LeeAnneDra Marchese

A 47-foot-wide hole in one California dam’s spillway has reportedly gone unrepaired for more than 30 years. With an El Niño winter approaching, an audit found 57 dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition. Share this anyone who follows California water and flood safety. Story link in first comment. California State Auditor’s Report 2025-603 (released around mid-October 2026) found that, as of May 2026, 57 of the state’s roughly 1,222 jurisdictional dams were in poor or unsatisfactory condition. Of those, 40 carry high or extremely high hazard ratings. The auditor warned that failures of the riskiest ones could collectively endanger as many as 1.5 million people and cause more than $265 billion in economic damage, with many clustered near the Bay Area, San Diego, and Los Angeles areas. Repair costs for dams in less-than-satisfactory condition were estimated at around $28 billion. The report specifically noted one dam with a 47-foot-wide hole in its spillway that has gone unrepaired for more than 30 years. The audit said this could cause flooding affecting nearly 300 people and more than $88 million in damage. The dam is not named, with state water officials citing security concerns (though condition and hazard ratings for individual dams are published in annual reports). Context includes the approaching El Niño winter and potential for heavy rains. The Department of Water Resources has had expanded enforcement authority (reservoir restrictions, liens, fines, etc.) since 2017 legislation after the Oroville spillway near-failure, but the audit found it has never taken punitive enforcement actions despite referring owners of dozens of dams. Staffing, funding, and other constraints were cited. Many issues stem from aging infrastructure built under older standards and owners’ inability to fund repair