CA - ‘Uncharted territory’ as Lake Oroville rises toward damaged dam

[SophieRose]

When I think of snowmelt causing flooding I think of the Red River flood in 1997 in North Dakota.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Red_River_flood_in_the_United_States

[video=youtube;7-bjNOtBepI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-bjNOtBepI[/video]

 

[CARIIS]

officials at the troubled Lake Oroville have supplied a dust-control plan to air quality officials after cancer-causing asbestos was detected at the work site this week.

I don't know was not really what I expected it to look like when water comes tomorrow

Doesn't it look like water would splash backwards??

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/16/oroville-dam-residents-ready-for-use-of-spillway-again/

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-oroville-asbestos-20170316-story.html

 

[CARIIS]

[FONT=&quot]Maybe the Oroville Dam was cursed from the start.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]In December 1964, three years into the massive barrier’s construction, a huge flood struck the northwest, killing dozens. The dam was nearly overtopped, which could have led to its failure even before it was completed. Instead, the partially completed dam helped prevent a larger disaster by reducing the flow of the Feather River. Less than a year later, two trains working on the site collided head-on in a tunnel near the dam, killing four men in a fiery crash and damaging the tunnel, slowing down work on the project.

A drop of water that starts at Lake Oroville, above the dam, takes 10 days to move all the way to the end of the system, south of Los Angeles.

American Society of Civil Engineers conducted its most recent quadrennial survey of the nation’s infrastructure, and it gave the U.S. a ‘D’ for maintenance of dams.

More existing dams in the U.S. were built in the 1960s, like the Oroville Dam, than in any other decade. The combination of aging dams, bad maintenance, and spotty inspections means that what looks like a trickle of worry out of Lake Oroville and over the dam’s fragile spillways could turn into a gusher of danger around the U.S. in the coming years.............

https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2017/02/how-did-the-oroville-dam-get-so-bad/516429/[/FONT]

 

[CARIIS]

Here is the power plant

The Edward Hyatt Powerplant is located about 670 feet below Oroville Dam's crest.

... Dam forms the Diversion Pool, 13,328 acre-feet gross capacity, on the Feather River immediately downstream from the tailrace of Edward Hyatt Powerplant.

Hyatt Powerplant was constructed in the bedrock below Lake Oroville. A cavern the size of two football fields was dug out to house the facility. Of the six units, three can pump water or generate power.

Lake Oroville and Oroville Dam are part of a complex which includes Hyatt Powerplant, Thermalito Diversion Dam and Powerplant, the Feather River Fish Hatchery, Thermalito Power Canal, Thermalito Forebay, Thermalito Pumping- Generating Plant, Thermalito Afterbay, and the Lake Oroville Visitors Center.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Hyatt+Power+Plant&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS702US702&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiAw6uItt3SAhWF7iYKHTUVDFIQ_AUICCgD&biw=1088&bih=530

 

[CARIIS]

Does anyone remember if there was ever a cfs estimate when the emergency spillway overtopped?

Thinking well maybe if the main spillway craps out, and the only answer till dry season is going to be that one, now that it is shored up that might be ok?

Anyone thoughts?

 

[CARIIS]

hummmm

These flow levels will be achieved by reducing releases from the Hyatt Power Plant and then adding releases through the regular Oroville Dam flood control spillway.

The Feather River elevation will rise between 10 and 15 feet Friday.

Outflows and river levels will remain steady for roughly a week before being reduced again. The increased flows will continue to leave sufficient storage in Lake Oroville to take on more water from rain or snowmelt.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-st...-releases-and-feather-river-flows-to-increase

 

[Indy Anna]

officials at the troubled Lake Oroville have supplied a dust-control plan to air quality officials after cancer-causing asbestos was detected at the work site this week.


http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-oroville-asbestos-20170316-story.html

RSBM
Oh, no. The finding of asbestos is terrible news. I hope their plan does control it. This is a perilous job as it is.

