Emergency: California’s Oroville Dam Spillway Near Failure, Evacuations Ordered

Pretty good summary! Incompetence at the level you can expect from government.

2,901 posted on 04/02/2017 3:37:47 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$ ("Try is the first step to failure." Homer Simpson.)

To: EarthResearcher333; Repeal The 17th; All

I reference to earlier posts regarding water seepage through the dam, I stumbled onto this article...

https://shastalantern.net/2017/03/oroville-dam-inspectors-reported-water-seepage-structural-issues-since-2014/

2,902 posted on 04/02/2017 5:14:01 AM PDT by meyer (The Constitution says what it says, and it doesn't say what it doesn't say.)

2,903 posted on 04/02/2017 5:16:11 AM PDT by meyer (The Constitution says what it says, and it doesn't say what it doesn't say.)

To: meyer; Repeal The 17th

"I reference to earlier posts regarding water seepage through the dam, I stumbled onto this article..."

I've seen that article a while back. The editors could have used some engineering guidance as references to "water barriers" are mixed up between the lower elevation concrete structure(s) and the non-permeable seam of compacted clay that reaches from the low concrete structure to the top of the dam. (i.e. although this article is a good source of link material, they have "holes" in some of engineering reasoning/presentation). - just FYI.

2,904 posted on 04/02/2017 7:54:24 AM PDT by EarthResearcher333

To: abb; meyer; Repeal The 17th; KC Burke; janetjanet998; Jim 0216; LucyT

How Reports Became Secret - initiated by a DWR request for CEII status 2 days before BOC's new report

Here is a FERC website sequence of report filings that detail the sequence on how all new Spillway incident reports are now categorized as "Secret". (note: FERC designated the Oroville Spillway incident as P-2100).

Any documentation, other than cover letters, will inherit the Critical Energy Infrastructure Information (CEII) "secrecy" availability if CEII status is granted in the P-2100 incident. DWR filed a report on March 22 requesting CEII status, thus beating the BOC report by 2 days. The BOC report hadn't been completed/submitted yet. DWR used a "Project Safety Compliance Report" FERC category form to request the CEII. The information to justify this CEII status was noted from a structural inspection of Gates 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. This means that DWR is outright stating or inferring that there are structural reasons (issues?) with the Flood Control Gates. Note that Gates 1, 2, and 8 are not listed.

Thus the concern is not power related issues as "gate control lift units" are common in a power source. And, why now? Dam Inspection reports were careful to cover the inspection of the gates in 2014, 2015, and 2016. DWR is not asserting that there are 5 out of 8 gates that are in a "sensitive state" that require a CEII status designation. Did the inspectors miss something for 3 prior years on so many gates? Certainly the whole situation raises many questions, especially the timing 2 days just before the BOC expert's next report was going to be released.

How Reports Became Secret - initiated by a DWR request for CEII status 2 days before BOC's new report. Now all spillway reports inherit the "secret" status, including any of the following BOC reports.

2,905 posted on 04/02/2017 11:35:22 PM PDT by EarthResearcher333

for the 3rd time they have reduced flows from the power plant.. 1000, 500, and now another 500

11,000 outflow vs 13,000

Im sure they have been dredging so Im assuming water backup is not the problem

2,906 posted on 04/03/2017 6:08:25 AM PDT by janetjanet998

now they have reduced outflow to 8500 last hour

NOW ZERO this hour

2,907 posted on 04/03/2017 9:39:27 AM PDT by janetjanet998

To: janetjanet998; All

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article142272894.html

April 2, 2017 12:20 PM

Trump approves funds for California relief, including $274 million for Oroville Dam

Christopher Cadelago The Sacramento Bee
ccadelago@sacbee.com

President Donald Trump announced Sunday more than a half-billion dollars would be coming to California to help cover the damage from the winter storms, including $274 million for repairs to the Oroville Dam spillway.

The fulfillment of the fourth presidential declaration for damage from the winter storms totals an estimated $540 million.

Gov. Jerry Brown appealed for financial assistance last month in Washington. Brown met with Robert Fenton, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as part of the Democratic governor’s outreach to the new administration and congressional Republicans who control federal spending.

2,908 posted on 04/03/2017 9:41:35 AM PDT by abb ("News reporting is too important to be left to the journalists." Walter Abbott (1950 -))

Didn’t Scott Cahill say that the cost of repair before this catastrophe would have been about 5 or 6 million?

2,909 posted on 04/03/2017 9:45:17 AM PDT by pax_et_bonum (Never Forget the Seals of Extortion 17 - and God Bless America.)

To: pax_et_bonum

Upthread somewhere were the spreadsheets of bids for annual spillway maintenance. IIRC, $2 to 3 million.

2,910 posted on 04/03/2017 9:52:08 AM PDT by abb ("News reporting is too important to be left to the journalists." Walter Abbott (1950 -))

Pathetic and sad waste of money.

