There is little chance of that now that the water over the emergency spillway has ceased. But as HKMk23 said, if they hadn't stopped the flow, the emergency spillway could have been compromised possibly leading to a V-shaped release that could propagate south along the spillway top threatening the concrete spillway and maybe the dam itself. It would depend on the presence and strength of the underlying bedrock but as we saw with just a few feet of flowing water there was considerable erosion. Just imagine what 30 feet of hydraulic head would do!
Before that spillway is used again, it will have to be investigated including the properties of the subsurface material in the vicinity of that spillway. I expect there will be a drilling project to determine the depth and type of bedrock below the overlying jointed and fractured rock followed by backfill and cementing to the surface.
Good Lord, would not all the soils (meaning the underlying strata) have been thoroughly(!!!) investigated before the Oroville (construction) project was even approved? Especially in CA?
We are not the Chinese... well... usually not...
Would not that soils information be public? Somebody needs to literally start digging that info. up, fast, before some idiot trying to CYA causes unnecessary deaths.
A high school buddy of mine is a foundation engineering expert — I’ll bet he’s “glued” to this story!
Rain coming in Wednesday to that area, and increasing snowmelt happening.