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Video at link. By using the word "Test" he is not referring to official stress testing, but stating that expected rains are going to exert pressure on the dam's specifications and spillway. I didn't watch the whole video, the first few minutes gives the idea.

Complacency, bureaucracy and an inadequate safety culture led to the failure last year of the Oroville Dam spillway, according to an independent investigation report released Friday. The findings point to human error by a number of organizations but say that the dam's owner, the California Department of Water Resources, was "significantly overconfident and complacent about the integrity of its State Water Project civil infrastructure, including dams." It describes the department as an "insular organization which inhibited accessing industry knowledge and developing needed technical expertise." Within the department, the engineering division clashed with the operations and maintenance staff, resulting in a...

The primary spillway at Lake Oroville as water rushes down it on Feb. 11 and gets diverted into a crevasse in the adjacent hillside where a portion of the spillway has eroded. Photo: California Department of Water Resources Brace yourselves for more potential drama as California's Department of Water Resources once again tests Mother Nature's kindness and begins releasing more massive amounts of water down the Oroville Dam spillway next week. The dam's floodgates have been closed since February 27 in order that work crews could clear debris that had collected around the bottom of the spillway and downstream...

"Pretty, but not very solid. Cement walls could be higher/more reliable. C'mon dam, you had one job."--Noah Lantz, one star "I here the spillway is great right now for white water rafting. Watch out for street poles down stream though"--David Lansing, five stars "I give this dam 5 stars, because it's a shining beacon of the kind of California doctrine that they want for the rest of the country!"--Richard Howell, five stars "Dam does a great job at showcasing American ingenuity, the advances we have collectively made in water management, materials science, and our fundamentally negligent attitudes towards maintenance and...

How did a giant, gaping hole tear through the massive Oroville Dam’s main concrete spillway last week, setting in motion the chain of events that could have led to one of America’s deadliest dam failures? Dam experts around the country are focusing on a leading suspect: Tiny bubbles.The prospect is simple, yet terrifying and has been the culprit in a number of near disasters at dams across the globe since engineers discovered it about 50 years ago. In a process called “cavitation,” ...

Officials at Lake Oroville reduced the rate of water release once again Friday as workers continued make repairs to a damaged spillway and clear debris from a hydroelectric plant. State Department of Water Resources engineers will decrease the flow of water in the Oroville Dam's main spillway from 80,000 cubic feet per second to 60,000 by Saturday morning, giving crews space to dredge debris from a pool at the bottom of the spillway, said DWR acting director Bill Croyle. Engineers had been pumping water out of the lake at 100,000 cfs for several days to make room for incoming storm...

Oroville Crews worked into the night Wednesday to shore up the emergency spillway at troubled Oroville Dam, racing to fortify the structure before the next series of storms, the first of which was forecast to hit before midnight. Three storm systems will move into Northern California during the next six days, according to the National Weather Service. The first system will drop about an inch of rain in the Oroville area between 10 p.m. Wednesday and 4 p.m. Thursday. Greater amounts of precipitation will fall in the mountains northeast of the reservoir. Forecasters are confident that the first two storm...

Five separate videos shot by CA DWR as the emergency spillway becomes active (overtops) at 8:a.m. on Saturday morning through Sunday p.m., and work on Monday to drop rock to fill the erosion channels. Most videos are from drones and the relationship of the spillway to the main spillway on the right (direction southeast) and the parking lot on the left (direction northwest) can be easily seen. It appears that the fear of failure of the emergency spillway was two-fold with erosion moving back up to the narrow base of the spillway and possibly undercutting the concrete spillway, and the...

Authorities lifted mandatory evacuation orders Tuesday for communities below the Oroville Dam. At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea announced the order had been changed to an evacuation warning after he said the risk of flooding had been reduced. "We have concluded it is safe to reduce the emergency evacuation order to an evacuation warning"said Honea, who had made the initial call Sunday to evacuate a large swath of three counties below the imperiled dam. At the time, residents were told the spillway to the dam could collapse within an hour. Roadblocks on the two main...

