Juan’s update 3-17 at the bottom of spillway as it was reopened..I wonder how he get can get so close since he isn’t media
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQe0J5NLLT4
Thanks for posting Juan’s update. He is doing a good job of keeping people informed at a very basic, understandable level.
I believe that he was granted a press pass early on, so he is effectively “the press”.
It is good to see that once the initial “washing” was done and the water was ramped up to the 40,000-50,000 range, the flow is essentially clear coming down the hill. That bodes well for minimizing the debris that will be present when they again shut the spillway down. It’s bound to be less than before simply because they aren’t removing much material now. The bottom flow is essentially in bedrock.
Good update. Thanks Janet.
A couple of questions.
In Juan’s update 3/17 that shows the re-start of the spillway,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQe0J5NLLT4 he apparently was told that 40,000 cfs was the max safe flow right now although the spillway was built for a capacity of around 150,000 cfs. That’s a little less than a third capacity it can run right now.
1) Question: What was the actual sustained top flow rate on the main spillway during the February 2017 time-frame when basically all hell broke loose?
2) Question: If they were able to effectively repair and seal off the upper portion of the spillway, could a viable alternative be to simply get rid of the remaining lower spillway and the debris down to the bedrock below the upper spillway and let the water free-fall from the upper spillway onto and through the bedrock to the river below, a bit like it’s doing now but after all the non-bedrock is cleared?