The Oroville Dam in northern california was built to help with #clean water provision for domestic and mass business use. It also assists with floods and hydroelectricity.
There's one problem – according to CNBC columnist Jake Novak, who pointed it out on Monday: The #dam is rather (and that's understating it) old. In operation since May of 1968, this means it's pretty much over the hill, or geriatric by engineering standards.
And experts are at a loss at how to fix this situation.
Novak claims that #California's environmental interest and lobby groups have essentially gotten in the way, and halted the build of new dams since around the mid-1970s. He blames these groups for the current situation.
Rain, rain, not droughts
Before this year, people were discussing dams in the context of drought, not the current and recent floods. Governor Jerry Brown helped put an effective ban on the new builds of dams in his first stint as governor from 1975-83, Novak writes.
With California's population growing from 23 to 40 million in the last thirty years, Novak finds the lack of new dam projects in the #rainy northern California area unconscionable.
He claims that either the state should have placed stricter usage rules many years ago – or done something to restrict the curb the number of new residents, which is an interesting and potentially radical suggestion in the current immigration debate.