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"disqusTitle": "Is 'Green Spot' a Sign of More Trouble for Oroville Dam?",
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"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 5:35 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]F[/dropcap]rom Day 1 of the Oroville spillway crisis in February, the California Department of Water Resources has never wavered in its declarations that, despite the disintegration of the massive concrete flood control outlet and a near-disaster caused by uncontrolled emergency reservoir flows down a rapidly eroding hillside, the stability of the massive dam itself was not and has never been threatened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite those oft-repeated assurances, public questions about the dam's integrity have persisted -- in internet forums, in community meetings and, most recently, in \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/07/21/oroville-dam-spillway-report-alleges-dwr-ferc-negligence/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a report\u003c/a> released last week under the auspices of UC Berkeley's Center for Catastrophic Risk Management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That's in part a reflection of \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Oroville-Dam-repair-is-huge-but-so-is-11227869.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">public distrust of DWR\u003c/a> after the spillway incident and in part a recognition that anything that seriously compromises the 770-foot-tall dam could endanger tens of thousands of lives, cripple a key element of California's water-supply network and put the state's entire economy at risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Specifically, the questions have focused on an extensive area of moisture on the left side of the dam's downstream face that's known, even to the Department of Water Resources, as \"the green spot.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spot, characterized by what state inspectors have termed \"lush\" vegetation during wet seasons that turns into dense thickets of dry weeds by late summer, is clearly visible on satellite images and measures about 700 feet long by 130 feet wide. That's roughly the size of two football fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11598862\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11598862\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22-800x485.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"485\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22-800x485.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22-160x97.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22-240x146.png 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22-375x227.png 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22-520x315.png 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22.png 846w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A satellite image shows Oroville Dam's green spot on April 14, 2015. \u003ccite>(Google Earth)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last week's \u003ca href=\"https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3898834/Bea-and-Johnson-ROOT-CAUSES-REPORT.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">study\u003c/a>, led by internationally known civil engineer and risk management analyst \u003ca href=\"http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/bob-bea-the-master-of-disaster-20130225\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Robert Bea\u003c/a>, included several subreports asking whether the moisture at the green spot is a sign that water is leaking through the dam and weakening its inner structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Publicly, DWR officials have tended to dismiss those concerns. In response to questions at community meetings in \u003ca href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/oroville-spillway/pdf/2017/summaries/Oro%20Community%20Mtg%20Sum_Oroville_20170502.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oroville\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/oroville-spillway/pdf/2017/summaries/Oro%20Community%20Mtg%20Sum_YubaCity_20170509.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yuba City\u003c/a> in May, for instance, the agency said the green area is due to rainfall, that it first appeared while the dam was under construction, and that it poses no risk to the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]B[/dropcap]ut outside public view, documents KQED obtained under the California Public Records Act show the Department of Water Resources has puzzled for years over the source of the seepage feeding the \"green spot\" and has been slow to act on a 2014 recommendation from independent experts to investigate the issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR's uncertainty is reflected in a series of dam inspections between February and July 2011 -- Northern California's last wet winter before the five-year drought -- that produced contradictory conclusions about the issue and whether it was a chronic condition or something that appeared only seasonally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 2, 2011, a DWR inspection party hiked to the green spot -- about 200 vertical feet below the top of the massive structure -- and found extensive moisture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The cause of the seepage has yet to be determined,\" wrote Bill Pennington of DWR's Division of Safety of Dams (DSOD).\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11598656\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-10.13.55.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11598656\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-10.13.55-800x528.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"528\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-10.13.55.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-10.13.55-160x106.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-10.13.55-240x158.png 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-10.13.55-375x248.png 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-10.13.55-520x343.png 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An April 2014 inspection photograph of the Oroville Dam green spot. State officials say moisture has been observed in this area of the dam's downstream face since before Lake Oroville filled in the late 1960s, but they've never determined the source. \u003ccite>(California Department of Water Resources)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One possibility, he said, was rainwater may have collected -- or become \"perched,\" in engineering parlance -- within the dam's embankment. Another possible source: an area of seepage that had been noted in the dam's abutment during construction in the 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pennington suggested that the area should be monitored and \"unexpected changes should be reported to DSOD.\" In a field notebook, Pennington wrote that Paul Dunlap of DWR's Dam Safety Branch was \"thinking of mapping the area.