Posted on 02/09/2017 9:30:51 PM PST by blueplum
Update, 7:15 p.m. Thursday: The situation surrounding the damaged spillway at Oroville Dam has escalated into a crisis, with state water managers hoping they can dump enough water down the badly compromised structure to prevent the state’s second-largest reservoir from pouring over an emergency release point that has never been used before. Flow rates down the collapsing spillway were increased late Thursday morning to 35,000 cubic feet per second. The result was a spectacle of churning mud and water and the further damage to the concrete structure. [snip] Officials at the media briefing repeated further reassurances that the integrity of Oroville Dam, one of the largest in the United States, has not been affected by the spillway collapse. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said that while local emergency agencies are preparing for evacuations downstream of the dam, he didn’t believe the spillway situation posed an imminent threat.
(Excerpt) Read more at ww2.kqed.org ...
In a few of the pictures overlooking the lake when you could see the hole in the spillway, the waterline across the lake is way down... How long have they been thinking about doing something about this?
Any reports on Lake Powell?
is it benefitting from the rainfall?
Low foot hills and downhill to Sacramento.
That sent chills down my spine. I’m glad I don’t live anywhere near a big dam.
There is always a “lag” at Lake Powell (they pass water on down to Lake Mead 1st)...May will tell the tale.
http://graphs.water-data.com/lakepowell/
and
http://lakepowell.water-data.com
That sucker pops, the old manure ponds of Stinkymento gonna get a good flushing,, long overdue.. I hope the smelt and salmon can handle it..
Reservoirs?? RESERVOIRS? WE don’t need to stinkin’ new reservoirs!!
The mantra of the Left..
as billions of gallons of water go out to sea.. gone ..
like the hope that we would ever have a legislature with vision
and not just establishing socialist fiefdoms and pursuing crazy agendas
>>The topography is flat.A breach in this dam would send a 200 foot high wall of water down US 99
Let’s dial down the fear and realize that dams don’t simply evaporate instantaneously when they fail. Instead, they fail by degrees, they do not send 200’ walls of water down the valley. This image is designed to create hysteria and is the mental process that underlies “fake news”. There will be flooding, but no 200’ wall of water. (rolls eyes, smacks forehead, walks off muttering)
At 10:39 p.m., a massive landslide of about 260,000,000 cubic metres (340,000,000 cu yd) of forest, earth, and rock fell into the reservoir at up to 110 kilometres per hour (68 mph), completely filling the narrow reservoir behind the dam. The landslide was complete in just 45 seconds, much faster than predicted, and the resulting displacement of water caused 50,000,000 cubic metres (65,000,000 cu yd) of water to overtop the dam in a 250-metre (820 ft) high wave.[1][2]Hopefully, that won't happen here. Byrne's book was written with the local geography around Sacramento in mind, and described the result of a failure like this in pretty graphic detail. (He was an engineer by trade, and researched all of his books very thoroughly.)
(If I remember correctly, Oroville was one of the structures he studied when he was writing the book... I think it mentioned it in the appendix, if I’m not mistaken.)
Oh Noes! And what about the bait fish?
Ever see the movie “Dam Busters”? :)
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Don’t know anything about Lake Powell. I am certain that these rains in California do not effect Lake Powell in any way what so ever. You might check your local department of water resources and dial in on Powell to see what the inflow cfs rates are. That should let you determine how the lake is filling.
I was just curious. Seeing the waterline dropping in pictures has always fascinated me.
For those that are interested...here is the updated live from our local paper.
http://www.orovillemr.com/general-news/20170209/live-updates-latest-on-oroville-spillway-damage-and-water-releases
One may also go to twitter #Orovillespillway
We are sitting pretty right about now.
(You knew it was coming.)
All dams leak.
Sincerely
William Mulholland
Inspected the dam just 12 hours before its collapse
http://archive.signalscv.com/archives/10939
I think the bigger issue about Powell as opposed to lakes that feed from the Sierras is that Powell is fed by the Green and Colorado which are drainages in the Rockies.
What we have seen since December is heavy Nor Cal rain and Sierra snows. That impacts this dam in California and others. The Colorado drainage is another issue.
Mead gets Nevada drainage as well as what Powell releases. It is the middle ground.
The story will be told later in the spring. See this:
http://snowpack.water-data.com/uppercolorado/index.php
It shows we are running good for the Colorado Drainage but look at the last couple of years that took a dive in the later spring instead of a climb. That is where the true source of Powell recovery will be shown if it does appear.
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