Oroville Dam Reached Capacity Faster Than Previous 16 Years

Since going over capacity last week, the water level in the Oroville Dam has dropped, but it’s still at a higher level for this time of year than the previous 16 years. The dam reached capacity causing overflowing water to go into two of the dam’s spillways. But damage to those spillways created concern that they would fail and prompted an evacuation of nearly 200,000 people. The lift on the evacuation was announced on Tuesday, but because of projected high levels of precipitation for California this winter, residents are told to remain vigilant.