Posted on 03/01/2017 11:10:02 AM PST by Slicksadick
Geologists attempted for the first time Tuesday to figure out what to do about the vast, yawning canyon dug out of the earth after a crater opened up in the Oroville Dams concrete spillway and diverted water at high speed into the adjacent hillside.
They shut the water down this morning to view the damage. Video at Link.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I can fix it. My dad is a TV repairman and he has an AWESOME set of tools.
I hope you’re right. The Americans in California will never be free till Brown’s tax fed illegal voter plantation is shut down.
No idea of the truth, may be worth investigating, but one comment I heard (from more than one source) was that the politics of the area had an affect on what “shovel ready infrastructure” money was allocated where in 2009. The Oroville area is pretty conservative:
[url=http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/19/oroville-dam-president-trump-governor-jerry-brown-feud-funding-conservative/98129510/] USA Today article[/url]
and the stories on the funding back up the “selective” distribution:
[url=http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/oroville-dam-obama-stimulus/2017/02/16/id/774072/]Newsmax article[/url]
Both of the pictures at the top of the thread are out of date. The top one is of the emergency spillway after the water was shut off. Because they thought the erosion at bottom center would work its way up to the weir and undermine it, they evacuated 185,000 people from the Oroville area Sunday a couple of weeks ago. They have since filled in the erosion areas near the weir with rock and concrete.
The bottom picture at the top of the thread is the main spillway shows the initial damage to it. Because they were afraid the emergency spillway would fail, they opened the flood gates to allow 100,000 cubic feet per second of water to come down the main spillway causing the damage seen in post #21.
I believe the main spillway has been used previously to lower the lake to provide room for runoff in earlier years. The emergency one had never been used until February 11 and 12.
I see what you did there. Sarcasm.
The area shown in the top picture is the area at the top of the bottom picture...off to the left of the main spillway where water came over the wall. They were taken at different times.
Earth is mightier than we.
I laugh at the goo goo enviroNazis and commie libs who think we can hurt or kill the earth. We are like algae on a blue whale.
Old photo? I thought I saw a lot more erosion to the hill to the right of the main spillway than that.
And welfare and gay parades and bankrupt solar projects and tilting at windmills for power.
California is as corrupt and wasteful as they come.
That was an important, but secondary consideration.
The dam was built for flood control.
The dam is completely undamaged. It is the spillways that is where the damage is. All damage is well below the dam except the auxiliary spillway which is a massive concrete levee. It probably wouldn’t have failed under the circumstances of the day. The erosion of the auxiliary spillway was into the hillside below the auxiliary spillway which was just intended for the water to run down that hillside in the unlikely event that the water would ever get that high.
The only real reason that it overflowed the auxiliary spillway was because they stopped the main spillway to get a look at it. Obviously there was damage but geezo it was way far out from the actual dam itself. The dam is not a steep slope by any means.
I’m not saying everything is fine, just that getting all alarmed about it and making it Jerry Brown’s problem is concern trolling.
I wonder how much gold was washed down stream during the emergency spill?
As for waiving the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) so they can perform repairs, I say leave it in place. It will only take a few months to process which gives them plenty of time to get bid documents together and accept public bids. If the Feds waive the requirement then the State will give out sweetheart “no-bid” contracts to their cronies at double the normal cost.
The dam was built for both water conservation and flood control but primarily for conservation. Maybe it has been used for flood control but that is not the primary purpose for building it in the first place. Read up on California Water Project.
Thanks, good writeup by someone that knows what they are talking about.
The concrete slab over the bedrock is fine, although they may consider drilling the bedrock and doweling that into the concrete slabs to eliminate future movement.
I am not an expert, but repair seems an inadequate word for what needs to be done.
In 1861 much of the state flooded. This year’s rain still pales in comparison.
So, it's not unfair to blame Brown. He was/is ultimately responsible.
A repair was made and inspected every year and pronounced 'fine'. Yet it failed, which shows the problem was not successfully ananlyzed or addressed.
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