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a May 2011 inspection visit, Pennington wrote that \"the long-established wet area at mid-slope on the left end of the dam remains active\" and recommended continued monitoring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July 2011, with the lake level unseasonably high -- less than 2 feet below the edge of the dam's emergency weir -- DWR's Paul Dunlap returned to check out the green spot. He found it had \"essentially dried up.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The drying out of the green spot (especially under high reservoir conditions) provides further evidence that the green spot phenomena on the dam is associated with precipitation or abutment seasonal spring activity and not seepage through the dam,\" Dunlap wrote in a report on his findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11598651\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11598651\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30-800x422.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"422\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30-800x422.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30-160x84.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30-240x127.png 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30-375x198.png 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30-520x274.png 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30.png 956w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An image from a 2013 Oroville Dam inspection report noting the effects of moisture from the dam's \"green spot.\" \u003ccite>(California Department of Water Resources)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hose periodic observations continued -- sometimes the green spot was wet, sometimes dry -- along with Pennington's repeated recommendation that dam managers figure out how to monitor the area \"so that year to year changes can be recorded.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August 2014, an independent board met to perform the dam's five-year federal safety review. The board's recommendations, released in December, called on DWR officials to investigate the green spot and try to determine whether it posed a threat to the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This issue has a high historical profile that needs to be conclusively addressed,\" the consultants commented in one section of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's 2014 Part 12D report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board said that while much of the dam's behavior was understood, \"one issue that seems to not have been addressed by previous stability analyses is that associated with the green spot on the downstream face of the dam.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The consultants' report noted that the final construction report for the dam, which went into service in 1968, indicated that the green spot area was observed even before Lake Oroville began rising behind the structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The green spot is believed to be associated with pre-existing natural springs in the downstream left abutment area of the dam foundation,\" the Part 12D report says. The concentration of moisture, the document speculates, could be due to the composition of the rock and earth used to build the dam's downstream embankment. The fill, which may contain excessive volumes of very fine, dense material, \"may prevent free drainage of flows from those underlying springs.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The four consultants said that although there was no evidence of movement or instability in the green spot area, they recommended the Department of Water Resources investigate to see whether the persistent moisture could pose a risk to the dam, especially in the event an earthquake occurred during a period of particularly wet conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n response, the Department of Water Resources has told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission it intends to answer questions raised in the 2014 safety board report by September 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department last year got approval to bore a hole as deep as 150 feet in the dam's left abutment, adjacent to the green spot area. The drilling was to pursue a separate issue raised by the safety board -- the seismic vulnerability of Oroville Dam and nearby facilities. As part of that work, DWR told FERC, it planned to install an instrument for \"monitoring groundwater levels in proximity (to) the historic 'green spot' within the dam embankment. Data collected may provide beneficial in understanding the origin of seepage within the left abutment.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a wave of questions raised by the UC Berkeley Center for Catastrophic Risk Management report issued last week, DWR says it's preparing a preliminary report on the green spot as well as a longer-term study of the issue. The report is due out next week, DWR spokeswoman Erin Mellon said Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to questions about DWR's response to the safety board recommendations or suggestions for monitoring made in the department's own inspection reports, Mellon said regular monitoring was ongoing and that \"to date, no issues of concern have been noted.\" \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea, the leader of the UC Berkeley study, says that DWR has been complacent in its response to a host of issues related to the dam, including the green spot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think these people are looking at these pieces of evidence and using their logic, 'Well, this dam's been here for 50 years. We've seen these wet spots before, and it's performed satisfactorily,' \" Bea said. \"What they're then concluding is that as you move forward into the future it will continue to perform satisfactorily. That conclusion is premised on a belief there won't be any changes as you move into the future.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea says that posture is similar to the one the department took to the dam's spillway. The imposing concrete structure had undergone several rounds of extensive repairs before it failed in February. Despite that history of recurring problems, there's no evidence that the department considered the possibility that the spillway might need to be rebuilt, and DWR inspections through last August consistently declared the structure fit for continued use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They kept thinking (that despite) these early warning signs -- 'Yeah, they're unusual, we've got to put concrete patches on those cracks. And yeah, there are voids under the concrete that we'll fill with concrete' -- it's going to remain stable,\" Bea said. \"That proved to be disastrously wrong.\"\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Is 'Green Spot' a Sign of More Trouble for Oroville Dam? | KQED",