My dad developed asbestosis at an early age from working on the railroad and working as a bus mechanic. In his late 70's, he developed an aggressive form of lymphoma and died within 3 months of diagnosis. Good thing he didn't smoke, or likely we'd have lost him much sooner.

 

[SophieRose]

I thought that $200 million estimate was too low.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-oroville-repair-spillway-release-20170317-story.html

Costs for repairs at the troubled Oroville Dam will be “much higher” than an initial estimate of $100 million to $200 million, a state water official said Friday.

Final plans for how to repair the reservoir’s massive spillway — which eroded and fractured last month, leading to a major crisis — are still weeks away, according to Bill Croyle, acting director for the Department of Water Resources.

In the interim, Croyle said, DWR must use the spillway to keep the reservoir from reaching capacity.

The release is expected to last five or six days and should lower the water level from 864 feet to about 838 feet, Croyle said. The capacity of the lake is 900 feet. If the lake level exceeds that, water will overflow and run down the facility’s badly damaged emergency spillway.

 

[CARIIS]

A major turning point today in the "Battle of Midway" for Oroville Dam.

Trying to get caught up on what is going on now :

I wanted to see how they did the increaes

03/11/2017 13:00 13000 cfs
03/13/2017 10:00 13700 cfs
03/14/2017 16:00 14200
03/16/2017 15:00 13500
03/16/2017 15:30 12800 cfs
03/16/2017 19:00 13300 cfs
03/17/2017 09:00 23000 cfs
03/17/2017 11:47 33000 cfs
03/17/2017 14:00 41000 cfs
03/17/2017 16:30 48000 cfs
03/17/2017 20:00 50000 cfs

Sean did not let us down he went to Feather River - current picking up

Lake Tahoe expected to fill up with largest physical rise in recorded history


http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/...level-rise-record-11007117.php#photo-12560259

 

[CARIIS]

“At the moment, I need to get some water out of this reservoir, so as long as we don’t see catastrophic loss of a lot of concrete then we’re going to need to roll through this,” Croyle said. “If we need to deploy another corrective measure we can do it.”

Croyle said the current weeklong spill will be the first of up to three lengthy releases before June 1, as snow melts in the mountains and flows into Lake Oroville. The sooner the state can stop using the spillway, the sooner it can start fixing it.

The reservoir’s Hyatt Power Plant, which had been pumping 12,900 cubic feet per second of water out of the reservoir, was shut off during Friday’s procedure. Managers need to make sure the hydroelectric plant will work simultaneously with the spillway.

professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis, said the key over the next three months is for the state to use the spillway as little as possible, with just enough releases to handle the melting snowpack.

biggest risk to me could be that the operation of the gated spillway would cause continued erosion of rock into the river that would block the hydropower outlets,” forcing the power plant to remain shut down and unable to release water, said Lund

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oroville-dam-operators-forced-to-send-more-water-11009935.php

 

[CARIIS]

http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article139117943.html

Tid bits

WOW (this is one of those pages that drives me coo coo!

THe were dredging 30 feet deep!

My sense is they think snowmelt is really not a big deal??

 

[CARIIS]

Here is our professor !! Learned lots!

Here it is guys:

[video=youtube;kQe0J5NLLT4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQe0J5NLLT4[/video]

Humm.. he just said it in a way where he cleared up what was messing me up!

I could not understand why they wanting to hit 50 fast. Now it makes It sense. .

It strikes me kind like if your jumping off a rock into water below you have to have enough spring(!) or else your gonna hit rock below you!

So at 50 it is coming off "hard" enough "out" so it does not slam into the land right below the spillway - it would start to erode DIRECTLY under the remaining spillway!

He is a good teacher!!

