California’s price tag could be $50B for flood-control infrastructure

WASHINGTON — California faces an estimated $50 billion price tag for roads, dams and other infrastructure threatened by floods such as the one that severely damaged Oroville Dam.

Nearly 200,000 people were evacuated three weeks ago amid fears of a catastrophic flood.

That’s according to California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird, who says proposals by Gov. Jerry Brown for $387 million for flood control and emergency response were “an important start” but fall far short of the amount needed to address flood projects statewide.

Testifying at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Laird said California is experiencing what is likely its wettest year ever, with severe winter storms bringing torrential rain and significant snow after five years of drought.

Damage to California’s highways is estimated at nearly $600 million.

California water authorities stopped the flow of water down the Oroville Dam’s crippled spillway Monday, allowing workers to start clearing out massive debris that’s blocking a hydroelectric plant from working.

Water will not be released for the next five to seven days, in the hopes that workers can remove between 500,000 and 1 million cubic yards of debris by barge and excavator, said Lauren Bisnett, spokeswoman with the Department of Water Resources.

“That is certainly the goal,” she said. “They’ve got to get down and see what’s going on.”

Water managers turned to the emergency spillway for the first time in the 48-year history of the country’s tallest dam after a chunk of concrete tore out the main spillway following heavy rains. But the flow of water ripped through a road below and carved out deep chasms in the ground.