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Oroville Dam: Residents Allowed To Return As Water Level Drops

/in /by /CNNby Holly Yan, Paul Vercammen and Steve Almasy

With the water level at California’s Lake Oroville dropping, authorities lifted a mandatory evacuation order, allowing tens of thousands of residents to return to homes near the reservoir’s dam. But Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea on Tuesday cautioned residents and business owners to “maintain situational awareness” with a series of storms forecast for later in the week. “People who have special needs or require extended time to evacuate should consider remaining evacuated,” the sheriff said. Heavy rains last week caused the lake level to rise until the water began to pour down the emergency spillway on Sunday.

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Lake Oroville Critical To California’s Complex Water System

/in /by /The Associated Press (As published by Capital Press)

Lake Oroville and its dam in Northern California are critical components in California’s complex water-delivery system. Damage to spillways that are used to drop water levels in the lake and relieve pressure on the dam prompted evacuation orders covering nearly 200,000 people. Here’s a look at Lake Oroville and its place in California’s water system: How important is Lake Oroville? Lake Oroville is the starting point for California’s State Water Project, which provides drinking water to 23 million of the state’s 39 million people and irrigates 750,000 acres of farms.

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Shasta Dam Set For High Release For Next Few Weeks

/in /by /Redding Record Searchlight

Flood water from the Sacramento River will continue to be a concern for residents along the river as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation releases 79,000 cubic feet per second from Shasta Dam for the next couple of weeks. The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office says residents along the river should be aware of rising flood water. The Redding and Anderson Police Departments will be working with the California Highway Patrol, Redding Fire Department and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as flooding occurs.

 

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Satellite Images How How Much Central Coast Reservoirs Have Filled In Just One Month

/in /by /The Tribune (San Luis Obispo)by Janene Scully

Images captured by a satellite launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base four years ago show the dramatic difference in water levels for two Central Coast reservoirs after recent rains. The U.S. Geological Survey posted a Landsat 8 image from Dec. 29, showing low water levels for Lake San Antonio in Monterey County and Lake Nacimiento in both San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties. California’s drought left Lake Nacimiento only 22 percent full as of late last year.

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OPINION: Avoiding the Next Oroville Dam Disaster

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicle

At 770 feet, the Oroville Dam is the nation’s highest. At 48 years old, it’s certainly not the nation’s newest dam. It’s important to keep that fact in mind as crews work around the clock in an attempt to reinforce the dam’s damaged emergency spillway before the next round of rains begin later this week in Northern California. The Oroville Dam, like many of the dams, levees, seawalls, and other human efforts to contain nature, is a crucial piece of infrastructure that must be maintained and monitored.

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VIDEO: How Rain and Melting Snow Could Affect the California Dam Crisis

/in /by /The Washington Post

More rain is expected in Northern California and the melting season is just around the corner. Here’s what all that extra water means for the Lake Oroville dam.

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California Dams Lagging Behind Inspection Schedules

/in /by /ABC30 News (Fresno)by Corin Hoggard
A lot of California’s aging dams are falling behind on inspections and may be operating without an emergency action plan. The marina at Lake Success has rarely been higher than it is this winter, but what’s good for business may be a white knuckle moment for people living downstream. The lake is about as high as its been in a decade and the National Inventory of Dams shows Success Dam hasn’t been inspected since September 2013.

 

 

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Oroville Dam Isn’t The Only Piece Of California Flood Infrastructure Under Strain

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow, Ellen Garrison, and Brad Branan

All eyes have been on the crisis at Oroville Dam, but weeks of wet weather have put pressure elsewhere on the network of levees and dams protecting cities and farms in California’s vast Central Valley flood plain. Almost all of the major reservoirs that ring the Valley have filled to the point that officials have cranked up releases to catch water from a storm building up off California’s coast that’s expected to hit Wednesday night.

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Oroville Dam Inspectors Ignored Integrity Of Hillside That Eroded

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Peter Fimrite and Kurtis Alexander

Inspectors visited Oroville Dam 14 times since 2008 but never considered the integrity of the hillside that eroded below the emergency spillway, leading to a near catastrophe that forced the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream, state records show. The inspections by the state’s Division of Safety of Dams repeatedly mentioned the concrete apron, or weir, at the top of the emergency spillway, and often included photographs of it. “The structure was stable appearing, and the concrete remains sound,” inspectors wrote after their latest visit to the state-run dam in August 2016.

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With More Rain Forecast, Crews Work To Reinforce Oroville Dam

/in /by /NPRby Rebecca Hersher

In California, construction crews are trying to lower the level of Lake Oroville and repair emergency spillways at the Oroville Dam, about 75 miles north of Sacramento, to prevent catastrophic flooding downstream. A secondary spillway was opened Monday after the main spillway, which is supposed to safely release water when the lake level is too high, had developed a huge hole, as we reported. Rain is forecast for later this week in Northern California, and nearly 200,000 people who live downstream have been evacuated from the area.

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