The Oroville Dam Situation

[SVPete]

I'm pressed for time, so I hope other might contribute to this.

First, a quick lesson in CA geography. Picture a curved banana split bowl with a large handle in the south and an opening in the middle on the west rim. That's CA geography. The middle of the dish is the Central Valley. This Valley is drained by two river systems, The San Joaquin in the south, and the larger Sacramento in the north. The Sacramento river has its origins north oth Lake Shasta, and it flows down the middle of the Sacramento Valley. Its two major tributaries are the American River and the Feather River, These are fed by Sierra snows. The Oroville Dam is on the Feather River, and is the largest dam in the US.

Gotta go.

[franksolich]

Question however.

Your governor is apparently getting ready to request money from the President to fix things up.

Are taxpayers in the other 49 states morally obligated to let their hard-earned money go to bolster up a state that wants to leave the rest of us anyway?

This isn't personal, it's more for others to answer, but you know that.

[franksolich]

Oroville Dam is an earthfill embankment dam on the Feather River east of the city of Oroville, California in the United States. At 770 feet (230 m) high, it is the tallest dam in the U.S. and serves mainly for water supply, hydroelectricity generation and flood control. The dam impounds Lake Oroville, the second largest man-made lake in the state of California, capable of storing more than 3.5 million acre-feet (4.4 km3), and is located in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley.

On February 7, 2017, during ongoing flood control release of about 50,000 cubic feet per second (1,400 m3/s) a crater appeared in the Oroville dam spillway. Due to continual high inflows to Lake Oroville, dam operators had no other alternatives but to continue using the damaged spillway. Attempts went underway to try and prepare the never before used Emergency Spillway as water levels continued to rise while the damaged spillway was in continual use. Power transmission lines were moved, and workers began clear cutting trees within the emergency spillway, which flowed down a hillside.

Damage from the spillway crater earlier throughout the event was carried down stream, and caused damages to a nearby fish hatchery, state workers began evacuating fish and eggs from the hatchery in an attempt to lessen damages. By February 10, the hole had grown to 300 feet (91 m) wide, 500 feet (150 m) long and 45 feet (14 m) deep. Although Engineers had hoped that using the damaged spillway may drain the lake enough to allow for the emergency spillway to not be used, the inflow of water ended up being to much.

On February 11, 2017 Lake Oroville hit the overflow mark of the emergency spillway, which until then, had never been used since the dam's construction in 1968. Because the spillway is a separate structure from the dam, there wasn't any real danger of the main embankment being breached. The dams structure itself continued holding and no damages were found, the possible evacuation of Oroville itself was also negated as the residents were still safe.

However, once the lake rose to the level of the emergency spillway, it created an uncontrolled overflow, although attempts to prepare the emergency spillway to lessen damages were made, due to the emergency spillway emptying directly onto a hillside, substantial debris is expected to be eroded and carried into the river.

[Rick]

I live in southern California and this is the first I have heard of this. Even now there is nothing on the news.

[SVPete]

Question however.

Your governor is apparently getting ready to request money from the President to fix things up.

Are taxpayers in the other 49 states morally obligated to let their hard-earned money go to bolster up a state that wants to leave the rest of us anyway?

This isn't personal, it's more for others to answer, but you know that.

First, your premise that a majority of CA'ians want to leave the US assumes something not in evidence. No vote has been taken on that proposition, and in fact, it has not even qualified for the ballot. Personally, my opinion is that the proposition might qualify, but if it does, it will be soundly defeated.

That said, CA'ians paid their taxes that went toward hurricane disasters along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts, for tornado disasters in the central US, blizzards, etc.. It's a responsibility entailed in being part of the nation.

I'm not sure how the word "morally" fits this discussion.

[SVPete]

Some news reports from the Sacramento Bee and Sacto TV station KCRA:

24 hours later, no problems reported with Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway
Dale Kasler, The Sacramento Bee

One day after water started trickling over the concrete lip of the emergency spillway for the first time in the dam’s 48-year history, the flows accelerated to 12,600 cubic feet per second at 1 a.m. Sunday and then began subsiding. A few hours later, the flows were down to 12,100 cfs, said Chris Orrock, a spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources.

