Heavy Rain Over the Target
NewCali News
Oroville Dam Threat as Website Goes Down
A major storm settled in over the Feather River watershed later Thursday May 30, 2019 prompting emergency flooding alerts in Butte, Yuba, Plumas and Tehama counties. Thunder, lightening and tornado spouts went along with heavy rain fall. Preliminary estimates indicate as much as 4.5 inches of rain fell overnight.
For the people around the Oroville Dam there was little to feel secure about despite reassurances from the California Water Resources as the main website from the Cal Data Center went down and remains down at of the time of this writing. The last indicator known to the public of the Oroville lake level was 895 ft just 5 ft from from the top of the Ogee weir at 900 ft and just 6 ft from over topping at 901 ft. If overtopping occurs it will be the second time in 2 years. Water will rumble down the emergency spillway.
Department of Water Resources claims they can use the main spillway but there is no indication the spillway can be used. The spillway has only been used one time on April 2, 2019 through April 11, 2019. The spillway was tested at 25,000 cfs then suddenly shut down. When the water stopped the seams between the plates on the deck of the spillway were leaking and the plates at the radius appeared buckled. To make matter worse there was no indicator during the 10 day run the drains under the spillway worked. Sources from the DWR told AENN the drains were filled with water but did not drain.
In the picture below the spillway is pictured during the February 2017 incident ruptured but the drainage system is fully functional as water is properly porting from the training wall. Water is being collected from the underside of the spillway.
During the April 2019 10 day test of the spillway the complete failure of the main drainage system became evident as there was no drainage indicated during the 10 day test. To repair the drainage system will require the spillway deck be replaced.
