Skillful Bureaucratic Obfuscation

The Orange County Board of Supervisors is the leading contender so far for this year’s award in two categories, government euphemisms and gobbledygook. It should win easily because it had the originality to combine both in one statement on one issue.

The statement came in response to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ report that the Prado Dam falls short of national dam safety standards and probably would collapse if, in its present condition, it had to contain the heaviest flood that might ever occur on the Santa Ana River.

The county board, quite naturally, was concerned. So it has formally called for the “expeditious modification” of the dam as “an important near-term safety improvement.”

We assume that Washington will figure out that the board means: Fix the dam now before something awful happens.