However, at this point I just hope that they can fix the thing for the sake of all the innocent people affected.

2,911 posted on 04/03/2017 9:57:18 AM PDT by pax_et_bonum (Never Forget the Seals of Extortion 17 - and God Bless America.)

To: pax_et_bonum

It was over at Metabunk.

https://www.metabunk.org/oroville-dam-spillway-failure.t8381/page-38#post-203716

In 2009, the contract was about $3/4 million.

2,912 posted on 04/03/2017 10:12:31 AM PDT by abb ("News reporting is too important to be left to the journalists." Walter Abbott (1950 -))

this morning update says nothing about plans shutting down the power plant...

says outflows at 11,000 as of 7am local time

also the water level is low so backwater isn’t the reason for the shutdown

http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/2017/040317_incident_update.pdf

2,913 posted on 04/03/2017 10:18:18 AM PDT by janetjanet998

To: janetjanet998

Maybe they’re going to test the river control valves and want to isolate the generators first. Speculating.

2,914 posted on 04/03/2017 11:02:31 AM PDT by meyer (The Constitution says what it says, and it doesn't say what it doesn't say.)

To: janetjanet998

2,915 posted on 04/03/2017 11:32:51 AM PDT by abb ("News reporting is too important to be left to the journalists." Walter Abbott (1950 -))

To: pax_et_bonum

You couldn’t mobilize to start the demolition for 5 to 6.

It will take that much to dig out Moombeam Canyon and then it has to be filled with some sort of engineered fill.

2,916 posted on 04/03/2017 12:36:52 PM PDT by KC Burke (If all the world is a stage, I would like to request my lighting be adjusted.)

outflow back to 10,000

2,917 posted on 04/03/2017 1:16:05 PM PDT by janetjanet998

2,918 posted on 04/03/2017 1:42:02 PM PDT by pax_et_bonum (Never Forget the Seals of Extortion 17 - and God Bless America.)

To: janetjanet998

Maybe they had to take that 4 hour shutdown to tie in the new electrical lines.
(speculation on my part)

2,919 posted on 04/03/2017 2:26:51 PM PDT by Repeal The 17th (I was conceived in liberty, how about you?)

To: EarthResearcher333

hmm...News story on DWR & CEII "secrecy" & DWR submittal suspicious timing.... (are they reading FRepublic?)

Are Oroville Dam Spillway Reports now 'secret' due to CA Department of Water Resources requesting CEII status?

http://www.catholic.org/news/green/story.php?id=74343

= = Article excerpt:

"A report dated March 10, 2017 from an independent panel of experts investigating the Oroville spillway crisis revealed serious design flaws that "riddled" the failed spillway. A new report from the panel of experts has now been barred from public access, deemed "secret". New information reveals that this "secret" status was requested by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) two days before the next report was to be published. Why?"

"LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) - After the evacuation of nearly 200,000 residents from the failure of the Oroville Dam Main Spillway and the Emergency Spillway, the public has relied on Oroville Dam authorities to provide accurate information on this ongoing crisis. President Trump has supported the urgency of the repair & rebuild of the Oroville dam spillways as announced this Sunday where Federal funding of $247 million was approved for DWR's estimated repair costs from Feb 7 to the end of May [2]. Recently, the public has been startled to discover that a newly formed independent panel of experts, called the Board Of Consultants (BOC), revealed that the concrete spillway had such serious flaws so "gross and obvious" that civil design engineers were noting that the BOC reports findings indicated that spillway could have failed decades earlier [1]. Because of the BOC panel findings, this information created heartburn for DWR as more questions of continued operational risk of the upper spillway have been raised."

"Now the public will be further alarmed by the recent news that any new BOC spillway analysis reports will be kept "secret"[3]. More disturbingly, this "secrecy" status was requested by DWR using a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) submission form called a "Project Safety Compliance Report". DWR filed this report based on findings of their inspection of the Main Spillway Gates. These Gates control the release of water using eight independent Radial Trunnion Gates to open up 17 foot by 33 foot chutes at the Gate Head Structure. DWR's cover letter to FERC requested a "secrecy" status using a "Critical Energy Infrastructure Information (CEII)" justification to issues or concerns discovered on their recent Structural Inspection of Gates nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. A CEII granting status will automatically deem any document associated with the Oroville spillway incident as "secret", including the BOC experts' reports. CEII classification is intended to protect against an "attack" on damaging U.S.A. infrastructure if particular information concerning the structure is considered to be an advantage to such."

= = more at link..

2,920 posted on 04/03/2017 2:51:32 PM PDT by EarthResearcher333

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794

The California Department of Water Resources issued a sudden evacuation order shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday for residents near the Oroville Dam in northern California, warning that the dam’s emergency spillway would fail in the next 60 minutes.