Dam? No way.

There’s nothing like a wet winter and a deep snowpack to get some folks clamoring for more dams and storage facilities in California. All that water running into the Pacific Ocean is being wasted, they insist. What good is it if we can’t use it?

Well, ask the fish, especially those that live in or move through the Delta, like salmon. They’re enjoying the cold, clean water. For the past several years water flows have been low, slow and warm. This is a bracing change.

But watching all that water flow out to sea drives Rep. Tom McClintock crazy. He’s the Republican congressman who represents the 4th District—which includes Roseville, Rocklin and Auburn—and chairs the House Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Water and Power. Although he touts himself as a fiscal conservative, McClintock took the seat promising to build more dams, and that’s what he’s trying to do, beginning with the controversial Auburn Dam. Never mind that it would sit astride an earthquake fault and cost up to $10 billion.

That’s one of the problems with dams: They’re hugely expensive.

And there’s no way to build these dams without massive taxpayer subsidies. In today’s tight times, that’s not going to happen.

Dams? No way.