Why Can't America Fill a Pothole?

I'm sure there will be knee jerk reactions to this by the reactionaries, but it sounds about right. Southern California needs water, but can't get it. The environmentalists have taken away the water from the northern end of the state to save fish and won't allow new dams to be built to capture the rain we've been getting. Meanwhile, desalination plants have been stopped again to save the tiny fish that might be sucked into them