VIDEO: How Rain and Melting Snow Could Affect the California Dam Crisis
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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OPINION: The Oroville Dam Disaster Is Yet Another Example Of California’s Decline
A year ago, politicians and experts were predicting a near-permanent statewide drought, a “new normal” desert climate. The most vivid example of how wrong they were is that California’s majestic Oroville Dam is currently in danger of spillway failure in a season of record snow and rainfall. That could spell catastrophe for thousands who live below it and for the state of California at large that depends on its stored water.
California Dams Lagging Behind Inspection Schedules
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.
Oroville Dam Isn’t The Only Piece Of California Flood Infrastructure Under Strain
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.
How Do You Fix Crippled Oroville Spillway? Tons of Rocks and Sandbags
With new storms approach, work will continue Tuesday at Oroville Dam to shore up a damaged emergency spillway that prompted the evacuation of more than 100,000 residents. What are workers doing? Drops: Helicopters are dropping sacks of rocks into a hole created by erosion. Dump trucks are also bringing in more rocks to patch other spots and create slurry. Road: They’re also building a gravel road out to where the helicopters are dropping the rocks. Then the trucks can drive out and create a slurry to deposit.
Cold Storm and Snow Could Help Avert Disaster at Oroville Dam
The game plan is to get water behind the Oroville Dam below what its engineering designs call “flood control storage,” and keep it there. At that depth, the dam would have a buffer capacity of half a million acre-feet of water. At the current release rate, a pounding 100,000 cubic feet per second, the dam will reach that point by late Saturday or early Sunday, even with another rain system arriving Wednesday, said Bill Croyle, acting director of the state Department of Water Resources.
San Diego Could Get 3 Inches Of Rain Friday-Saturday
A Pacific storm that’s expected to tap into moisture from the sub-tropics will hit San Diego County on Friday and Saturday and drop 1.5’’ to 3’’ of rain at the coast, says the National Weather Service. The winds could gust close to 50 mph in San Diego, and to nearly 40 mph in Oceanside. Usually, the region’s mountains and foothills receive the heaviest precipitation from such storms. But forecasters say the coast could record the heaviest precipitation during this system.
Oroville Dam Inspectors Ignored Integrity Of Hillside That Eroded
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.
With More Rain Forecast, Crews Work To Reinforce Oroville Dam
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.
4 Questions About Damaged Oroville Dam
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 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.
