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News Tip: Expert Available to Comment on Oroville Dam Crisis

The threat of a failing emergency spillway at California’s Oroville Dam has forced the evacuation of roughly 188,000 people.

  • Quotes:
    “The bold efforts of water engineers to avert disaster in California demonstrate that maintaining a strong infrastructure means investing not only in concrete, but also in human expertise,” says Megan Mullin, associate professor of environmental politics at Duke University.

    “Americans only think about water infrastructure at moments of failure. The nation’s overwhelming success in delivering safe, clean water to communities and protecting lives and property from dangerous floods rarely lands on the front page.”

    “When politicians talk about infrastructure investment, they typically want to claim credit for shiny new projects. Infrastructure maintenance is costly and offers fewer political rewards. In the current environment, it’s easier for politicians to cast blame for infrastructure failure than to make the kind of public investments that benefit all communities.”

    “Whether you live in Flint, Oroville, Miami or any other American community, the disrepair of aging infrastructure is a threat to lives and economic growth.”
     

  • Bio:
    Megan Mullin is an associate professor of environmental politics at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. She is a scholar of American political institutions and behavior, focusing on how political and social processes contribute to environmental outcomes. Her main areas of research are in decentralized governance, water management and climate-change politics.
    https://nicholas.duke.edu/people/faculty/mullin
     
  • For additional comment, Megan Mullin at:
    megan.mullin@duke.eduoffice