Footage of crews using helicopters yesterday to move large bags of rocks into Oroville emergency dam spillway.

UPDATE: Drone video over spillway added.Collapse of emergency spillway expected, evacuation orderedDepartment of Water Resources officials say they expect the emergency spillway at Oroville Dam to fail, and say residents should evacuate northward.The emergency spillway suffered erosion and could fail, according to DWR. If that happens, the water behind that barrier will comedown the hill and down the river.Flow through the broken main spillway was increased to 100,000 cubic feet per second in an effort to lower the water level in the lake more rapidly.The Butte County Sheriff’s Office reports helicopters will be depositing rock-filled containers to strengthen the potential...

California Gov. Jerry Brown, appealing to the Trump administration for direct federal assistance on the Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway, said Monday that he remains encouraged that the state and federal government can work constructively.

OROVILLE, Calif. (KCRA) — Crews are beginning to make repairs to the spillways at Lake Oroville, the California Department of Water Resources said. “Efforts are underway to make repairs to both the primary and auxiliary spillways at Lake Oroville,” officials tweeted. Military-grade helicopters are picking up 1-ton containers of rocks from a parking lot near Lake Oroville, flying them to the erosion scar at the emergency spillway and dropping the containers into the hole.

A California dam threatened by a damaged emergency spillway has operated under temporary licenses for a decade. A spokeswoman for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says a 50-year license for Oroville Dam, the nation's tallest, expired in January 2007. Mary O'Driscoll told The Associated Press that the facility has been operating under an existing license that's renewed each year. The California Department of Water Resources, which operates the dam, applied for a new 50-year license in 2005. O'Driscoll said the federal agency finally received all the necessary permits and other documents needed to decide on the new license last December....

"Officials are anticipating a failure of the Auxiliary Spillway at Oroville Dam within the next 60 minutes (5:45 p.m.)," the California Department of Water Resources said on Facebook. The Yuba County Office of Emergency Services said on Facebook an evacuation has been for "all Yuba County on the valley floor." The city of Marysville and Yuba County have been ordered to evacuate, the Marysville Police Department tweeted.

OROVILLE — Immediate evacuations have been ordered for residents of the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream, according to officials with the California Department of Water Resources. Officials say a hazardous situation is developing with the Oroville Dam auxiliary spillway. The operation of the auxiliary spillway has led to severe erosion that could lead to a failure of the auxiliary spillway. Officials are anticipating a failure of the auxiliary spillway at Oroville Dam within the next 60 minutes.

"OROVILLE, Calif. - An immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered. A hazardous situation has developed with the Oroville Dam emergency spillway. Officials say that operation of the auxiliary spillway has lead to severe erosion that could lead to a failure of the structure. Failure of the emergency spillway structure will result in an uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake Oroville. ... Officials are anticipating a failure of the auxiliary spillway at Oroville Dam within the next 60 minutes ..."

The Butte County Sheriff’ Office released the following statement on Facebook: This is an evacuation order. Immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered. A hazardous situation is developing with the Oroville Dam auxiliary spillway. Operation of the auxiliary spillway has lead to severe erosion that could lead to a failure of the structure. Failure of the auxiliary spillway structure will result in an uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake Oroville.In response to this developing situation, DWR is increasing water releases to 100,000 cubic feet per second. Immediate evacuation from the low levels of...

<p>OROVILLE, Calif. - An immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered.</p> <p>A hazardous situation has developed with the Oroville Dam auxiliary spillway. Officials say that operation of the auxiliary spillway has lead to severe erosion that could lead to a failure of the structure.</p>

Officials say water has begun flowing over the emergency spillway at Lake Oroville for the first time since it opened in 1968 in Northern California's Butte County. A spokesman for California's Department of Water Resources says water began flowing over the emergency spillway around 8 a.m. Saturday. Officials had been hoping to avoid using the emergency spillway because it could cause trees to fall