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   From: morons@sfchronicle.com   
      
   No, humans cannot make it rain, stop the rain, or produce real   
   rainbows in the sky. But we can do things that protect ourselves   
   from the rain and get it to work for our agriculture and overall   
   economy. And it's clearer than ever that Californians have   
   simply failed to do those things as the Oroville Dam crisis   
   continues to force massive evacuations and raises fears of a   
   potential disaster.   
      
   When we talk about America's need for an improved and repaired   
   infrastructure, we usually focus on roads, airports, and   
   innovative new projects like the Hyperloop. But we often forget   
   the crucial role dams play in our infrastructure grid. When   
   built and used properly, dams provide crucial clean water   
   resources for commercial and private use, ease the effects and   
   threats of flooding, and also provide a massive source of power   
   via hydroelectricity.   
      
   The Oroville Dam in Northern California was built to do all   
   those things, and it has. But there's one problem: It's old. The   
   dam was first put into operation in May of 1968, making the   
   nearly 50-year-old facility basically "geriatric" by civil   
   engineering standards. And even if it weren't as old,   
   California's environmental special interest groups have   
   effectively frozen the construction of new dams and reservoirs   
   in the state since the mid-1970s. That's overtaxed the system of   
   existing dams and made the Oroville situation all the more   
   dangerous.   
      
   Before this year, the discussion in California about dams was   
   dominated by the fact that the state was experiencing a drought,   
   as opposed to the continued storms and flooding its facing now.   
   Conservatives rightly pointed out that had California built more   
   dams over the last 40 years, there would have been more water   
   stored throughout the state to alleviate the worst conditions of   
   its recent long term and severe drought. Governor Jerry Brown   
   helped put an effective moratorium on dam construction during   
   his first stint as governor from 1975-83.   
      
   Yes, there are some real concerns about fish and other wildlife   
   that must be addressed whenever new dams or reservoirs are   
   built. But with California's human population swelling to 40   
   million, (up from 23 million in 1980), the lack of any   
   significant new dam or reservoir projects in the more rain-heavy   
   northern part of the state is beyond unconscionable.   
      
   Brown and the greens were correct that dams don't stop droughts   
   or make it rain, but they can help make conditions less severe   
   and avoid some economic and environmental disasters. Now the   
   problem is the massive rain coming all at once. But the lack of   
   enough dams is again making the problem worse. The Oroville Dam   
   has simply been doing too much of the work for too long. More   
   dams and reservoirs as well as systems to recharge depleted   
   underground aquifers "might have retained some of those heavy   
   flows on the Sacramento and other rivers this month. Even a tiny   
   percentage would make a huge difference when drought once again   
   hits," said opinion writer Dan Walters in an article for the   
   Sacramento Bee.   
      
   "And that brings us back to America's general infrastructure   
   crisis and President Donald Trump's promises to launch a massive   
   infrastructure improvement effort. He and we may not think a lot   
   about dams in that context, but we should since the greatest   
   infrastructure building period in modern U.S. history was all   
   about dams."   
      
   Overzealous environmentalists and Democrats are mostly to blame   
   for inaction, but not completely. Capitalizing on Republican   
   President Richard Nixon's signing of the 1973 Endangered Species   
   Act, animal rights groups used that new weapon to block several   
   key California projects like building the once-planned Dos Rios   
   and Ah Pah reservoirs, raising the Shasta Dam, and building the   
   so-called Peripheral Canal. Ecologists and economic   
   expansionists can debate the merits of sacrificing human water   
   needs for protecting salmon all day. But perhaps they can all   
   agree that the state of California should have done something to   
   cater to a population that's almost doubled in less than half a   
   lifetime. Either the state should have enacted much more   
   stringent usage rules long ago or done something to stem the   
   inflow of new residents.   
      
   Another problem with plenty of bipartisan blame to go around is   
   California's budget woes. All the above-mentioned projects are   
   cheaper than most other infrastructure projects like building   
   massive new roads or high speed railways, but they still aren't   
   free. And neither Democratic or Republican governors of the   
   Golden State have been able to keep its budgets very golden over   
   the years.   
      
   And that brings us back to America's general infrastructure   
   crisis and President Donald Trump's promises to launch a massive   
   infrastructure improvement effort. He and we may not think a lot   
   about dams in that context, but we should since the greatest   
   infrastructure building period in modern U.S. history was all   
   about dams. That would be the New Deal era of the 1930s and   
   1940s, when dams comprised the two biggest infrastructure   
   projects of the era. They were the Grand Coulee Dam and the   
   Hoover Dam. They both employed tens of thousands of workers,   
   provided irrigation for new farmland, and produced enough   
   electricity to power entire regions of the country. More than 70   
   years later, all three of those things are still needed.   
      
   As President Trump now faces what may be tens of thousands of   
   infrastructure project requests, the current emergency situation   
   in California should put dam and reservoir building efforts   
   front and center. That might seem like a no-brainer to non-   
   politicos, but politics are definitely a potential barrier. With   
   California not likely to ever vote for a Republican presidential   
   candidate in the foreseeable future, anything other than   
   emergency aid from the White House might also never come. And   
   President Trump has already threatened to cut federal funding to   
   "out of control" California in an interview with Bill O'Reilly   
   earlier this month. Infrastructure shouldn't be held hostage by   
   politics, but who's naive enough to believe it isn't?   
      
   In medicine, the first rule is "do no harm." And when it comes   
   to building and rebuilding America, the first rule should be to   
   avoid the worst disasters. Whether it's the Oroville Dam or   
   collapsing bridges like I-35 bridge in Minneapolis 10 years ago,   
   there are a lot of potential disasters that need to be on the   
   top of President Trump's building plans. If the new president is   
   truly the non-politician he often claims to be, addressing   
   California's water fiascoes will indeed be infrastructure job #1.   
      
   http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/13/californias-oroville-dam-disaster-   
   is-a-wake-up-call-commentary.html   
      
   --   
   More than a decade ago, federal and state officials and some of   
   California’s largest water agencies rejected concerns that the   
      
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