 

[CARIIS]

Here is the gage for the river really impacted by the releases that just started

http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?gage=yubc1&wfo=sto

 

[CARIIS]

[video=youtube;tDmwo5nsWfQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDmwo5nsWfQ[/video]

 

[CARIIS]

Wow a shocking 38 minutes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax5A3r_z4KA#t=2198.222611

 

[CARIIS]

Well guys my man went to feather river a couple of hours ago - he periscopes!
Its
UP and moving FAST and (he also) have been unable to get the water dept hourly readings since this AM

 

[CARIIS]

SHeriff

When he talked to the press through the weeks of crisis, it was with a firm tone and serious expression. But Thursday, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea shared moments of pain, admitted he was scared,

Honea shared what it was like to be sheriff of Butte County during the Feb. 12 crisis when Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway looked to be failing and thousands of residents needed to be evacuated.

Just about ready to go home that Sunday, Honea said he heard from someone looking at a photo of the emergency spillway.
“He said, ‘This isn’t good.’

“There was a lump in my throat. I could be ordering these people in to die.”


Of the declaration and the ensuing hours, “That was scary,” Honea admitted. “It was most difficult decision I’ve ever made. There was no shortage of fear.”
Putting it into worst-case perspective, he shared, “It was not whether people would die, but how many would die.”
“If there was a catastrophic failure of the dam, the Sutter Buttes would be an island.”


“In a short time frame, we introduced chaos.”
“I have spent a lot of time since trying to understand how to do better.”


Evacuating the jail was “harrowing,” as the inmates were put into 13 school buses and various other vehicles.
Dealing with 600 criminals, “We only had about 150 chains,” said Honea, referring to ways to restrain the criminals.
“We told them if they moved, we’d shoot them.”

Honea said he picked up the phone to call the Yuba


A wall of water could be coming your way.”
“What???”
“Leave, evacuate your area.”

There were two fights that night. Me, trying to get people out. And DWR, trying to get lake levels down, sacrificing infrastructure and more about saving lives.”

most efforts now are dealing with water capacity from upcoming storms and spring melt-off.

http://www.orovillemr.com/general-news/20170319/sheriff-honea-recounting-orovilles-feb-12

 

[CARIIS]

Published: Mar 19, 2017 6:44 p.m. ET

Temporary repairs put in place as rain expected to return this week

​

the start of a weeklong test to see if the sheared-off chute and the carved-out hillside around it could sustain even more pummeling as flows into Lake Oroville increase during the spring snowmelt.


About 16,000 cubic feet per second was flowing into the lake Friday from the surrounding mountains, which are piled high with snow after a series of winter blizzards. Reservoir levels are expected to rise more next week as another storm rolls through.

“At the moment, I need to get some water out of this reservoir, so as long as we don’t see catastrophic loss of a lot of concrete then we’re going to need to roll through this,

[h=1]Oroville Dam operators send more water down wrecked spillway[/h]By Peter Fimrite
[h=5]Updated 10:51 pm, Saturday, March 18, 2017[/h]

• [FONT=&quot]38

• 
  
  
  

Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle








IMAGE 1 OF 29
Buy Photo

The damaged main spillway of the Oroville Dam is seen on Friday, March 3, 2017, in Oroville, Calif.

​

Water began gushing down the mangled spillway at Oroville Dam on Friday in what state officials said was the start of a weeklong test to see if the sheared-off chute and the carved-out hillside around it could sustain even more pummeling as flows into Lake Oroville increase during the spring snowmelt.
The floodgates opened at 11 a.m., after the spillway was dry for nearly three weeks, and within an hour the flow had reached a brisk 50,000 cubic feet per second. By the early afternoon, a cascade was flying off the busted concrete spillway, racing through a yawning crater dug out of the earth last month, and joining the Feather River below.
Bill Croyle, acting director of the California Department of Water Resources, which runs the dam, said water will continue to spill for five or six days. The move was necessary, he said, because the elevation of Lake Oroville — the state’s second biggest reservoir — had risen about a foot in the previous 24 hours, to 864 feet above sea level.
State officials are trying to get the level to 835 to 838 feet above sea level and to keep the lake well below 901 feet — the point at which water would begin pouring over the dam’s emergency spillway, which is also compromised.


