Posted on 02/12/2017 5:11:49 PM PST by Navy Patriot
Count down to Donald Trump getting blamed for it all in 4,3,2,
From the article ... quoting an official ... "What they’re expecting is as much as 30 vertical feet of the top of the spillway could fail and could fail within one to two hours. We don’t know how much water that means, but we do know that’s potentially 30 feet of depth of Lake Oroville.”
It happens quick.
Earthen emergency spillways are designed to erode gradually and release dangerous volumes of water in a controlled manner to prevent down stream catastrophe. Oh, by the way, the emergency spillway is designed to be destroyed in the process, draining the body of water behind it.
Sorry, but this appears to be another Flint: “Save us, Fedzilla, for we have spent all the time and local taxpayer $$ on everything BUT the obvious.”.
Like Flint, not ONE in govt will go to jail, be arrested, lose their positions or bennies. But the (federal) taxpayers will be expected to bail ‘em out.
Nope, no sympathies.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article132332499.html
“5:52 p.m.
Releases through the main spillway at Oroville Dam have been boosted to 100,000 cubic feet per second from 55,000 cfs in hopes of easing pressure on the emergency spillway before a failure occurs, officials said Sunday night.”
Why were they even using the ‘emergency’ spillway when the regular spillway wasn’t at maximum? Poor operation.
Good link for updates.
It pans around. Not sure who is in charge of that panning operation but they are doing a lousy job.
Last I looked, still light out, operator gave us a good shot of a roof
IMO the Department of Water Resources is releasing water through the main spillway so as to time the extension of the zipper effect to the top of the dam to coincide with the extension of the emergency spillway zipper. This will delay the final dam failure as long as possible, and save lives downstream.
Then several million acre feet of water will deluge through what had been the Oroville Dam.
You can use Google Maps in 3D to get a fairly comprehensive view of the whole layout. The emergency spillway is a fixed configuration. If the level comes up that high, over it goes.
They had their worries about the main spillway, but now I guess it's "screw that, get the level down."
To make a long story short, “I don’t think so”.
See photos here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3523218/posts
The spillway is not on the main body of the dam; it goes over an abutting geological formation, which appears to be a few feet of dirt over bedrock.
But then, I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn last night.
I’ve been catching up. The main spillway had developed a whole in it (from lack of maintenance/inspection).
The contributing failures just keep piling up.
“Earthen emergency spillways are designed to erode gradually and release dangerous volumes of water in a controlled manner to prevent down stream catastrophe. Oh, by the way, the emergency spillway is designed to be destroyed in the process, draining the body of water behind it.”
I’ve designed a few dams. You never, ever, never, never, never want the dam to be overtopped in any way, or to erode in any fashion.
And the spillway is meant to be armored (grass, rip-rap, concrete..whatever the velocity merits) so it does not get destroyed.
I have no idea how erosion from an overtopped dam can be considered gradual or controlled.
I guarantee that this Oroville dam is experiencing an event beyond its design parameters, and it is not at all eroding slowly or gradually...and frankly nobody knows what might happen. I pray it holds long enough to draw down - but its gonna rain again soon :(
For awhile, actually a long while, it showed a female of parts of her. Then it will switch to what appears to be marble, like a marble facade on a building?
Agreed. You never want your dam to be overtopped. The fact is that earthen emergency spill ways WILL erode once they function. Don’t care what you’ve topped or armored it with. I had the unfortunate opportunity to watch a minor but fairly large earthen dam with emergency spillway function during a tropical depression back in 94-the spillway was over topped and in 5 hours the lake was drained. The Choctawhatchee river downstream was already at flood stage and if the dam proper had failed-it would have likely killed hundreds or thousands downstream. Since it eroded and drained the lake over time, it did little damage that the flood waters had already begun.
What you don’t want is a catastrophic breach of any dam....
I had designed and built a few civil projects too, only one dam- the one that replaced the lost one a few years later. As a combat engineer officer, I spent more time planning destruction than construction- so much more satisfying when it’s an enemy’s infrastructure....
More like 3.5M acre feet of water, not 210K ac ft. Btw we live in the red zone but we aren’t going anywhere. Its more of a danger to downtown then us. No one left in town except for the tweakers looting businesses. Marysville, Yuba City, Linda, Palermo, and a whole host of towns are evacuated. Nearly 180K people. We are sort of level with the dam and not in the path of the water (we hope)
We didn’t hear about the evacuations until around six tonight. Family trying to get ahold of us, but since the last storm the land line is on the blink and cell service is wonky. Flippers and nose clips are at the ready.
I certainly hope that no snail darters, endangered owls, and rare salamanders are disturbed in any way.
Look on the brite side.all this water is going to wash a lot of gold up.
I thought that is what they said would be the amount released if that portion of the dam gave way?
Gonna have to do some math here, not that it matters.
They said that about 30 feet of the top of the lake and the area of the lake..
Boy, you and I were thinking the same thing.
There is going to be a lot of gold all the way to the next small dam downstream.
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