Time to build, not conserve

Re “Where our storm water goes,” editorial, March 21

However well intentioned, Southern California’s early “flood control” efforts led to the drained aquifers of today.

I literally teethed on this subject. My grandfather spent the majority of his career as an engineer on water projects starting from the Roosevelt Dam in 1911 through Grand Coulee in 1943, including the Central Valley Project, the Owens Valley project, the State Water Project and the Colorado River Project.

Raise the Shasta Dam? Engineers design dams, not politicians. Shasta was carefully designed to maximize water retention and still remain stable. Raising the dam’s height could create an unsustainable structure.

Many and varied solutions need to be applied, from refurbishing and maintaining the projects that we have, revising the ones that retard water retention, and building carefully conceived projects to enhance retention. All projects must have locked-in funds for continued maintenance.

Decades of deferred maintenance and complacency must be reversed now (witness the near disaster of the Oroville Dam last year). We have gone beyond a crisis situation, and we require leadership and action, not conversation.

Harvey Cordner

Pasadena