Meanwhile, these guys say to expect up to 12 inches of rain over the next 10 days...unlike the article which is "hoping" for but a couple of inches in the first two waves. They'll get more than that tonight.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/02/15/super-soaker-atmospheric-river-taking-aim-on-beleaguered-orovilledam/
Great graphic at the link.
Imagine a world without white males. Scary!
Sounds like that's about another 1000 tons of rock to wash into the river and clog it up.
I seem to remember some quick setting concrete that they tried using in the Vietnam war - that would probably have been a better option.
“They have placed but 1,200 tons of material on the eroding spillway. “
1. Reading the article: A
2. Posting a comment to get the thread started: A
3. Posting an incorrect statement: F
1200 tons?
We built a spillway with 1000 tons of shot rock for a municipality.
A month later, they got a 1000 year rain. 7 inches in 30 minutes.
Rolled those 2 ton boulders around like they were pebbles.
I tried to point out a simple design flaw, but everybody knows, those 30 year old government engineers know waaaaay more than those of us who have been working in the field for 40 years.
It blew out right where I told them it would.
And we got paid again to fix it right.
great closeups and perspective
UPDATE “ROCK SHOT” at Oroville Dam: Repair Before Rain Overtops Spillway Again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTaSmqru8mM
So they are trying to dump pebbles into a massive flow. Ya that’ll work alright.
They should be working on the EM spillway in case that runs again. I would have got down there with every GD bulldozer I could find and PUSH the berm out in front of that thing so that water flows AWAY from the spillway instead of collecting into one stream.
Like one other guy on here said. Those pebbles they are dropping into that primary spillway are going to bunch up and restrict flow. And that is exactly what they are dumping..pebbles.
Didnt these geniuses ever learn anything about hydraulics in school?
Wednesday Night 100% Precip. / 1.32 in Showers early with a steady rain developing overnight. The rain will be heavy at times.
Low 54F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.
Forecast for rain each of the next ten days. (Intellicast)
Frank P. February 15, 2017 at 5:57 pmSome useful calculations here… But realize that the truly weak link for California in this scenario is not really a dam breaking, as horrible as that would be. The weak link is ruining the State Water Project’s facilities that take this necessary water to Southern California after it’s picked up at what we used to call, the Tracy pumping plant. The Federal CVP has a similar pumping plant very near by that does the same thing for the Feds. It’s called, the Delta-Mendota Canal. Anyway, many of us in the water biz as well as the USGS were always concerned that a failure would occur as a result of an earthquake centered in the SF Delta area, a not necessarily unlikely event. But no, now we have the risk of the dike and levee system being destroyed by excessive water rushing down the Sacramento River from all the collective discharges from all the waterlogged dams in the Sacramento River watershed, including the water from Oroville Dam, broken or otherwise. It is widely known among water experts that a Delta bypass water conveyance structure is necessary and it will eventually be built but it was thought that it would occur after a disaster like as a dike/levee leveling event precipitated by an earthquake in the Sacramento/SF area. Once that occurred, the pumps at Tracy — both Federal and State — will suck salt water and the transport of fresh water south will not reoccur for perhaps 2-5 years during the construction of such a SF Delta bypass water conveyance system. Now, surprise of surprises, we have TWO ways the dikes and levees can be breached and this one — flooding — is no longer speculative. If you want to read one of the few actual news articles dealing with this horror, read this from yesterdays’ Sacramento Bee. http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article132779679.html#storylink=cpy
The comment that goes with the link I posted.
We have a similar bad situation at the Anderson Reservoir in the SE bay area of SF, Morgan Hill area.
MORGAN HILL (KRON) — This weekend’s rain is raising concerns in Santa Clara County where the Anderson Reservoir is almost at capacity.
The Anderson Reservoir is on the cusp of spilling over for the first time since 2006. But unlike Oroville Dam, the reservoir in Morgan Hill is not at risk of failure or causing major flooding.
Anderson Lake is already at more than 99-percent capacity. Water is expected to start flowing over the reservoir’s spillway and that could lead to flooding down stream in Coyote Creek.
Officials say the low lying areas in Morgan Hill along Coyote Creek will likely see high water levels. Whether flood water reaches any homes will depend on how big the storms are this weekend.
Flooding is not the only concern. A few years ago the Anderson Dam was determined to be seismically unsafe and officials say the reservoir is only supposed to be kept at 68 percent capacity for safety reasons.
-——————————————————————————————So what can go wrong. A few years ago a study said to keep the reservoir at 68%, and now it is at “more than 99-percent capacity!”
http://kron4.com/2017/02/17/flooding-concerns-arise-as-anderson-reservoir-nears-capacity/