Follow-up to previous posting – McClatchy – Trump team compiles infrastructure priority list – new via Stratfor – “…there are more than 80,000 dams in the United States, with an average age of 52 years. The suburban sprawl and growing populations have also put more people downstream of dams that once only served agricultural land, increasing the risk to human life should one fail. California, Colorado, the Northeast and the Rust Belt are just some of the areas where the most high-risk dams and the oldest dams overlap. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that more than 4,000 of these dams are in need of repairs, costing an estimated $21 billion. With the Trump administration set on having the private sector lead construction efforts, there likely won’t be the same interest, if any, in investing in many of these types of projects, making it more difficult to fund dam and other water infrastructure. All of this is happening just a month after a near collapse of the Oroville Dam in northern California. Heavy rains throughout the winter have taken much of the state out of severe drought, but have also stretched some reservoirs to capacity. At the Oroville Dam, failure of the main spillway required the use of an emergency earthen spillway, which quickly began eroding. While disaster was avoided this time, it illustrates the urgent need for investment in the nation’s dilapidated water systems — an area where interest from private investors can be hard to come by….”