Oroville dam spillway!

[oakranger]

They don't need to get any worse. I'm sure they'll have an investigation, and some heads will roll, but in the end nothing will really change.

 
Sik

You are forgetting the snow.  They are up 175% this year and the rivers and stream are already floating high.  Add that with the rain could get worst.  Hope it doesn't but the threat is there.

[Zimme83]

Main spillway seems to be badly damage, if the flows continue there is a risk that the entire lower part will be gone...

 

[SIK1]

(Image removed from quote.)

Main spillway seems to be badly damage, if the flows continue there is a risk that the entire lower part will be gone...

Yeah the main spillway is fubar, and will continue to be damaged further until the rains and winter runoff subsides.

 
Sik 

[oakranger]

It will be a huge overhaul in fixing it.  And that's just one of many dams in that state that is in trouble from my understanding.

[zack1234]

If thing get any worst, which they will, I can see a huge state and federal investigation on this.

 

Thats a good one

[NatCigg]

It will be a huge overhaul in fixing it.  And that's just one of many dams in that state that is in trouble from my understanding.

just when building dams gets cool again.   

[Shuffler]

They were concerned the main spillway would keep eroding at the rate it had started at.... It did not. If it had the main spillway could have failed.

They were then concerned about the emergency spillway. It was not designed as an emergency spillway. The dam was never completed to the finished specifications. They would have had a holding area for excess water if it was finished.

When water went over the secondary spillway it started eroding below it and put it in danger of failing.

All of this was brought up over 12 years ago and they said the powers that be could not force them (California owns the dam) to spend money on it. California gambled with the lives below the dam and we are now seeing what may happen. Lucky that there was rime to get the folks out should it fail.

[puller]

Odd that such a new dam...compared to the WPA dams around here...could not have been inspected and someone been told that if they start releasing too much water through the dam the spillway flume might start coming apart...

Saw a pic of trucks parked parked in the failure area and another of the same area gone...washed into the river...hell if they wanna be cheap blast the bottom part of the spillway out and get some use out of the bedrock...

That is a small spillway for the second largest lake in CA...Lake Fort Gibson's dam has 30 tainter gates and way more impressive... When the lake is up they move water...and they never stop generating... In the pic above it appears they are not generating ...if I was worried about my spillway I would be generating some electric while I was wasting the water I just got through praying for because of the never ending drought that I was told we were in...

[Beefcake]

The thing that confuses me is why doesn't the emergency spillway have a clear or concrete flume to guide the water down? It just rides over and flows down the hillside taking everything with it. After living near Philpott Dam in VA all my life it's just such an odd design.

[Shuffler]

The thing that confuses me is why doesn't the emergency spillway have a clear or concrete flume to guide the water down? It just rides over and flows down the hillside taking everything with it. After living near Philpott Dam in VA all my life it's just such an odd design.

(Image removed from quote.)

The dam was never finished.

[Beefcake]

The dam was never finished.

Figures.

[BoilerDown]

The dam was never finished.

Kind of deceptive statement.  The only perfectly safe dam is one that costs an infinite amount of money to "finish": http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/precarious-oroville-dam-highlights-challenges-california-water-management

[Hajo]

With all this rain did the Salton Sea fill any?

If I remember correctly the State of California had to pump water into another dry lake to keep the toxic dust from spreading in the wind.  I hope the rains have helped in that area also.

[SIK1]

Odd that such a new dam...compared to the WPA dams around here...could not have been inspected and someone been told that if they start releasing too much water through the dam the spillway flume might start coming apart...

Saw a pic of trucks parked parked in the failure area and another of the same area gone...washed into the river...hell if they wanna be cheap blast the bottom part of the spillway out and get some use out of the bedrock...

That is a small spillway for the second largest lake in CA...Lake Fort Gibson's dam has 30 tainter gates and way more impressive... When the lake is up they move water...and they never stop generating... In the pic above it appears they are not generating ...if I was worried about my spillway I would be generating some electric while I was wasting the water I just got through praying for because of the never ending drought that I was told we were in...

In fact Oroville dam was inspected and flaws were found. I think Zimme83 posted a link to the story in this thread.

They are not generating power because they had some unspecified problem with the power powerplant.

 
Sik

[Serenity]

With all this rain did the Salton Sea fill any?

If I remember correctly the State of California had to pump water into another dry lake to keep the toxic dust from spreading in the wind.  I hope the rains have helped in that area also.

Doubtful. When I was there in January, San Diego was getting HAMMERED with rain, but while the clouds came over the mountains and messed up our high work, they didn't bring much water with them.