AGENDA 21 RADIO

CHICOER, EDITORIAL

“The bill is an insult. Emergency safety plans are made for the public, but the public can’t see them? The state says the plans are being kept secret because terrorists could use the plans to do harm. It defies common sense.”

The state agency in charge of Lake Oroville prefers secrecy, and it has an enabler in Gov. Jerry Brown. Now Democrats in the Legislature are on board, voting to keep the public in the dark.

We hoped elected officials would have endangered citizens in mind. Sadly, we were wrong.

There’s no good rationale for what the Assembly approved last week on a straight party-line vote. Senate Bill 92 requires that emergency response plans be developed but kept secret. The vote was 55-23, with only Democrats in favor.

The bill is an insult. Emergency safety plans are made for the public, but the public can’t see them? The state says the plans are being kept secret because terrorists could use the plans to do harm. It defies common sense.

Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, the only person in the 120-member Legislature who had to be evacuated from his home during the Oroville spillway crisis, chastised the deaf ears in the Assembly before Thursday’s vote.

Gallagher reminded legislators about the evacuation of 188,000 people downstream of the dam four months ago. He called it a “debacle in terms of how emergency action plans were carried out.” Gallagher noted that while state officials were dithering, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea stepped in and made the decision to evacuate.

The incident proved emergency action plans need to be updated. SB 92 would help in that regard.

“The problem is, in this bill, the public will be restricted from being able to view what these emergency action plans are,” Gallagher said. “So we’re going to improve them but we’re just not going to let you see them. And again they’re going to say, ‘Maybe somebody might be able to use this to commit a terrorist act.’

“I can tell you my constituents are more scared of the people operating and maintaining that dam than they are of terrorists right now.”

Gallagher cited several other reasons why he couldn’t support SB 92. He said the legislation didn’t go far enough to address dam safety and flood control issues. He pointed out the state Department of Water Resources is asking dam operators across the state to inspect their structures.

“We still don’t know what these inspections are going to entail,” Gallagher said. “So I guess we can expect more of the same inspections, the same ones that were done on Oroville Dam — and we saw what happened there.”

Gallagher also criticized fellow legislators for not funding repairs to levees through the general fund. The state seems willing to wait for a disaster to happen, then pay the bill, he said.

Gallagher went on for more than four minutes until the Assembly leader intoned, “Thirty seconds, Mr. Gallagher.”

Gallagher wrapped it up concisely: “This is a cultural problem (culture in the DWR) that we need to address in this state and it’s the Legislature that’s going to have to demand it because the administration is doing nothing. They want to just say, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’re taking care of it.’ We’re doing the repairs up there but we’re not really changing how we’re doing business. It’s not acceptable to my constituents. I urge a ‘no’ vote on this budget bill.”

The vote was a quick “yes.” Shut off the spigot of water from Lake Oroville and maybe Democratic legislators to the south might care about what’s going on up here.