http://www.californiadroughtupdate.org/pdf/20170608-California-Drought-(and-Flood)-Update.pdf
A Note To Readers
About a year and one-half ago as the California Water Resources Board and other water authorities were facing a water emergency and reversed the flow of the Delta-Mendota canal, I wrote that the entire California water management system was now like a juggler attempting to keep too many balls in the air– he will fail. Something in the California system will break, sooner or later, I wrote. In February the Oroville Dam spillway broke. But really, it was not the spillway that broke, the entire system is broken. Oroville Dam is just the most visible element of that broken system. Thus, the quote above points to the principle that unless you approach the question of infrastructure as a system, not piece by piece, only then will it be possible to build that which is required today, and more importantly, what will be required by at least two generations to come. Jason Ross’s article will be again featured in my report next week.
I have rewritten the article I posted last week on Oroville Dam, “Oroville Dam Catastrophe: Once Again, A Wake-Up Call For the Nation,” and it will be found immediately below.
Then following our obligatory U.S. Drought Monitor and Reservoir Graph, the rest of this report includes more reports from Oroville Dam, the Huntington Beach desalination plant, warnings of rationing from the waters of the Colorado River and more warnings of an intense fire season this summer and fall.
These reports are followed by items on President Trump’s infrastructure policy and his withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, with both areas set in the context of real physical economy.
A new section, “From the Archives” concludes this week’s report.
