California doesn't want this towering water project. Trump administration may build it anyway

The Trump administration is pushing forward with a colossal public works project in Northern California — heightening the towering Shasta Dam the equivalent of nearly two stories. The problem is that California is dead-set against the plan, and state law prohibits the 602-foot New Deal-era structure from getting any taller. But in these times of unprecedented tension between Washington and California, the state's objection to this $1.3-billion project near the Sacramento River is hardly proving a deterrent. The Trump administration is pursuing the project with gusto, even as it seeks to make deep cuts in popular conservation programs aimed at California's water shortages...The sudden momentum behind heightening the dam — a plan the federal government only a few years ago put on the shelf amid concerns it was incompatible with state environmental laws — threatens to trigger a constitutional conflict that tests the state's authority over what gets built on federal land within its borders. "Under California law, this is an illegal project," said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael). "The Trump administration would have to abrogate a century of federal deference to state laws on California water to go ahead with this." California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird wrote to congressional leaders this week, urging them to reject the Trump administration's plan to spend $20 million in 2019 on design and other "preconstruction" activities at Shasta Dam...more