Editorial: Sexual misconduct at the Metropolitan Water District hints at deeper problems – 3/8/21
…Environmentalists and people living and working in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta bristle at disrespect exhibited at MWD board meetings and in negotiations over projects such as the proposed tunnel to bring Sacramento River water around, rather than through, the delta on its journey south. The link between that mistreatment and the abuse of female employees was described in an extraordinary post by Restore the Delta Executive Director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla.
The Times story notes that three MWD directors who demanded an independent investigation of the sexual abuse were removed from the board.
As the organization seeks a new leader and a new direction, it should acknowledge the sexual abuse that has been inappropriately tolerated in its ranks, and that is rooted in the sort of arrogance that was admired in the 20th century but is out of place in the 21st.…
The Most Vulnerable Levees In The Nation Have A Lot In Common – Newsy 3/7/21
The U.S. levee system — once considered the second largest piece of the country’s infrastructure “rivaled only by the highway system” — is now nearly a century old and failing inspections far more often than it passes them. Only one in 25 federal levees are rated Acceptable.
Newsy’s data analysis of the National Levee Database in the spring of 2020 focused on two things: the status of the overall infrastructure and finding the nation’s most vulnerable levees.
In the federal portfolio of levees, the most common inspection rating is Minimally Acceptable (57.1%). It means at least one part of the levee doesn’t meet standards, but should survive a flood. Unacceptable ratings (38.7%) — meaning the levee isn’t expected to perform as intended in a flood — are far more common than Acceptable ratings (4.2%)….