It is a simple question really: How much is the massive repair project below Lake Oroville costing each day. Simple or not, it has been appallingly difficult to get it answered.

Representatives of our newspaper group have been asking how much the crisis at the dam is costing and, oh yes, who’s picking up the tab? The reporters have asked how many state employees are working, how many contractors are employed and what it costs for all the equipment.

When the state first said it could cost $100 million to $200 million to repair the broken spillway, we thought the figures were way low. But getting concrete (pardon the pun) answers out of the state Department of Water Resources is a challenge. It has been for years.

We’ve been asking for weeks. The answers are never immediate and when they have come they are often incomplete or clearly wrong.

For example, when we asked how many state employees and outside contractors were being used to fly helicopters, haul rocks, build and repair roads, engineer the fixes, and everything else the project entailed, we were told there were 160 DWR employees. There was no accounting for other state agencies.

When we asked about how many private contractors were being used, we were told 300 to 5,000, which seemed a rather wide range. It was later amended to 300 to 500.

Other agencies we contacted said DWR was responsible for keeping track of costs. But DWR said it’s not worried about that right now, that the emergency response was most important and that costs would be figured out later.

Really? That’s your final answer?

Surely someone, somewhere, is counting. But to hear DWR tell it, they’re too busy to calculate costs.

It wasn’t until reporters started asking Assembly members about the costs that DWR suddenly found time to count and estimate the cost at about $4.7 million a day.

If that estimate is close to accurate, it means 30 days into the crisis, the state has spent about $141 million. And of course, the mess is a long way from fixed.

Butte County officials cringe at the figure. They’re been fighting with the state for years asking DWR and state water contractors to compensate the county for expenses and lost property taxes relating to the Oroville hydroelectric project. That dispute could have been settled with an annual fee roughly equal to what it’s now spending in a single day.

It’s uncertain who ultimately will pick up the tab — the feds, the state, water contractors who benefit from Lake Oroville, or taxpayers. It’s likely all four, but it’s important to remember federal and state money ultimately comes from taxpayers.

That’s why we deserve transparency and honesty, not gymnastic efforts to avoid delivering the bad news.