The Oroville Dam Failure

Linkedin ^ | February 10, 2017 | Scott Cahill

[artichokegrower]

I have heard that the emergency spillway is eroding through cutback. This will be an evolutionary erosive failure. It will take some time for the cut back. Hopefully the erosion will be stopped at bedrock, However, I fear that if the erosion of the emergency spillway, on the canted bedrock of the abutment communicates with the hydraulics of the principal spillway, this may result in a V notch failure. This would be the most serious type of failure.

[Sales Rep]

This part of California does not have classic bedrock as I recall.

[thinkliberty64]

i’m not an engineer, so maybe others with experience can comment, but isn’t it unusual there’s only 1 main spillway? other dams around here have several so that even if 1 failed, they could cut it and still keep releasing. isn’t engineering for safety about redundancy?

[Delta 21]

I thought there was a drought? Now the dam is busting and we cant shed water fast enough.

Just a feeling but I suspect someone or maybe even more than one someone has not been telling the truth on matters.

[Delta 21]

https://youtu.be/fOEQTJV_3-w

[rdcbn]

President Trump has been warning us about our infrastructure. This is the quintessential example of pennies wasted resulting in absolute catastrophe.

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When you have a welfare state, politicians spend public funds buying votes instead of maintaining roads, dams, bridges and other infrastructure so over time things deteriorate and fall apart.

This is happening big time in California as 35 years of deferred maintenance results in wide spread decay

Lots of areas in LA and the Bay Area that were once show pieces are now looking third world. The people don't seem to care because they are often third world illegal aliens anyway.

[Mat_Helm]

The Lake is @ 790,000 acre feet (AF) above flood control level. As of Sunday 167,000 CFS was flowing into the lake and they were releasing @ 100,000 CFS down the damaged normal spillway. This means +70,000 CFS is going over the emergency spillway which basically just stops water from running over the dam itself. When the spill way gives way it could threaten the dam and immediately release a 30 foot wall of water with @ up to 500,000 acre feet of water rushing down the feather river all at once. This could even threaten Beal Air Force Base.

On our normal weekly operations call with the Bureau of Reclamation they said the Department of Water Resources (DWR) did not expect water levels to rise enough to go over the emergency spillway. Boy was DWR wrong. DWR damaged an emergency valve at the base of the dam a few years ago in a stupid experiment by Fish agencies to let cold water at the bottom of the lake flow for fish. A failure when a concrete wall broke and flooded the control room nearly was catastrophic and just before the control room flooded an engineer was able to hit the emergency control to close the valve. That has not been repaired and is not being reported. They new they were in trouble when the main spillway came apart and lots of water was coming into the lake.

[Mat_Helm]

The lake holds 3.5 million acre feet of water which is now full. They can’t release water faster than is coming into the lake. They are trying to stay ahead of the game and are one storm away from catastrophe.

[KC Burke]

As a retired contractor, viewing the pictures I have some observations. If the main spillway runs for a few hours and lowers the lake where the emergency spillway is no longer draining and damaging its outflow, as you say, the main spillways damaged outflow structure could have its gaping sinkhole filled.

The problem is access. There is no road or stable access to the damaged spot. Instead, big rip-rap boulders, high-strength / early set concrete and massive helicopter delivery is the only feasible method I can see if the window is only about 48 hours. Even then, that spillway running again will tear out all the temporary fix in short order.

[Teacher317]

The lake holds 3.5 million acre feet of water which is now full. They can’t release water faster than is coming into the lake. They are trying to stay ahead of the game and are one storm away from catastrophe

Rain is predicted for Oroville CA every day from WED until next TUE, according to my app.

[TauntedTiger]

Sounds about right. You forgot the global warming morons managing our forests, rivers and streams.

[Proyecto Anonimo]

Does CA have looters outside of LA?

[GOPJ]

Two hundred thirty critical facilities in the city of Oroville are within the inundation zone, including; Eleven schools, twenty one day care and children service centers, fourteen elder care facilities, twenty six bridges will be lost, the airport, two fire stations, the government administration building, three law enforcement stations, the EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER (brilliant) Two waste water treatment plants, the jail, and the Hospital. (from the City of Oroville local hazard mitigation plan update May, 2013)

OMG - California snowflakes are doing city planning?

[Mat_Helm]

The emergency is an ongoing train wreck. The snow pack is 170% of normal and heavy flows can occur over the next 6 weeks or more. A large storm in a few days if wet could pour a lot more water into a lake they can’t release water fast enough. This will be DWR trying to stay ahead of the game.

[Duchess47]

I wish them luck and prayers for all below. We are about three storms past catastrophe here in Nevada.

[Noob1999]

What about bridging steel sheeting over the spillway erosion hole to stop the water from entering the hole. I’m thinking of that interlocking marine pier sheeting that is driven into the ground. At the angle of the hill and velocity of the water there should not be that much water weight that the steel would need to support. Not sure how large the hole is though.

[Noob1999]

What about bridging steel sheeting over the spillway erosion hole to stop the water from entering the hole. I’m thinking of that interlocking marine pier sheeting that is driven into the ground. At the angle of the hill and velocity of the water there should not be that much water weight that the steel would need to support. Not sure how large the hole is though.

[Cementjungle]

http://www.lao.ca.gov/2009/bud/fed_stimulus/fed_stimulus_031009.aspx#resources

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Oh no! Not the dreaded v-notch failure! Nobody expects the dreaded v-notch failure!

[Organic Panic]

Liberals will celebrate and NEVER allow the dam to be rebuilt. That is as long as it wasn’t their house destroyed.

[az_gila]

The scandal is that California was hordeing all this water in the first place. They should have been drawing down lake levels months ago!

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But they had to hoard it. The 97% consensus of scientists said that the CA drought would never end.