OPINION: Overhaul California’s Water System With 21st Century Flood Solutions

The dramatic spillway failure at Oroville Dam sparked a national conversation around the status of dams throughout the West. But dams are just one small part of the “gray” infrastructure designed to control flows, hem in rivers and transport water around the state. California’s flood and water-management system needs an overhaul to address everything from eroding levees to parched Central Valley aquifers and collapsing ecosystems.