Posted on 02/19/2017 5:41:37 PM PST by exDemMom
"Pretty, but not very solid. Cement walls could be higher/more reliable. C'mon dam, you had one job."--Noah Lantz, one star
"I here the spillway is great right now for white water rafting. Watch out for street poles down stream though"--David Lansing, five stars
"I give this dam 5 stars, because it's a shining beacon of the kind of California doctrine that they want for the rest of the country!"--Richard Howell, five stars
"Dam does a great job at showcasing American ingenuity, the advances we have collectively made in water management, materials science, and our fundamentally negligent attitudes towards maintenance and risk-assessment.
I took off 1 star due to its inability to, you know, hold back water and prevent critical flooding."--Richard Mackie, four stars.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Only after Captain Obvious called me over to the TV and said “Look! It’s all going out the right side of the spillway - OUR right side, the spillway’s left side!!”
If I were an engineer on that dam, I think I would start to be a little concerned about the water escaping from the damaged section of the spillway on the dam side. The chances of it eroding all the way to the dam are probably remote, but I would still rather see all of that water escaping out the other side away from the dam.
OK.
I’m sure you are correct.
However, I thought that it was a good graphic to show what was going on.
I searched quite a bit and could not find any news clips that showed the whole set up.
No, just the only one who commented.
I hear you.
I’m wondering about the emergency spillway giving.
If that wall goes, then water is going to pour out at an unbelievable rate and it WILL erode whatever is underneath.
Could it reach the main spillway and compromise the dam?
I don’t know but I don’t like the thought of what would happen to the dam if enough earth by both the spillways was gone.
There’d be nothing left to anchor that one side of the dam.
And that’s a lot of weight in that amount of water.
The federal government only has jurisdiction for licensing the hydroelectric power house not the entire dam. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licenses the hydropower facility not state dams for safety. California has its own division of dam safety. .
It was the FERC that declined to place any eSpillway improvements contingencies on the re-licensing... if such actions are not even within their jurisdiction, it is even more of a bastardization of facts than I realized.
oh my goodness. What a good diagram, explaining the problem.
Thank you.
That is pretty scary looking video.
That is why I had to lighten things up a bit here by posting these reviews.
I think you should not underestimate the value of illegal aliens for propping up the liberal base. Their welfare and health care costs a lot, you know. Plus, there is that train to nowhere project--CA absolutely cannot spend on silly things like infrastructure repairs when a bullet train is at stake. /s
Quite a little canyon being eroded out there, how long has this been going on? Last I saw was yesterday morning, but it’s hard to tell what’s current and what isn’t. They’re going to have another issue and a big one with blockage due to that erosion diverting flow of the river itself soon. That will lead to flooding in Oroville, no matter what else happens up above.
Yeah, it doesn’t look good and they will have to increase the flow rate in the next few days to keep up. I noticed the little higher elevation towns are getting more rain than the Oroville area.
I think it might of happened this morning. Someone posted a little video of it on youtube that was taken in the afternoon. That gif is of that video.
Seriously, that amount of scouring and erosion occurred in less than a day? How are they planning on keeping the riverbed below cleared of obstruction, explosives? Looking pretty dire, if they’re just running with it like that. It’s not as if there are any alternatives but to do so, I guess.
Oh, absolutely... I did not intend to imply that CA’s unwise spending priorities were limited to infrastructure... on the contrary, they almost entirely neglected infrastructure in favor of social services, pet projects and public employee hiring and benefits.
This is info I gathered from the Sacramento Bee.
The auxiliary spillway which is accessed at a higher level than the main concrete one in the video is the one to be avoided at all costs. That one is the one that was causing dangerous erosion of the hillside back to the dam.
Since the evacuation and prior to the latest storm, the water level in the lake has been lowered almost 50 feet.
Last I read, engineers believe that by lowering the lake 50 feet and by using the main spillway at the greatest capacity it can be used safely, the level will not rise to the level of the auxiliary spillway.
The sideways overspill you see on the main spillway is the result of the huge crack/sinkhole that was there and which they attempted to shore up. One would assume they knew that what’s happening would happen and are okay with it.
The water flow through the main spillway can be controlled, but if they limit it too much, the level may rise to the auxiliary which they want to avoid at all costs.
In any case, if I lived downstream, I’d be outta there.
Days ago when they throttled the spillway down for a look, they saw a large cavern under the concrete, extending uphill toward the lake. I suspect what you saw was that section falling in. I’ll look for the video showing that cavern...
That is why it overflowed the emergency spillway in the first place. They wanted to limit the damage to the main spillway and they throttled it back. Now they have no choice, one would think. Of course, they said it wouldn't overflow the emergency spillway 2 days before it. Lord only knows what they will do.
Oroville Dam Workers Fired for Posting Spillway Photos to Social Media
Ahhh, transparency...
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