DWR officials had been reluctant to let water run down the emergency spillway because the flows are uncontrolled and cascade into a heavily wooded ravine, raising fears of huge amounts of debris being deposited into the Feather River. But Orrock said DWR crews stationed downstream to catch trees and other materials have encountered only “minimal” debris.
...
Orrock added that the dam’s main spillway, which suffered an enormous gash Tuesday, appears to have stopped crumbling despite continued pounding from water releases at roughly 55,000 cfs. “There's been no additional erosion that they can see,” he said.

Flows out of emergency spillway at Lake Oroville decrease

“The auxiliary spillway still has water going over it, but hopefully that will stop completely over the next day or so,” the Yuba County Office of Emergency Services said.

Water continues to be released from the damaged spillway at Oroville Dam, but the erosion on the chute “appears to have stabilized,” the California Department of Water Resources said.
...
As of noon, the inflow into the lake dropped to 51,000 cfs, while outflow was at 54,900 cfs. Water flowing over the emergency spillway dropped to 8,000 cfs.
...
“Erosion around and adjacent to the controlled spillway has slowed. Water flow on the hillside below the auxiliary spillway has caused minimal erosion,” DWR added.

Currently, Lake Oroville is at 101 percent of capacity -– more than 3.5 million acre feet. DWR continues to monitor the situation.

AccuWeather is predicting rain for late this week, and another storm early in the following week.

The articles fail to mention that there is a third outlet from Lake Oroville, the hydroelectric plant at the dam.

The quote in frank's post above states that Lake Oroville is CA's second largest man-made lake. Shasta Lake, on the Sacramento River, is the largest. In my post above I mentioned that Lake Oroville is on the Feather River, one of the Sacramento River's main tributaries, and that another major tributary is the American River. The Feather River joins the Sacramento River 10 or 15 miles north of Sacramento, not far from Sacramento International Airport. The American River flows into the Sacramento River in the city of Sacramento. There are two dams on the American River, forming Lake Natomas and Folsom Lake.

There are a couple of rivers with man-made lakes that flow into the Feather River before it, in turn, joins the Sacramento. And there are lesser tributaries to the Sacramento with man-made lakes: Putah Creek and Lake Berryessa; Cache Creek and Clear Lake. Metaphorically, Cache Creek was in my back yard when I was growing up; in literal distance it was maybe a quarter mile away, across farmland owned by my Dad and his brother.

[SVPete]

What a rollercoaster-horror last evening. Thankfully the situation is stabilized, and the main spillway and hydro plant can be used over the next 2-3 days to lower the water level beloww 100%.

In one of the discussions I mentioned the Yolo Bypass as a protection to the city of Sacramento. The northernmost weir is just north of where the Feather River joins the Sacramento, but there are other weirs farther downstream. I didn't realize the Bypass is nearly 60,000 acres! It's been in existence for over a century, so those who own and farm the land know there will be years their land will be flooded (probably once or twice a decade, on average, I think).

[HAPPY2BME]

Question however.

Your governor is apparently getting ready to request money from the President to fix things up.

Are taxpayers in the other 49 states morally obligated to let their hard-earned money go to bolster up a state that wants to leave the rest of us anyway?

This isn't personal, it's more for others to answer, but you know that.

=======================================

California is already on the verge of bankruptcy, and can hardly afford to pave their own roads, let alone fix and maintain large dams and their attached spillway systems.

California IS morally obligated to California legal citizens (e.g., Americans) and also to the rest of the country to stop the drain of billions of dollars it pays out to educate, house, employ, and provide free medical assistance it provides to the millions of illegal aliens from Mexico who refuse to go back to Mexico.

That money could easily be being used to maintain these critical infrastructures in California, as well as other sanctuary states.