Water is flowing down the main spillway for the first time in weeks to see how the spillway handles the flow of water
Media: KTVU

About 16,000 cubic feet per second was flowing into the lake Friday from the surrounding mountains, which are piled high with snow after a series of winter blizzards. Reservoir levels are expected to rise more next week as another storm rolls through.
“At the moment, I need to get some water out of this reservoir, so as long as we don’t see catastrophic loss of a lot of concrete then we’re going to need to roll through this,” Croyle said. “If we need to deploy another corrective measure we can do it.”
A gaping hole was first detected Feb. 7 on the main spillway of the nation’s tallest dam, forcing operators to reduce the flow, which at the time was moving at the same rate — about 3.2 million pounds of water a second — as managers ramped it up to on Friday.
Within days of the initial spillway failure, the lake water rose and began pouring over an emergency spillway that had never been used and onto a bare hillside below. The hill eroded quickly, causing the state to warn of a catastrophic collapse and temporarily evacuate nearly 200,000 people downstream.
At that point, dam managers were forced to continue using the main spillway, worsening the damage. The panorama of destruction revealed when the floodgates were finally closed on Feb. 27 was shocking.
Croyle said the current weeklong spill will be the first of up to three lengthy releases before June 1, as snow melts in the mountains and flows into Lake Oroville

concern for downstream farmers who saw banks along the river collapse the last time the spillway flows swelled and then subsided.

170 state employees and 500 contractors work 24 hours a day to strengthen what remains.

$4.7 million a day

key over the next three months is for the state to use the spillway as little as possible, with just enough releases to handle the melting snowpack.

biggest risk to me could be that the operation of the gated spillway would cause continued erosion of rock into the river that would block the hydropower outlets,” forcing the power plant to remain shut down and unable to release water,


[h=1]Oroville Dam operators send more water down wrecked spillway[/h]By Peter Fimrite
[h=5]Updated 10:51 pm, Saturday, March 18, 2017[/h]

• [FONT=&quot]38

• 
  
  
  

Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle








IMAGE 1 OF 29
Buy Photo

The damaged main spillway of the Oroville Dam is seen on Friday, March 3, 2017, in Oroville, Calif.

​

Water began gushing down the mangled spillway at Oroville Dam on Friday in what state officials said was the start of a weeklong test to see if the sheared-off chute and the carved-out hillside around it could sustain even more pummeling as flows into Lake Oroville increase during the spring snowmelt.
The floodgates opened at 11 a.m., after the spillway was dry for nearly three weeks, and within an hour the flow had reached a brisk 50,000 cubic feet per second. By the early afternoon, a cascade was flying off the busted concrete spillway, racing through a yawning crater dug out of the earth last month, and joining the Feather River below.
Bill Croyle, acting director of the California Department of Water Resources, which runs the dam, said water will continue to spill for five or six days. The move was necessary, he said, because the elevation of Lake Oroville — the state’s second biggest reservoir — had risen about a foot in the previous 24 hours, to 864 feet above sea level.
State officials are trying to get the level to 835 to 838 feet above sea level and to keep the lake well below 901 feet — the point at which water would begin pouring over the dam’s emergency spillway, which is also compromised.


