I don’t recall anybody arguing for it’s replacement. Environmentalists were expressing fear that the emergency spillway was nothing but a grassy hillside (not even deep-rooted vegetation) and would severely erode if it wears used. Their concern was the huge amount of silt and dirt that would be washed into the river harming fish. I don’t think they were concerned about possible complete failure of the spillway.
The dam experts I’ve read agree about a dirt spillway being a horrible design idea. One construction blogger rightly pointed out the the risk/cost decisions in any dam design. Concrete lining the emergency spillway would have been very expensive.
Given the prolonged drought in California, it is not surprising that things of this nature have been put off. Still, the huge amount of money spent on coddling the illegal invaders could have been put to far better use on infrastructure projects such as this. Now Jerry Clown wants us to bail them out.
“Concrete lining the emergency spillway would have been very expensive.”
I pray that no one is hurt...but otherwise, phuck California for electing Moonbeam and similar jackholes.