resulted in the PCWA’s Middle Fork American River hydroelectric project, which was built at no cost to county taxpayers. McCreary, who turned 90 last month, was a special guest at the PCWA’s golden anniversary party.
Congressman John Doolittle and State Senator Dave Cox were among the
more than 175 persons who attended the agency’s golden anniversary open
house at PCWA headquarters on Ferguson Road in Auburn last Thursday.
Doolittle’s presence was especially welcomed by PCWA officials
because of his help in securing millions of federal dollars needed to
complete construction by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation of the agency’s
long-overdue permanent pump station on the American River below Auburn.
Cox has been a staunch PCWA supporter in the State Legislature for
years.
Each of the five agency directors — Board Chairman Lowell Jarvis,
senior board member Otis Wollan, Alex Ferreira, Mike Lee and Gray Allen
— took turns talking about the PCWA’s past, present and future. Dave
Breninger, the agency’s general manager since 1992, emceed the event.
Others on hand included former State Senator Paul Lunardi, who
helped get the Middle Fork project moving 43 years ago; Christine
Rydell, representing State Senator Sam Aanestad; Adam Willoughby of
Assemblyman Ted Gaines’s staff; Placer County Supervisors Jim Holmes,
Bruce Kranz, Kirk Uhler, Robert Weygandt and Rocky Rockholm; former
Supervisor and ex-Auburn Mayor George Beland; Bob Snyder, Auburn’s
current mayor; former Supervisors Bill Briner and Jim Williams; former
PCWA Directors Ross Riolo, Ed Horton, Pauline Roccucci and Walter
Fickewirth; and Tim Woodall, Eric Peach, Jim Howell and Gary Estes of
Preserve American River Canyons.
Ed Tiedemann, the agency’s attorney for four decades, introduced McCreary, who at 90 is still tall, tan and ruggedly handsome.
Never one to hog a stage, McCreary, a Stanford grad and U.S. Navy
veteran of World War II whose colorful career has ranged from gold
mining in Mexico’s bandito country to building airports, highways and
dams in a score of countries, thanked the agency for acknowledging the
role he played in launching the Middle Fork project in the late 1950s.
He paid special tribute to deceased Supervisors Frank Paoli, John
Boyington, Bob Radovich, J.O. Anderson and L.L. Anderson, who got the
late Assemblyman Francis Lindsay to carry the legislation that resulted
in the establishment of the PCWA in 1957. And then he sat down.
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A Happy Congressman — Rep. John Doolittle, center, greeted dozens of constituents who attended the Placer County Water Agency’s 50th anniversary celebration on September 13. He was flanked by Placer County Air Pollution Control Officer Tom Christofk, left, and District 5 County Supervisor Bruce Kranz.
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