The state has dumped over a trillion gallons into the bay per year since 2008 to protect smelt.
Let's put a trillion gallons of water in perspective: That's 70 gallons per day per person for the 40 million residents of CA.
I'm still betting that the recent oil pipe leak will turn out to be man made, sabotage similar to this dam breach.
About that dam: My grandfather worked building the aqueduct to L.A. and my father worked on those rubber dams as early as the 'fifties. The aqueduct is now being restricted and my lawn is dead.
The dams were tough and used just as stated in the article, they held river water for diversion into percolating basins which, in theory at least, added to ground water levels.
(Which process was necessary because the L.A. river channel had been paved over as flood control, and still flows tons of water into the Pacific, drought or no drought.)