One of the great lessons of the Oroville Dam failure (I use failure intentionally here) is the systems employed when the proverbial sh#* hit the fan, which it certainly did.

This is not some obscure remote consideration, these multiple failures that these men witnessed and conveyed to the public. They had practiced this scenario many times. The difference for us was that it was real. For them, I honestly do not know if it is, or was, or ever shall be real. To them it is a game, an "exercise", if you will.

When I became aware of the situation that was occurring, the parallel porting of the principal spillway, I was alarmed. The drains were obviously charged with high pressure water from the reservoir. I made a prediction that the spillway plate slabs would begin to fail. They did, and the progression continues.

What happened next shocked me. Not the fools flying rocks in on helicopters wasting millions of the taxpayers money - that sort of thing could be expected. What really shocked me was their preparedness. Not preparedness to act, for they were the most incompetent bunch I have seen, but their coordinated effort to lie. They are horrible engineers, leaving the tallest dam in the United States to decay to the point of failure. They are terrible inspectors, inspecting the principal spillway from their warm truck, or office, or ???. They are wonderful liars.

I know some of the greatest engineers in the world. I have been honored to teach beside them, to hear hundreds of their presentations, to serve on boards with them, drafting legislation and developing training tools for those with dams. None of these kind of men stood at those "news conferences" on Oroville Dam, nor would they have. The Oroville Dam Incident was a failure of magnificent proportions, like the great dam, itself.

After years of inaction, passive action, and failure to see the obvious, of course, the elemental failures began. Still, the men who had so failed at their charge did not stand and find honor, they cowered and covered their deeds and misdeeds and inactions in lies. Today they stop drones from flying over the site. They fire men for taking pictures.

It is the people of the valleys and the people who are taxed to pay for this frivolous waste of funds that are hurt. It is they who are so disrespected. The whole world will be hurt if the great dam fails, to some extent, their failure to maintain it costs every one of us something. None, however, pay more deeply than those who live in the shadow of the great dam, an element of the machine of our great nation, neglected, and decaying.

Now, with time stripping the cloak from their dirty little secret, they react. They hide information, they mislead, they act to stop men from speaking. They act to stop men from taking photographs. They draft "News Conferences" but they are not, they are instead, smoke and mirrors. "Everything is working as it should", he said, when everything was falling apart. The one thing that they were ready for was to lie, to persuade, and to mislead, and that, they did well.

I write a blog. I have enjoyed great support from the community and it means much to me to be able to help the people a tiny bit with my writing and conveyance of honest information. Always there are some, who resist any effort, always there are those who come forward to question. I suppose that to be a good thing. There is much misinformation by the poorly qualified. I have as deep an understanding of dams and water as any man.

I came to a realization of late that this resistance was not just some fool, wishing to get his say in on a subject that he understood little about. If one reads the questions, the lies, the innuendo offered, one begins to see that he does have knowledge and information. He has information that is handed to him. It, too, like all of it, is a part of this great scheme to mislead. If people read my work and its assessment of the actions of the responsible, it might be harmful. Perhaps they hired an "expert" to attack those who dare to question the men who lie to us. Perhaps it is some in-law or contractor who will be "taken care of" in time, I do not know. What I do know is what I see, and what I have seen, lies, misleading, understatement, and complete irresponsibility.

The men who I refer to, my friends, engineers who know dams, would die if they had so failed, but they would never have so failed. I am just a guy. I am a guy who understands dams deeply, but still, my feelings are no more important than anyone else's. Still, the people of California need to think enough of themselves that their lives have value. Their homes, and businesses, and families. If you wonder what I advocate, what I suggest, I have answers to make the repairs. Stop wasting, and actually make repairs. I have suggestions too, for the entire culture that is now demanding no photos - no drones - no conversation, but for their own, carefully crafted web of lies;

FIRE THEM. FIRE THEM ALL, every one of them who participated, who looked the other way, who were complacent while your lives were held in the balance. FIRE THEM, all of those who you trusted who failed you through arrogance, or carelessness, or lack of funding, FIRE THEM. And, when they are gone, do not settle for the next one in line. Not another cog in the broken machine. This is your life. Demand a new structure. Demand a new person, an honorable man, who may make mistakes, but who will not lie to you, or subordinate your safety to some political game.

Fire them all, anyone who fired good men for talking to their neighbors, who fired men for taking pictures of what actually was happening on a PUBLIC structure, who keep news crews from the site, who restrict the time for answers, FIRE THEM ALL! You have the right to close your eyes at night and to know that that dam is safe. You have the right to be represented by your government at all levels, but more than that, you have the right to honesty. It is HONESTY that has been hidden, so carefully from your eyes, lest you see that which really is, that your families meant little to these men, who now stand in a line and lie to you from a prepared script. FIRE THEM ALL, for your own sake, that of your children, that of your neighbors, FIRE THEM ALL, and never let such men hold such responsibility again.

Scott Cahill