[Danimal16]

Originally Posted by daepp

A great op-ed in the LA Times by Victor Davis Hanson, 6th generation Californium, grape farmer and professor of the classics:

"The crisis at Oroville is a third act in the state’s history: One majestic generation built great dams, a second enjoyed them while they aged, and a third fiddles as they now erode."

The Oroville Dam disaster is yet another example of California's decline - LA Times

Having spent my civilian engineering career in wet utilities, this LA Times article is worth the read.

Over the course of 30 years doing this stuff, the one hot button term that we should vehemently despise is "deferred maintenance". The above article also discusses the role of false narratives and failure to complete the facilities as originally sized. It is down right depressing.

Maintenance of existing facilities is not glamorous. Politicians and other power brokers hide maintenance in order to draw attention and fund their pet projects; projects that are "shiny and new". These reprobates also know that when the degradation of facilities can no longer be ignored; they will be ten to twenty years long gone.

Leaders and other civic minded men and women understand the importance of maintenance and repair of infrastructure.

So the next time some politician utters the words "deferred maintenance" shoot em.