Dry as a Bone, Wet as a Whistle, She’s Going to Go Just as Sure as Shooting
NewCali News
Stunning comparative photographs of the Oroville Dam spillway taken less than a month after the February 7, 2017 rupturing of the deck and pictures taken on May 11, 2019 demonstrate how severe the damage is to the mew rebuilt deck. They may also tell the story as to why the new spill way was suddenly shut down in April 2018 after only a few days of spilling.
In the photograph below on March 3, 2017 work and assessment was being done on the damaged Oroville Dam spillway just below the gates and above the sheered off spillway at the plunge pool. The California Department of Water Resources halted flows down the flood control spillway on February 27, 2017 to begin the debris removal operation from the diversion pool below the spillway.
There are several obvious features that indicate there are no plate leaks on the deck area that remained between the gates and the end of the spillway deck in the March 3, 2017 picture.
The first is even with the water diverted to the left side of the spillway there ares no signs of water leaking through the seams. Second the ports along the training walls are draining water from below the spillway deck as designed. At the time of this photograph the water level was at 825 ft which is well above the level of the spillway gates which is at 810 feet.
In the next photo below taken in May 11, 2019 with the lake level at 888 feet you can see the obvious leaks on the deck between the deck seams. Remember the ports along the training wall do not operate at all. There is NO evidence of drainage of water under the deck through the training wall ports.
