"Climate Change Erodes Thin Safety Margins At California Dam"

The heavier rains that could accompany climate change are raising serious concerns about whether California's Trinity Dam can safely handle them.

"As catastrophe loomed at Northern California's Oroville Dam in February, Tom Stokely's mind drifted 140 miles north to another troubled behemoth.

Stokely watched as nearly 200,000 residents were evacuated below Oroville when the emergency spillway America's tallest dam began to erode, threatening to unleash a 30-foot wall of water.

'I thought, "Boy, they are a lot better off than at Trinity!"' Stokely said, referring to Oroville's cousin to the north, Trinity Dam.

'At least they've got an emergency spillway.'

Stokely, 61, is the former natural resources planner for Trinity County, where a 538-foot earthen monolith impounds California's third-largest reservoir."

Jeremy P. Jacobs reports for Greenwire May 8, 2017.