A quick search of this blog shows for at least 8 years I have been nagging CA policy-makers to build more reservoirs to store more runoff in the occasional wet winter. An article at POLITICO suggests at least some of the state’s Democrat supermajority may finally be taking the idea seriously.
We need to get over the idea that we can live in this world without modifying it to make it work better for us. That’s only true if we choose to live like an Amazonian tribe, doing the hunter-gatherer shtick. It is abundantly clear their lifestyle isn’t one most of us prefer.
The area where for 50 years I lived in California’s great Central Valley formerly flooded every spring. Dams on the Sacramento, American and Feather rivers made that flooding stop, plus provided irrigation water, hydroelectric power, and recreational opportunities. It’s hard to argue they shouldn’t have been built.
Let us once again emulate the industrious beaver and build dams, build more dams, and store more water. If some rivers no longer “run free,” and they won’t, it is a trade-off we can accept.
