AGENDA 21 RADIO

BY PAUL PRESTON

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water at Lake Oroville a new document emerges which implicates the main contractor in the rebuilding of the Oroville Dam’s damaged main and emergency spillways in the 1976 Teton Dam disaster. The report “FAILURE OF TETON DAM” written by an independent panel for the U.S. Department of Interior implicates as one of the main contractors in the building of the Teton Dam Peter Kiewit Sons’ Co.

In a Tweet from Paveway IV titled “Kiewit rushing to rebuild #OrovilleDam spillway on highly-fractured steep slope rock. What could possibly go wrong?” the link between the Oroville Dam Disaster and the Teton Dam disaster was established.

Kiewit rushing to rebuild #OrovilleDam spillway on highly-fractured steep slope rock. What could possibly go wrong? https://t.co/ueQFNeoJL2 pic.twitter.com/Exp2EnuONZ

— Paveway IV (@PavewayIV) May 26, 2017

In a letter to the investigative panel dated October 7, 1976 Morrison and Knudsen Company and Kiewit are responding to certain construction techniques used by both during the construction of the right abutment. It was the right abutment that failed on the Teton Dam.

Oblique aerial view northeast and upstream of Teton Dam site as it looks today. The right (northwest) abutment is between the spillway and the present course of the river. All that remains of the original dam is the terraced, pyramid shaped monolith in the center of the canyon in the center of the photograph. The cut on the right was made after the failure to determine the structure of the embankment. Photo by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Teton Dam, a 305-foot high earthfill dam across the Teton River in Madison County, southeast Idaho, failed completely and released the contents of its reservoir at 11:57 AM on June 5, 1976. Failure was initiated by a large leak near the right (northwest) abutment of the dam, about 130 feet below the crest. The dam, designed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, failed just as it was being completed and filled for the first time.

Eyewitnesses noticed the first major leak between 7:30 and 8:AM, June 5, although two days earlier engineers at the dam observed small springs in the right abutment downstream from the toe of the dam. The main leak was flowing about 20-30 cfs from rock in the right abutment near the toe of the dam and above the abutment-embankment contact. The flow increased to 40-50 cfs by 9 AM. At about the same time, 2 cfs seepage issued from the rock in the right abutment, approximately 130 feet below the crest of the dam at the abutment-embankment contact.

Between 9:30 and 10 AM, a wet spot developed on the downstream face of the dam, 15 to 20 feet out from the right abutment at about the same elevation as the seepage coming from the right abutment rock. This wet spot developed rapidly into seepage, and material soon began to slough, and erosion proceeded back into the dam embankment. The water quantity increased continually as the hole grew. Efforts to fill the increasing hole in the embankment were futile during the following 2 to 2 1/2 hour period until failure. The sheriff of Fremont County (St. Anthony, Idaho) said that his office was officially warned of the pending collapse of the dam at 10:43 AM on June 5. The sheriff of Madison County, Rexburg, Idaho, was not notified until 10:50 AM on June 5. He said that he did not immediately accept the warning as valid but concluded that while the matter was not too serious, he should begin telephoning people he knew who lived in the potential flood path.

The dam breached at 11:57 AM when the crest of the embankment fell into the enlarging hole and a wall of water surged through the opening. By 8 PM the flow of water through the breach had nearly stabilized. Downstream the channel was filled at least to a depth of 30 feet for a long distance. About 40 percent of the dam embankment was lost, and the powerhouse and warehouse structure were submerged completely in debris.1

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Similarities Between Teton and Oroville Dam Disasters Besides Contractor

There are numerous similarities between the Oroville and Teton Dam disasters that almost stunt the mind and give pause to rational thinking. Below are just four examples. Keep in mind there are many more!

1. Both dams are earthen dams

2. Failure of many systems of the dams are obvious

3. Many issues surrounding the Oroville dam regarding normal maintaince and repair of the dam that have been ignored for years have caused concern for porting of water on and around the main and emergency spillways, and obvious signs of leaks on the main face of the left dam abutment known as the “green spot”. The California Department of Water Resources have claimed the so called green spot on the left abutment to be many things leading most to believe the DWR does not know what the green spot leak actually is attributed.

Left abutment at Oroville Dam. Note the green grass in the red circle known as the “green spot” is a sign of a leak. Photo Paul Preston, April 9, 2017 AENN

“Green Spot” April 23, 2017 Oroville Dam Left abutment groin area above Hyatt Power Plant. Photo Paul Preston, AENN

4. A simulation of a dam failure at Oroville reveals the topography of the inundation zone below the Oroville Dam is strickingly similar to the ropography of the Teton Dam actual inundation (see above). Note the inundations show the Sutter Buttes in the Oroville simulation and the Menan Buttes, along with the small towns of Newdale, Teton, Sugar City and Rexburg in Teton and Oroville, Gridley, Biggs, Live Oak and Yuba City in Oroville.