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Re “California Legislature votes to keep dam-safety plans secret” (sacbee.com, June 15): There was nothing secret about the new dam safety legislation. Far from slipping the bill into the public domain as suggested, the language was posted on March 8, shared with Republican and Democratic staff in the Senate and the Assembly on March 10, and raised in budget subcommittee hearings on March 16 and 22. The Bee misinterpreted the intent of the legislation. It improves public safety by requiring all dam owners to create emergency action plans. It clarifies which information in those plans should not be disclosed, such as home phone numbers.

When it comes to managing water in uncertain times, few things are more important than knowing how much is flowing in the river alongside your city, or filling the reservoir that irrigates local farms. That information is crucial to deciding how much water is available to irrigate crops, whether to declare a flood emergency or whether to launch a lazy rafting excursion. But this basic information is at risk across the West because the nation lacks a reliable funding source for the simple stream gages that measure river flows.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s push to expedite planning and construction of the twin tunnels project in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta violates key parts of the Delta Reform Act of 2009 and has the state Department of Water Resources abdicating its responsibilities by turning over management of the project to water agencies, the Legislative Delta Caucus charged Tuesday in a letter to the governor. “The governor’s proposed WaterFix Project is a boondoggle, plain and simple,” said Assemblyman Jim Frazier, D-Solano, who co-chairs the Caucus with State Senator Bill Dodd, D-Healdsbur.