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   From: morons@sfchronicle.com   
      
   "A near-disaster in California probably wouldn’t be averted by   
   the kind of privatized investment that the president has in   
   mind."   
      
   Tens of thousands of residents fled Oroville, California, on   
   Sunday after water levels surged over a spillway at the Oroville   
   Dam. Traffic jams reigned on highways leading north from   
   Oroville, where officials ordered people to evacuate at 4:45 p.m.   
      
   Oroville families, who made their way to the Silver Dollar   
   Fairgrounds in Chico and other staging areas, face uncertainty   
   in the coming days. By late Sunday night, water from Lake   
   Oroville was no longer rushing over the top of the dam’s   
   emergency spillway, thanks to efforts by California water   
   authorities to increase the flow of water out of the reservoir.   
   But the spillways sustained damage during Sunday’s flooding.   
   Officials are attempting to measure that damage as they consider   
   next steps.   
      
   “The dam is solid,” said Bill Croyle, acting director for the   
   California state Department of Water Resources, during a press   
   conference. “The control structure has been damaged.”   
      
   The problems started last Tuesday, when a hole opened up in the   
   Oroville Dam’s primary spillway. The collapse in this main,   
   concrete-lined spillway led authorities to take an unprecedented   
   step by the end of the week, as heavy storms mounted. On   
   Saturday, the state water agency opened up the dam’s emergency   
   spillway for the first time ever. Its collapse would have sent a   
   “30-foot wall of water” crashing out of the lake reservoir,   
   according to the Los Angeles Times. The emergency spillway, also   
   described as the auxiliary spillway, is more or less a hill that   
   drains down into the Feather River.   
      
   Sunday’s floodwaters proved too much for the emergency spillway.   
   The hill suffered erosion so severe that it threatened to   
   undermine a concrete portion running over the top of the   
   spillway. Had this part of the emergency spillway failed as   
   waters rushed over it, it would have spelled disaster for   
   communities downstream—a threat that prompted Sunday’s   
   evacuation order.   
      
   The Department of Water Resources succeeded in tamping down the   
   water levels and saving the emergency spillway by increasing the   
   outflow of the main spillway—despite its giant gash—from 55,000   
   cubic feet per second to 100,000 cubic feet per second on   
   Sunday. Asking more of the main, compromised flood-control   
   structure, however, was not a decision without risks, especially   
   for the dam’s Hyatt Powerplant.   
      
   “It was a tough call to make,” Croyle said. “It was the right   
   call to make to protect the public.”   
      
   Croyle said that the agency hopes to drain 1.2 million acre feet   
   of water from the reservoir on Monday and draw down water levels   
   by 50 feet. This will be a tall order, even if the dry weather   
   holds.   
      
   The heavy storms in Northern California that precipitated the   
   flooding herald the very beginning of what promises to be a wet   
   season for California. When the snowpack begins to melt, the   
   Oroville Dam’s spillways will need to be in good working order   
   to protect communities downstream. Oroville may have escaped the   
   worst, but the crisis is not yet over. And a near-disaster in   
   Oroville could still augur other crises the U.S. will face if it   
   does not make good on the deferred maintenance costs of its   
   aging infrastructure.   
      
   For the more than 100,000 residents who were forced to evacuate   
   their communities, this crisis was long in the making. In 2005,   
   three environmental organizations—the Friends of the River, the   
   South Yuba Citizens League, and the Sierra Club—warned federal   
   officials that the earthen emergency spillway wasn’t capable of   
   handling extreme flooding. But on the recommendation of state   
   officials who balked at the cost of paving the emergency   
   spillway, the feds tabled the matter, The Mercury News reports.   
      
   Nationwide, the federal government has invested relatively   
   little on dams and levees. The 2009 stimulus bill provided $290   
   million for flood-prevention projects and another $490 million   
   for repairing infrastructure projects, including dams, on Native   
   American reservations. The federal government spends at least as   
   much on flood recovery as it does on flood prevention.   
      
   Just before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, President   
   Barack Obama managed to attach his name to a major water   
   infrastructure spending initiative. In December, Obama signed   
   the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act into   
   law, authorizing hundreds of millions of dollars for water   
   infrastructure projects around the country. The bill further   
   enables the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to pursue certain   
   prescribed projects, including the construction of levees in the   
   Sacramento River floodplain (which entails the Feather River).   
      
   One provision under the bill that may pertain to the Oroville   
   Dam is a section that calls on the administrator of the Federal   
   Emergency Management Agency to establish a grant program for   
   identifying and rehabilitating “high hazard potential dams.” Of   
   the nation’s 87,359 dams (as of 2013), about 17 percent (14,726   
   dams) are classified as high hazard potential—meaning that   
   failure would result in loss of human life.   
      
   This index only reflects the consequences of dam failure, not   
   the circumstances of dams; so it does not mean that 17 percent   
   of dams are in failing condition. But if any of these dams does   
   fail, the effects are bound to be catastrophic.   
      
   The Oroville Dam is working as expected. Even so, the failure of   
   peripheral dam structures—one or both of the spillways—could   
   have disastrous consequences for the economy and environment.   
   State and federal officials passed on the opportunity to take   
   preventative action to upgrade these structures, improvements   
   that would have cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars.   
   Now that both spillways have sustained damage, the improvements   
   are instead damage control. The costs to communities are still   
   being tolled.   
      
   Upgrading the Oroville Dam spillways isn’t a project that fits   
   neatly into Trump’s $1 trillion prescription for infrastructure   
   spending. So far, Trump’s plan largely means privatizing   
   infrastructure development through the use of tax credits.   
   Armoring the Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway isn’t the kind of   
   investment likely to lure profit-minded private developers.   
      
   But this work is absolutely necessary to protect communities   
   near dams—to say nothing of the bridges, water pipes, and other   
   aging systems that serve Americans. If infrastructure investment   
   in the Trump era means widening highways and nothing more,   
   communities will pay dearly once the bill comes due for the   
   projects the government neglects.   
      
   http://www.citylab.com/politics/2017/02/oroville-dam-flooding-   
   california-infrastructure/516417/   
      
   --   
   More than a decade ago, federal and state officials and some of   
      
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