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This winter’s record-breaking storms have proven a fierce test of our state and its infrastructure. It has has been particularly frightening for people in and around the city of Oroville. We’d first like to say how glad we are that hundreds of thousands of people were able to safely evacuate and the emergency spillway helped provide the necessary time to do so. And we share their relief at being able to return to their homes. Now that the immediate danger is passed, we can take a more thoughtful look at what happened.

In 2014, California voters approved a $7.5 billion bond that would go to several water projects. So far, only 2 percent of the money has been used, and the rest has been sitting in a fund, untapped. In light of the Oroville Dam scare in early February, lawmakers are looking to focus their attention on flood management projects, such as fixing old dams and maybe building new ones. However, some are hoping lawmakers will look over the lowest-priority projects and instead focus on water storage with all the recent precipitation.

Operators of Oroville Dam – the nation’s highest – shut down its main spillway Monday so that debris could be cleared and the dam’s hydroelectric turbines could be restarted. It was merely the latest of many operational adjustments state and federal officials have made this year to cope with an unprecedented series of rain and snow storms that swept through the state, putting maximum pressure on its complex system of dams, reservoirs, river channels, canals, bypasses, weirs and other man-made water-control devices. By necessity, they operated on the fly as conditions changed, often suddenly, with Oroville being the centerpiece.