First, there was Donald Trump’s executive order to release billions of gallons of water from two reservoirs in California’s Central valley, a move the feds walked back after farmers and water experts decried it as wasteful, ill-conceived – and an unnecessary risk factor for levees in the region. … (T)he condition of California’s levees is, by and large, already precarious. On its 2019 infrastructure report card, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the state’s levees a “D”, citing that despite significant investments, much more work was needed to rehabilitate and improve them. With more rain in the forecast, here’s what to know about California’s levees.

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