http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Oroville-Dam-repair-is-huge-but-so-is-11227869.php
Oroville Dam repair is huge, but so is residents’ mistrust
By Kurtis Alexander
June 18, 2017 Updated: June 18, 2017 9:50pm
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The 3,000-foot-long main chute — where the crisis began Feb. 7 when a crater opened up amid heavy releases from the lake — didn’t have water stops to seal joints and prevent leaks from weakening it. Also, there is too little steel reinforcement in the structure, and the pipes that drain water beneath it are made of clay instead of superior PVC.
“You can’t even find clay pipes anymore,” Gutierrez said, as he looked down from the top of the 770-foot earthen dam that was completed in 1968.
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Critics of the Department of Water Resources say deficiencies in the spillways should have been addressed — if not when the dam was built in the 1960s, then in ensuing decades as dam safety science evolved.
While state officials insist they’ve done all they can to keep the dam safe, the team investigating the spillways said it’s looking into the possibility of poor management.
“I’m not sure that we’re going to be pointing blame on any particular person or organization,” said John France, an independent engineering consultant who is leading the investigation. “We’re more trying to focus on what lessons we can learn on how the process may have let us down in terms of not having the proper training or not responding to things the way they should have.”
“State consultant and former Department of Water Resources manager Dave Gutierrez, who is advising on the project, said many of the shortcomings are the result of the dam’s age.”
““You can’t even find clay pipes anymore,” Gutierrez said, as he looked down from the top of the 770-foot earthen dam that was completed in 1968.”
Why would Gutierrez tell such an obvious untruth?
http://www.ncpi.org/
National Clay Pipe Institute
http://www.loganclaypipe.com/pipeprods_b.html
Logan Clay Pipe Products
http://missionclay.com/
Mission Clay Products
http://www.canclay.com/
Can Clay Corp.
http://www.loganclaypipe.com/
Logan Clay Pipe