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I don’t think you’re following. No mystery there since the news headlines are a complete mess. The “spillway damage” you refer to is on the main spillway, not the infamous emergency spillway. It has a supporting role, in that it caused the authorities to ease back on the rate of release, to minimize damage, allowing the lake level to rise above the rim of the emergency spillway. This was referred to as “using the emergency spillway” in press, as though some kind of emergency spillway gate had been opened.

Well, the emergency spillway didn’t respond well. There is no runoff apron for it, as pointed out by THE SIERRA CLUB, note well, in a hearing TWELVE YEARS AGO, in which they predicted, to a point of precision, what is happening at this hour. The state and federal officials harrumphed and stonewalled, and nothing was done.

So then they opened the main spillway gates wide, and to hell with the spillway damage. In fact, this does not seem to be a dire threat, since it effectively has truncated the length of the main spillway sluice, but this has remained constant, and is well below the gate level.

Now the question is what kind of repairs can be done to the emergency spillway runoff area. But it would be a mistake to call these “repairs” since this area was never engineered or altered in anyway to accept runoff, Just as THE SIERRA CLUB pointed out 12 years ago.

Well, I’m on tenterhooks, at this hour.