BOOM! Scott Adams uses Dilbert to Diss the ‘Climate Crisis’ Again

The spillway of course was a required engineering feature because it was clear such a large high dam would require such a structure at various times.
History of the Oroville Dam:

“Groundbreaking on the dam site occurred in May 1957 with the relocation of the Western Pacific Railroad tracks that ran through the Feather River canyon. The Burns-Porter Act of the California Legislature, which authorized the SWP, was not passed until November 8, 1960 – and only by a slim margin.[14][15] Engineer Donald Thayer of the DWR was commissioned to design and head construction of Oroville Dam, and the primary work contract was awarded to Oro Dam Constructors Inc., a joint venture led by Oman Construction Co.[16]

Two concrete-lined diversion tunnels, each 4,400 feet (1,341 m) long and 35 feet (11 m) in diameter, were excavated to channel the Feather River around the dam site. One of the tunnels was located at river level and would carry normal water flows, while the second one would only be used during floods.[17] In May 1963, workers poured the last of 252,000 cu yd (6.8 million cu ft; 193,000 m3) of concrete that comprised the 128 feet (39 m) high cofferdam, which would protect the construction site from floods. This structure would later serve as an impervious core for the completed dam. With the cofferdam in place, an 11-mile (18 km) rail line was constructed to move earth and rock to the dam site. An average of 120 train cars ran along the line each hour, transporting fill that was mainly excavated from enormous piles of hydraulic mining debris that were washed down by the Feather River after the California Gold Rush.[18]

On December 22, 1964, disaster nearly struck when the Feather River, after days of heavy rain, reached a peak flow of 250,000 cubic feet per second (7,100 m3/s) above the Oroville Dam site. The water rose behind the partially completed embankment dam and nearly overtopped it, while a maximum of 157,000 cubic feet per second (4,400 m3/s) poured from the diversion tunnels. This Christmas flood of 1964 was one of the most disastrous floods on record in Northern California, but the incomplete dam was able to reduce the peak flow of the Feather River by nearly 40 percent, averting massive amounts of damage to the area.[19][20]

Ten months later, four men died in a tragic accident on the construction rail line. On October 7, 1965, two 40-car work trains, one fully loaded and the other empty, collided head-on at a tunnel entrance, igniting 10,000 US gallons (38,000 l) of diesel fuel, completely destroying two locomotives. The burning fuel from the collision started a forest fire that burned 100 acres (40 ha) before it could be extinguished. The crash delayed construction of the dam by a week while the train wreckage was cleared.[21][22] Overall, 34 men died in the construction of the dam.[22]

Oroville Dam was designed to withstand the strongest possible earthquake for the region, and was fitted with hundreds of instruments that serve to measure water pressure and settlement of the earth fill used in its construction, earning it the nickname “the dam that talks back”.[23] (It is believed that a MW 5.7 earthquake in the Oroville area in 1975 was caused by induced seismicity from the weight of the Oroville Dam and reservoir on a local fault line.[24]) The embankment was finally topped out on October 6, 1967, with the last of 155 million tons (140.6 million t) of material that took over 40,000 train trips to transport.[18] On May 4, 1968, Oroville Dam was officially dedicated by the state of California.

So yes, apparently they were planning on “climate change” in the late 1950’s when the Oroville dam was designed along with the spillway structure.
McKibben is an idiot if he actually believes water had to be let down the spillway in 2017 because of climate change. A natural occurrence that was engineered for in the 1950’s.

Some people like to quote Mosher’s trite claim, “We don’t even plan for the past,” when in fact civil engineers do this everyday.