Also... California passed a bill in 2014 to pay for more water storage... But guess what? 10 years, not one project has even started.
'Devastating': California had record rainfall last year, but lacked infrastructure to store it
Water and energy policy expert pushes back against Gov Gavin Newsom's wildfire rhetoric: 'It's all political'
California's fire crisis stems from outdated water systems and poor forestry management, critics argue, with progressive politics thwarting realistic solutions.
www.foxnews.com
"They bring water in off of the California Aqueduct, and they import water into Los Angeles, and they haven't brought enough in there, and their reservoirs are depleted," Ring said. "But the biggest problem, because you're not going to drain even a half-full reservoir fighting a fire, is the water infrastructure in Los Angeles, and the water infrastructure in Los Angeles has been neglected. And the reason it's been neglected is that they want the money for other projects."
"The bottom line is they haven't spent money on it, and they've justified that by saying, we have to use less water," he continued. "And so they've been encouraging people, and in some cases, rationing, or even forcing people to use less water. And as a result, you don't have a system that's as robust."
One recent ex-California lawmaker said the state's lack of water infrastructure is "devastating California."
California voters passed Proposition 1 in 2014, also known as the Water Quality, Supply and Infrastructure Improvement Act, which authorized $2.7 billion in bonds to increase the state's water storage capacity through building new reservoirs and groundwater storage facilities. Yet as of January 2025, no new reservoirs have been completed under Prop. 1.
"And here it's been all these years, and we haven't done a shovel full of dirt to move to make the project," Dahle said. "The project is just not funded, and we had $100 billion in surplus, and we didn't fund it. And so that's the frustrating part, I think, for most Californians, is that when we had the money, and we didn't do anything about it."
Come on dude... What else you got. Like I said. I work in this industry. My former company (before it was bought out by Kiewit), did a ton of work in California. It's always been a nightmare to construct these projects there. The Environmental groupss are fucking insane and have paralyzed the state's attempt in improve infrasture. Even after projects are approved and bidded out, they're constantly suing them and stopping them in their tracks.
The State of California needs to tell these fucks to go fuck themselves and ignore them. And now.... here you go.
Texas is going gangbuster with water projects right now. Especially after the massive influx of people starting in 2020. I worked on the City of Houston's latest new Water Treatment Plant and am currently working on the pump stations and massive water storage tanks to distribute it. The new water plant (NorthEast WPP) was the largest project of its kind in the US. And was fast tracked...
I've posted about all this previously... lol.