Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Levee Failure: Yes It can Happen Here (In California)

Just in case you think it's only the stupid bureaucrats in Louisiana who don't bother maintaining levees, here is Dan Walters' Sacramento Bee column this week about the levees in the California Central Valley that protect our water supply, our farmlands, and increasingly, new developments put there despite warnings "about the dangers of building homes behind levees designed to protect farmland."

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/13507710p-14348277c.html
(requires free registration)

Dan goes on:
"But [State Reclamation Board] warnings are largely ignored by local officials who are eager to approve new subdivisions and know that they won't be held liable should levees fail. It exemplifies the disconnnect between authority and accountability that permeats California's state and local governments on dozens of specific issues."

Not only California, Dan. The world over.

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