Californians are accustomed to living through wet times and dry times, but lately things are getting more extreme and much more difficult to predict. After five years of severe drought, Californians are now talking about what it means to have too much water at once. The end of the drought is a blessing, but the state may need to find $50 billion to repair dams, roads and other infrastructure threatened by floods. The damaged spillway at Oroville dam highlighted what happens when the state doesn’t keep its water system in good working order.

How is California preparing for the whiplash of going from really dry to really wet years? What will it take to fix the system that delivers the water that keeps us alive and lubricates our economy? How will the state and federal governments work together to modernize the water system that grows food that lands on dinner tables across the country?

This program is made possible by support from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation.

Guests:

Don Cameron, General Manager, Terranova Ranch Inc.

Felicia Marcus, Chair, State Water Resources Control Board

Buzz Thompson, Director, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University

This program was recorded live at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on May 24, 2017.

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