CA officials have the power to fix the state’s riskiest dams. They’ve never used it

California’s dams — 57 of which are in poor or unsatisfactory condition — “continue to pose a risk to public safety” as an El Niño winter looms, warned the California State Auditor. In 2017, lawmakers gave California the power to punish dam owners if their infrastructure violated safety requirements. A recent audit found that the state has never used that power.

“The 40 riskiest dams — rated high or extremely high hazard — are located throughout the state, but cluster near densely populated coastal cities. Should these dams fail, the auditor reported, ‘they could collectively endanger as many as 1.5 million people and cause more than $265 billion in economic damage,’” Rachel Becker writes for Cal Matters.

San Diego, Los Angeles and the Bay Area are particularly vulnerable to dam failures. California engineers have notified the state of 44 dams that violate safety requirements, but the state has “has never taken punitive enforcement actions against dam owners that fail to remedy their violations,” the auditor wrote.