Construction continues on a high-speed rail viaduct over the Fresno River in Madera County. California High-Speed Rail Authority California High-Speed Rail Authority. Feb 16, 2016.
Posted on 02/18/2017 12:51:12 PM PST by Rummyfan
Tear down this dam? © Getty Images Oroville dam, the tallest in the nation, is currently in danger of structural failure.
Thousands living downstream from its desperate cascading water releases are evacuating their homes in Hollywood disaster-film fashion. Something premodern and apocalyptic like this was not supposed to have happened in a postmodern California of Google, Hollywood, and Napa Valley wineries.
California’s politicians and pundits in recent years of drought swore the state was entering a cycle of permanent drought (and thus saw no need to start construction on a single dam to store the rain and snow that supposedly would not return). Instead, they warned of the “settled science” of climate change and the need for permanent conservation and restrictions—even as near record storms this year have pushed California’s snow and rain levels in many places to over 200 percent of normal, well beyond the ability of our now ossified water projects to store the deluge that heads out to sea.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Dams are a bonus for the environment, for electrical generation, a safeguard against drought, and they represent one of the biggest returns on investment for public infrastructure spending.
Here in the Northwest we are not using 50% of our hydropower potential due to a host of issues that do not approach the benefits dams provide.
The Columbia river could support many more dams and more irrigation projects and any loss in salmon numbers could be made up by more hatcheries. The Canadians are expanding their electrical generation along the Columbia as we try to tear down ours.
There is nothing wrong with the dam. The main spillway is broken and needs to be rebuilt. The dam stands at 917 feet. The emergency spillway (the one that overtopped this week) is at 901 feet. Water will not come over the main dam unless an earthquake breaks it.
“Take a close look at this dam and you’ll see it’s a disaster just waiting to happen.”
What’s the current status of the Spillway? I hear there’s been heavy rains again.
While I agree in general with your assessment, there is little doubt that the dam is overdue for improvements. It also needs more overflow reservoirs within the system that would not only increase the safety margin and water storage capacity, it would increase the electrical output potential.
If the Federal government wants to spend more on infrastructure these kind of projects need to be on the list. The present system allows politicians to steal funds that are raised for one purpose to spend on projects with little public benefit.
This is one area where Trump is dead right - every public expenditure should come with a cost-benefit analysis for the taxpayers.
The emergency spillway is broken - badly. However, they were able to short it up a bit and as long as it does not create more erosion behind the dam itself and around the edges it is likely to withstand the heavy rains they are seeing.
It will need big repairs this year, but long-term, the best solution would be to increase the reservoir capacity upstream. Just my .02 and yes, some may lose their homes/land in the process.
“You can’t keep a reservoir so nearly full in the middle of winter. This is just another of many Jerry specials.”
My wife has a big fountain bird bath in our back yard.
She isn’t an engineer, but she figured this out. I just attach a weighted small irrigation jet outlet into her fountain to our yard irrigation system with a timer to fill during non rainy periods. I remove it when the fall rains start.
When the first rains come, it is down a couple of inches and then I remove the little injector. Then, rain water keeps it full and clean. WE haven’t added water since our first rain before Thanksgiving
She isn’t an engineer, but she figured this out. I just attach a weighted small irrigation to our irrigation system jet outlet into her fountain to our yard irrigation system with a timer to fill during non rainy periods. I remove it when the fall rains start.
It is indeed Trump’s fault: Those are righteous tears of dismay and sadness gushing from Oroville Dam. (After all, it came from snow melt, and snow melt comes from snowflakes.)
“It wasn’t San Andrea’s fault, and it wasn’t mine.
The whole darn thing just started to slide.”
Richard Brautigan
...or so I thought. A little googling revealed it was by someone named Charles Foster, and it went like this:
it
wasn’t
san
andreas
fault
it
wasn’t
mine
things
just
started
sliding.
Thank you folks.
They are currently in a “Damned if you do and damned if you don’t” situation.
If they continued to use the spillway to prevent rising water from topping and breaching the earthen dam, erosion around the spillway will cause Oroville Dam to breach at the spillway, but if they shut down the spillway, water will top and breach the earthen dam.
The proper course of action is to evacuate downstream populations and hope the rain stops long enough for them to shut down the spillway and repair it.
They evacuated 192,000 people down stream earlier this week, and now those people (most of them are back home).
Is Victor Davis Hanson now a columnist for The Hill?
It did seem like he was increasingly becoming no longer a good fit with the NeverTrump NRO.
.
>> “I do not think any money has been spent on the bullet train yet other than cost estimates.” <<
Well, your first four words might have been enough.
They have literally begun to recreate the Hooterville trolley to Pixley!
Massive land clearing, and construction has been done.
Jerry Brown is crazier than Mussolini.
.
postmodern = post-civilized
Construction continues on a high-speed rail viaduct over the Fresno River in Madera County. California High-Speed Rail Authority California High-Speed Rail Authority. Feb 16, 2016.
Wow Brautigan. Trout fishing in America. Revenge of the lawn, Rommel drives deep into Egypt. And the rest. I read most of his stuff.
He decided to eat a .44 magnum and left a note saying simply “Messy, isn’t it?” They found him many days after he decided to end it.
Thank you for the clarification. Many of us in the free states are not aware of the bullet rain construction activities. Cheers!
That dam will be fine if, at this time, they do NOT let any water over that EM spillway.
Then, after this is over, they need to get their heads out of thier back sides and do the proper repairs to it in the correct fashion.
I remember seeing an old, old movie on TV about the building of a fictional dam, a tall one like Hoover. Bad guys and good guys fight over some girl. bad building procedures, dam breaks and blows out. This film was probably made in the 1930s or 1940s.
Then there was THE EMERALD FOREST. Lots of other movies about dams like THE DAM BUSTERS(can’t mention the dog’s name).
There is a large dam above Farmngton New Mexico, a large earthen dam, on the San Juan river in NW New Mexico.
I still remember the Tulsa floods of 1957 and the building of Keystone dam. In 1973 Tulsa had lots of rain and a rumor went through town that the dam was cracking. It wasn’t.
When it comes to wasting money, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS. We’re #1!!
Dams? Who needs ‘em?
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