We’ll see how they respond now that the spotlight is on them. They can try to hide the information, but the more they hide, the harder people will look.
“work has been requested,... but they never get to it”. We get a LOT of that in the power industry as well. Logistics are a problem - with our work, equipment needs to be outaged to perform much of it, but you run into competing outage work and insufficient redundancy. We always operate the transmission grid, and generation, to the next, worst contingency, to allow for unplanned failures and emergencies. Stuff does happen, a lot.
While the system is extremely robust in the spring and fall (maintenance season), there is much less room for planned work in the summer. So the planning is very tight and things get prioritized and re-prioritized seemingly weekly. And the unplanned always happens - generator boiler tube failure, unavailable gas supply, weather-induced outage, equipment failure, unexpected warm or cold spell - all that kind of thing happens every day somewhere or other. It all keeps my job interesting.
I may need a safe room if I’m not allow to work on the Float.
I’ll go sit in the Christy Jones Memorial Lawn and someone should get back to me.
IIRC, this same scenario played out in the Katrina disaster.....corrupt and lazy overseers let needed repairs go undone...
The problem is that CEII has allowed DWR to weaponize the process of hiding secrets. To ferret out solid information that penetrates the DWR PR games & CEII "hiding" of information requires an extraordinary effort & skillset that the press doesn't have. The Press requires getting credentialed Engineers on the record where the engineers have real data to evaluate in order to do a story. DWR can say anything they want to spin but if there is no real data out there for independent analysis from engineering peers, the press is effectively muted.
That is what is so frustrating about this. From what I've seen in the piles of FERC/DWR communications, the comments, the mis-leading info DWR gives to FERC, the outright contradictions given to FERC, the intentional absence of critical facts to FERC, the proof of effective "incompetency" in realizing the level of what high reliability "safety and risk" really mean... DWR shouldn't be allowed to operate this dam. It should be immediately taken control of by another entity who KNOWS what it takes.
But the press cannot say this as they have been hamstrung by the games being played.
You comment about transmission power reliability affected by stretched infrastructure & decisions, yet the consumer has the ability to install backup systems in critical operations such as Hospitals. Where is the "backup" to a failed dam? There is none. The outcome is unthinkable. There cannot be a scintilla of acceptance of compromise on a high-reliability system operation as a dam when it directly risks hundreds of thousands of lives, plus critical infrastructure, levees, agriculture, and the water delivery system to the state.
Because the press is hampered with DWR's games, is partly (or mainly) why I continue to try to get information out there. Yes, there are some I help with information to get items out there besides the forum. But this is taking a toll. I was in the Emergency Room for 5 hours yesterday getting a heart cardioversion (anesthesia then shock paddles). I wish there were more brave souls digging on this, but forums are only as good as the "safe cracker" that can get beyond DWR's games of hiding via CEII and "telling stories".
I am very thankful for those who contribute on forums, postings, and in any way they can, especially the brave souls such as Professor Robert Bea (and other engineers that have come forward).
But the pressure on DWR is only as good as the "safe cracking" in getting actionable information out there.... I better stop or I'll end up in the ER again.