The Dam Truth about California Water!

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” - Joseph Goebbels

By Dan Bacher

In the tradition of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger keeps repeating at his press conferences and meetings the big lie that no dams or water storage facilities have been constructed in California in the past 20 to 30 years. Apparently, Scharzenegger is hoping that if he repeats it enough, people will come to believe this lie. This fallacy is being used to bolster his call for a Peripheral Canal and more dams in California, although the truth is that several major dams and other storage facilities have been constructed during the last 30 years.

On July 14 at a town meeting in Bakersfield, the Governor stated, "Do you know that for 20 years, well, actually since the late '70s, they have not built a dam? I mean, think about that. They have not built a dam.”

Then on Monday, July 16, the Governor discussed his “Comprehensive Water Plan” at San Luis Reservoir, repeating this lie again. “But over the last 20 years we have not built a single major reservoir that connects to this great system here, even though we have a population growth from 20 million to 37 million people over the same period,” he said.
More recently, on July 28, Gov. Schwarzenegger toured Long Beach Aquifer to discuss his Water Plan for Southern California, yet again repeating another variation of this fallacy.

“Right now our water system is extremely vulnerable,” he stated. “For one thing, we haven’t built a major state reservoir in more than 30 years and in that time our population has grown from 20 million to 37 million. We must solve California’s water problems not only for today, but for 40 years from now.”

However, the objective reality is that a number of dams and reservoirs have been constructed in California since the late seventies, including some of the largest reservoirs in their respective regions.

The Contra Costa County Water District constructed one of the Bay Area’s largest ever reservoirs, Los Vaqueros near Livermore, during 1994-1997. The lake was filled to capacity and opened to recreation for the first time in September 2001. The lake has a capacity of 100,000 acre-feet of water now – and the reservoir is set for expansion in the future.