Not true at all. The California State Water Project is one of the most successful public works and general feats of engineering accomplishment ever built. Terminal Island is a wild success. California's state and interstate highway infrastructure is the best of any state I've ever lived in. One high-profile failure doesn't mean everything the state ever does is doomed to also fail. That would be like saying the disaster that is the Salton Sea means large-scale infrastructure created by private companies is doomed to always fail.