Water is flowing down the main spillway for the first time in weeks to see how the spillway handles the flow of water
Media: KTVU

About 16,000 cubic feet per second was flowing into the lake Friday from the surrounding mountains, which are piled high with snow after a series of winter blizzards. Reservoir levels are expected to rise more next week as another storm rolls through.
“At the moment, I need to get some water out of this reservoir, so as long as we don’t see catastrophic loss of a lot of concrete then we’re going to need to roll through this,” Croyle said. “If we need to deploy another corrective measure we can do it.”
A gaping hole was first detected Feb. 7 on the main spillway of the nation’s tallest dam, forcing operators to reduce the flow, which at the time was moving at the same rate — about 3.2 million pounds of water a second — as managers ramped it up to on Friday.
Within days of the initial spillway failure, the lake water rose and began pouring over an emergency spillway that had never been used and onto a bare hillside below. The hill eroded quickly, causing the state to warn of a catastrophic collapse and temporarily evacuate nearly 200,000 people downstream.
At that point, dam managers were forced to continue using the main spillway, worsening the damage. The panorama of destruction revealed when the floodgates were finally closed on Feb. 27 was shocking.
Croyle said the current weeklong spill will be the first of up to three lengthy releases before June 1, as snow melts in the mountains and flows into Lake Oroville. The sooner the state can stop using the spillway, the sooner it can start fixing it.
“If we have a mild, cool spring and early summer then maybe we can get away with two spills, including the spill today,” Croyle said.
The reservoir’s Hyatt Power Plant, which had been pumping 12,900 cubic feet per second of water out of the reservoir, was shut off during Friday’s procedure. Managers need to make sure the hydroelectric plant will work simultaneously with the spillway.
The releases mean the Feather River below will rise between 10 and 15 feet, officials said, a concern for downstream farmers who saw banks along the river collapse the last time the spillway flows swelled and then subsided.
Croyle said managers will monitor the effect the water has on the damaged hillside near the main spillway, as well as the debris flow into the river and the downstream erosion. He urged anglers, boaters and people who live by the river to be aware that the river will become deeper and swifter.
Meanwhile, engineers and geologists are scrambling to figure out how the crippled chute can possibly be fixed by the end of the year, in time for the next rainy season. Croyle said a team of engineers, geologists and others are working up various potential schemes, even as 170 state employees and 500 contractors work 24 hours a day to strengthen what remains.
Crews have reinforced the main spillway with concrete and bolted it to the ground, and every crack on the chute has been sealed, Croyle said. Meanwhile, tons of concrete and boulders are shoring up the hillside below the emergency spillway, though the state hopes not to use it again.
Through February, the work has cost the state $100 million, or about $4.7 million a day. Although Croyle said the state has “mitigated the major concerns,” the state will probably have to spend at least twice as much in the coming months.
Drill rigs, concrete mixers and a rock-crushing plant are being mobilized in a staging area at the site, while haul roads are being shored up in preparation for the work ahead, which is expected to begin after repair plans are finalized within the next two weeks, Croyle said.
“There are a whole bunch of different options” to repair or replace the main spillway, he said. “Some of them are really interesting.”
Jay Lund, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis, said the key over the next three months is for the state to use the spillway as little as possible, with just enough releases to handle the melting snowpack.
“The biggest risk to me could be that the operation of the gated spillway would cause continued erosion of rock into the river that would block the hydropower outlets,” forcing the power plant to remain shut down and unable to release water, said Lund.
He said officials will have to decide whether to rebuild, modify or shore up the existing spillway — or build a new one parallel to the old one.
“If you have eroded everything that can be eroded, then maybe that’s your new spillway........

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oroville-dam-operators-forced-to-send-more-water-11009935.php

[/FONT]
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ca...illway-back-in-use-ahead-of-storms-2017-03-19[/FONT]

 

[CARIIS]

China. Its failure in 1975 caused more casualties than any other dam failure in history at an estimated 171,000 deaths and 11 million displaced.[SUP][1][/SUP]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banqiao_Dam




Feb 9, 2017

Well , did any of you hear about this -- boy that is scary i never heard anything.

[video=youtube;k1E2wsaCjo0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1E2wsaCjo0[/video]

 

[CARIIS]

Hi Miss Sophie

DId you hear anything about the Sacremento thing? That is just messed up - its starting to feel like we are living in Russia!!!!!!!!!!