Posted on 02/12/2017 4:26:47 PM PST by janetjanet998
Edited on 02/12/2017 9:33:58 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
The Oroville Dam is the highest in the nation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Rzi8kELM4
Oroville Dam Spillway 2-15-17 8:30am Evacuations Lifted
Published on Feb 15, 2017
This is the day after the evacuations were lifted. We can see the progression from yesterday’s video of rocks and concrete being put below the emergency spillway.
Shasta weather calls for 5-6 inches of rain over the lake, and likely 8 inches in the mountains above. Snow level will determine ultimate risk.
https://www.wunderground.com/q/zmw:96019.1.99999
They have been releasing 75,000cfs since Monday, the highest in a decade, to get the level down to 93%.
https://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/vungvari/daily.pdf
When combined with releases out of Berryessa and Oroville and all the other tributaries (Yuba River etc.) there’s easily 300,000cfs passing through Sacramento now, before the rain starts.
Two islands in the Delta have already been evacuated and are flooded.
Now we know the southern end of the Valley has a similar problem with the San Joaquin river at flood stage along with all of it’s upstream dam and tributaries. They are all at 90+% storage, again the rain has not started yet.
They all have to release large amounts of water to maintain the integrity of the dams.
The next 10 days will be at least interesting and exciting.
The media is nearly silent on this matter.
I’ve found it takes brave souls like Scott Cahill (renowned Dam expert, construction expert, consultant) who is an honest civilian that will speak up. He took a great amount of heat from what he revealed.
For those who wish to hear the best description of the “rotten rock” erosion issue of the Emergency Spillway - and everything else you wanted to know - listen to this excellent podcast from yesterday.
Scott Cahill’s interview: he stated he was not sure how this dam would fare in a repeat of the overtopping. He stated that a “V” breach event is possible (in the spillway region). What he didn’t reveal is the depth of the rotten rock. This is now known to be 797ft (at least). Thus the depth of a “V” breach would be from 901ft to 797ft = top of V to lowest point of V. That is 104ft.
—— Important:
The most critical issue lurking as an “unknown” is how saturated is the penetration of water under the Emergency Spillway. The Fox10 captured images of the huge bubbles surfacing is very telling of water penetrating to a lower elevation (i.e. through/under the ES). Since the revelation of the 36ft depth of the “rotten” rock (extreme weathered & fractured) to the elevation of 797ft, this means the patchwork they are doing for the ES overflow cannot stop the subsurface penetration or weakening in another full-on overspill (901ft+).
P.S. Again, I’d like to publicly thank you for your military service (and your family member). Keep wearing the camo’s to events as this allows others to see the core of those who gave to this nation.
Expert: What You Need To Know About The Oroville Dam Crisis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl7Sm15unPQ
https://twitter.com/BreakingNews_RS/status/831940501603438594
Redding.com News Now
@BreakingNews_RS
10:57 AM - 15 Feb 2017
This image (post 1043) reveals how much hydraulic underflow water is beneath the concrete Main spillway. The dam expert, Scott Cahill, identified this severe issue. He said that these hydraulic underflow drains should have just a “trickle”. Instead, they are “jetting” water out in great volume. These drains are “jetting” all down the side walls of the main spillway. So there is hydraulic underflow water that risks the stability of the sub strata the spillway is built upon.
Scott stated that this is should not be happening (i.e. can lead to a failure mode).
Look at the lower right section of the image. Near the yellow jacketed construction worker & the concrete sidewall of the spillway. You can see a water jet coming out of the side of the wall into the main waterflow. This is waterflow from upper areas underneath the main spillway (under the concrete & soil/rock base). These “jets” are all going on both sides all the way up the spillway walls. That is a tremendous amount of “unwanted” waterflow under the spillway.
re post 999
first time i have seen that..what are they doing on the mian spillway way up on that hill?
is it just a staging area to dump gravel? I doubt any reporter will ask that question
I cannot find any air shots from today of the main spillway
Judy Brandt @judywbrandt #OrovilleSpillway new truck today up on top lot. Work continues. What is it? 10:02 AM - 15 Feb 2017
those water jets are normal..at one time they were all the way up and down the spillway before it was damaged
“Why don’t the people in charge tell the public to put their garden hoses in the gutter and turn them on full blast for a day or so?”
Heh! They do tell us to conserve water during droughts - even water bans. It would be interesting to run the calculations. 200,000 people running hoses at 12 to 17 gallons per minute. 1 cubic foot is 14 gallons, so say 14 x 200,000 = 200,000 cubic feet per minute. Isn’t that more than what the spillway is dumping?
HOWEVER. All of that would be treated water, so the volume would be restricted by what the treatment plant can take in, the delivery pipes, etc. Hmm - I wonder if there is a bypass to the treatment plant, and just send untreated water to the homes for a few days?
See Post 1037.
Using multiple new image angles, I’ve been able to determine that the upper main spillway was NOT worked on last evening. The night shot is rotated from the angle of the webcam looking away from the main spillway and looking over the edge of the Emergency spillway. The lighting of the surface of the Emergency spillway looks just like the illuminated Main spillway.
However, there was an image that showed an upward “spray” coming from the sidewall of the upper main spillway in other photographs. It has not been determined what was causing this upward “spray”..yet. Sources captured the evening images and assumed the rotation of the concrete boom was at the upper main spillway point where the other image revealed the upward spray.
Only a new high res image from above from today can give a clue to what might be going on with this “upward spray” location. Stay tuned.
Someone grabbed a screen shot from this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Rzi8kELM4
Oroville Dam Spillway 2-15-17 8:30am Evacuations Lifted
The environmental damage to the fisheries has already taken place with all of the silt deposited. Although that used to be a natural event before the dam, so it will recover, and probably have some benefits as well.
The dam expert emphatically stated and described how these “jets” should only be a “trickle”. The fact that they are “jetting” such volume reveals how much water is flowing and may by hydraulically damaging (scouring, eroding, etc) the support structure to the main spillway concrete slabs. The failure of a small pocket in the slab (midway) is what caused the massive blow out of the main spillway.
The fact that these jets existed prior to the blowout damage is confirmation of what the dam expert stated would happen. (scouring, eroding, leading to a slab structural risk - an voila we have the failure & blowout).
It is not normal. Listen to the dam expert in this podcast interview.
Expert: What You Need To Know About The Oroville Dam Crisis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl7Sm15unPQ
https://www.facebook.com/davenews/
TWC guy: Dave Malkoff was live.
2 hrs ·
Live now: Oroville Dam in California
That’s one serious sump pump.
Looks the sidewall on the left is missing a sizeable piece.
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