I thought the level was now below the top and the spillway isn’t even spilling water any more? Does anyone know what’s going on over there?
Sheriff is making decisions because they don’t have any model for this scenario. They are just doing guess work. Avoiding human loss because of lack of analysis.
More rain due later this week.
More rain coming Wednesday, for several days. Supposed to be as big of a rain event as the one that caused this - by raising lake level 20 ft. Only now it is full, and they had to shut down part of the power plant, so even more flow headed towards the spillway. The lower 2/3 of the main spillway is basically destroyed. They are reluctant to put high flows down that because it is eroding towards the damn. This is a compressed earth damn, not a concrete gravity arch like Glen Canyon or Hoover. So they are using the emergency/ auxiliary spillway (for the first time). The concern there is, dumping water over that low wall may (almost certainly will) damage it’s foundation. Can they dump enough without too much damage? If the low wall that forms the auxiliary spillway failed, they uncontrollably dump the top 15 or 20 ft of the lake - causing flooding downstream. My guess is, they will run what they can through the power plant. Dump as much as they can get away with through the main spillway without letting it erode too much further towards the damn. Then the rest goes over the wall and erodes the heck out of that hillside. If that wall has to fail, so be it, they will sacrifice that to save the dam and prevent an even larger disaster.