Posted on 02/13/2017 5:48:06 AM PST by Sons of Union Vets
More than a decade ago, federal and state officials and some of Californias largest water agencies rejected concerns that the massive earthen spillway at Oroville Dam at risk of collapse Sunday night and prompting the evacuation of 185,000 people could erode during heavy winter rains and cause a catastrophe.
Three environmental groups the Friends of the River, the Sierra Club and the South Yuba Citizens League filed a motion with the federal government on Oct. 17, 2005, as part of Oroville Dams relicensing process, urging federal officials to require that the dams emergency spillway be armored with concrete, rather than remain as an earthen hillside.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Oroville Dam spillway gates open for first time in years
Wonder about draw down, if any, since then...
Problem is they don’t know what they don’t know.
When the Hoover Dam was finished the reservoir was filled to test the bypass pipes/tunnels. That left a lighter colored rock ring around the reservoir even decades later.
I don't know if the controlled spillway at Oro was ever proof tested.
California got $6.4 billion in Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill for water/conservation projects. Where did the money go?
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=EDs0AQAAMAAJ
Yuba River Investigation Study EIS from 1998. Pretty interesting. And it’s free.
(03/24/16) "Beginning at 10 a.m., the rate of the water being released increased throughout the day, reaching 6,000 cubic feet per second by 5 p.m., "
6k cfs = 2.4% of rated capacity.
Over the Dam?
You’re welcome! Per that link, if I understood correctly, the Army Corps had/has to approve each draw down. If true, now I’m wondering about the Army Corps’ involvement in this mess.
Also wondering about the observed drop in water level. Great news, but how do they know the dam hasn’t sprung a leak elsewhere? Probably an idiot question, but I just thought I’d ask anyone who’d care to reply.
Oroville to Honcut 210,000
Honcut to Yuba River 210,000
Yuba River to Bear River 300,000
Bear River to Sutter 320,000
Bypass Yuba River 120k * 180,000 cfs when Feather River flows are low. "
******************
Looks like 100k cfs should not be a big problem. Mud, silt and debris on the other hand...
Listened to their House Rep Doug LaMalfa (VERY conservative, good guy... actually went to college with his sister!). Made some good sense about the Army Corps of Engineers “owning” 20% (from a legal standpoint) of the design and build of the damworks from the 50’s & 60’s so Federal money is legally involved in the rebuild. (he also has ranch/famrland in the flood-danger area).
What I can’t wait for is Governor Moonbeam on his knees pleading for Federal funds after continually giving Trump the finger.
District 1 in NorCal is generally conservative, have a good Rep (though I think only his 2nd term). If the emergency spillway doesn’t erode fully (they have another storm on the way) they’ll rebuild ok. SoCal should pay for it, as they’ve benefited most from NorCal’s water for many, many decades.
The Obama administration ignored a clear risk to human life and property for eight years.
The State of California ignored a clear risk to human life and property for twelve years.
What do these organizations have in common?
This is total government feel good bs. They have no clue until they can have the water coming over the parking lot, auxiliary spillway and spillway stop and dry out to see if they have any wet spots or water flows. This is all to close to the dam and deals with its integrity.
The latest picture I saw had a water cutting a path from the auxiliary spillway over the spillway higher up the dam. more and more danger spots are forming.
I’m sure release decisions have been made as byzantine as possible so that later it is impossible to fix the blame.
Good point. They could have tested the spillway. I tried to look back and find flow data for the Feather River, that would give an indication of what their highest release has ever been...but could find nothing.
I did find a link to the last 7 days release from the lake.
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryRES?ORO
That’s what I figured, these spokesmen are smooth talkers.
Is the new path you’re seeing the one to upper left? Or newer?
In the 800+ page report linked above there are some plots of flows during some past floods.
Somewhere in the Calif Water gov't site was where I found a list of daily flows from the dam.
From what I’ve been reading from some smart freepers this morning- they don’t know and can’t know until they lower the water level and it dries up a bit.
Emergency spillway used once in 50 years. It would have been a waste of money to concrete it.
What wouldn’t have been a waste would have been to properly maintain the main spillway.
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