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With Oroville Spillway Damage Spreading, Officials Prepare for Reservoir to Overflow
KQED TV ^ | 09 Feb 2017 | Staff writers

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 ...


TOPICS: Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: bealeafb; buttecounty; california; californiadrought; dam; damage; lakeoroville; marysville; oroville; orovilledam; overflow; reservoir; sacramento; spillway
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To: blueplum

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?


41 posted on 02/10/2017 3:24:33 AM PST by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: abigkahuna

Any reports on Lake Powell?

is it benefitting from the rainfall?


42 posted on 02/10/2017 5:33:01 AM PST by Cowgirl of Justice
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To: Just mythoughts

Low foot hills and downhill to Sacramento.


43 posted on 02/10/2017 5:36:05 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ ("It's a war against humanity!" Donald J. Trump)
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To: 21twelve
As luck would have it, someone has already written THE book about this. Great read, if y'all haven't seen it before.

Byrne, Robert: THE DAM

44 posted on 02/10/2017 6:57:09 AM PST by detsaoT
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To: 21twelve

That sent chills down my spine. I’m glad I don’t live anywhere near a big dam.


45 posted on 02/10/2017 7:56:32 AM PST by rdl6989
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To: Cowgirl of Justice

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


46 posted on 02/10/2017 8:03:52 AM PST by Drago
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To: blueplum

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..


47 posted on 02/10/2017 9:04:25 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Monthly Donors Rock!!!)
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To: Fungi

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


48 posted on 02/10/2017 9:07:13 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Monthly Donors Rock!!!)
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To: Captain Compassion

>>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)


49 posted on 02/10/2017 9:17:19 AM PST by Yollopoliuhqui (Smarter - Faster)
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To: Yollopoliuhqui
Depends entirely on the topography of the area. In Italy, without a dam failure, a wall of 800 feet devastated the valley below it.
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.)
50 posted on 02/10/2017 9:33:47 AM PST by detsaoT
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To: detsaoT

(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.)


51 posted on 02/10/2017 9:35:33 AM PST by detsaoT
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To: Paul R.

Oh Noes! And what about the bait fish?


52 posted on 02/10/2017 9:37:29 AM PST by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: blueplum
Not to worry! Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown will be there shortly to stick his finger in the hole


53 posted on 02/10/2017 9:40:36 AM PST by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: Yollopoliuhqui

Ever see the movie “Dam Busters”? :)
\
\


54 posted on 02/10/2017 9:51:12 AM PST by Captain Compassion
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To: Cowgirl of Justice

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.


55 posted on 02/10/2017 9:59:23 AM PST by abigkahuna (How can you be at two places at once when you are nowhere at all?)
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To: abigkahuna

I was just curious. Seeing the waterline dropping in pictures has always fascinated me.


56 posted on 02/10/2017 10:04:56 AM PST by Cowgirl of Justice
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To: blueplum

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.


57 posted on 02/10/2017 10:10:55 AM PST by abigkahuna (How can you be at two places at once when you are nowhere at all?)
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To: Karl Spooner

(You knew it was coming.)

58 posted on 02/10/2017 10:12:02 AM PST by PLMerite
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To: blueplum

All dams leak.

Sincerely
William Mulholland

Inspected the dam just 12 hours before its collapse
http://archive.signalscv.com/archives/10939


59 posted on 02/10/2017 11:39:48 AM PST by minnesota_bound
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To: Drago

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.


60 posted on 02/10/2017 11:53:05 AM PST by KC Burke (Consider all of my posts as first drafts. (Apologies to L. Niven))
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