Shake-up At California Agency After Critical Dam Report

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – California has restructured a key water agency in the wake of a scathing independent report on last year’s crisis at Oroville Dam. Changes announced Wednesday include naming a new director for the California Department of Water Resources. The agency manages Oroville Dam, where the collapse of two spillways last February forced evacuation orders for nearly 200,000 people. A report by national dam safety experts last week cited systemic and long-term failures at the state water agency as a factor in the near-disaster. California has named longtime water official Karla Nemeth in the new agency director. Other changes include creating a new deputy director job tasked with flood management, dam safety and dam operations. The dam-safety experts had said the water agency lacked a top executive in charge of dam safety.

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