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"headline": "Is 'Green Spot' a Sign of More Trouble for Oroville Dam?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 5:35 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">F\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>rom Day 1 of the Oroville spillway crisis in February, the California Department of Water Resources has never wavered in its declarations that, despite the disintegration of the massive concrete flood control outlet and a near-disaster caused by uncontrolled emergency reservoir flows down a rapidly eroding hillside, the stability of the massive dam itself was not and has never been threatened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite those oft-repeated assurances, public questions about the dam's integrity have persisted -- in internet forums, in community meetings and, most recently, in \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/07/21/oroville-dam-spillway-report-alleges-dwr-ferc-negligence/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a report\u003c/a> released last week under the auspices of UC Berkeley's Center for Catastrophic Risk Management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That's in part a reflection of \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Oroville-Dam-repair-is-huge-but-so-is-11227869.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">public distrust of DWR\u003c/a> after the spillway incident and in part a recognition that anything that seriously compromises the 770-foot-tall dam could endanger tens of thousands of lives, cripple a key element of California's water-supply network and put the state's entire economy at risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Specifically, the questions have focused on an extensive area of moisture on the left side of the dam's downstream face that's known, even to the Department of Water Resources, as \"the green spot.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spot, characterized by what state inspectors have termed \"lush\" vegetation during wet seasons that turns into dense thickets of dry weeds by late summer, is clearly visible on satellite images and measures about 700 feet long by 130 feet wide. That's roughly the size of two football fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11598862\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11598862\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22-800x485.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"485\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22-800x485.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22-160x97.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22-240x146.png 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22-375x227.png 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22-520x315.png 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-11.28.22.png 846w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A satellite image shows Oroville Dam's green spot on April 14, 2015. \u003ccite>(Google Earth)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last week's \u003ca href=\"https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3898834/Bea-and-Johnson-ROOT-CAUSES-REPORT.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">study\u003c/a>, led by internationally known civil engineer and risk management analyst \u003ca href=\"http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/bob-bea-the-master-of-disaster-20130225\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Robert Bea\u003c/a>, included several subreports asking whether the moisture at the green spot is a sign that water is leaking through the dam and weakening its inner structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Publicly, DWR officials have tended to dismiss those concerns. In response to questions at community meetings in \u003ca href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/oroville-spillway/pdf/2017/summaries/Oro%20Community%20Mtg%20Sum_Oroville_20170502.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oroville\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/oroville-spillway/pdf/2017/summaries/Oro%20Community%20Mtg%20Sum_YubaCity_20170509.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yuba City\u003c/a> in May, for instance, the agency said the green area is due to rainfall, that it first appeared while the dam was under construction, and that it poses no risk to the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">B\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>ut outside public view, documents KQED obtained under the California Public Records Act show the Department of Water Resources has puzzled for years over the source of the seepage feeding the \"green spot\" and has been slow to act on a 2014 recommendation from independent experts to investigate the issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR's uncertainty is reflected in a series of dam inspections between February and July 2011 -- Northern California's last wet winter before the five-year drought -- that produced contradictory conclusions about the issue and whether it was a chronic condition or something that appeared only seasonally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 2, 2011, a DWR inspection party hiked to the green spot -- about 200 vertical feet below the top of the massive structure -- and found extensive moisture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The cause of the seepage has yet to be determined,\" wrote Bill Pennington of DWR's Division of Safety of Dams (DSOD).\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11598656\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-10.13.55.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11598656\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-10.13.55-800x528.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"528\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-10.13.55.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-10.13.55-160x106.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-10.13.55-240x158.png 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-10.13.55-375x248.png 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-10.13.55-520x343.png 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An April 2014 inspection photograph of the Oroville Dam green spot. State officials say moisture has been observed in this area of the dam's downstream face since before Lake Oroville filled in the late 1960s, but they've never determined the source. \u003ccite>(California Department of Water Resources)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One possibility, he said, was rainwater may have collected -- or become \"perched,\" in engineering parlance -- within the dam's embankment. Another possible source: an area of seepage that had been noted in the dam's abutment during construction in the 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pennington suggested that the area should be monitored and \"unexpected changes should be reported to DSOD.\" In a field notebook, Pennington wrote that Paul Dunlap of DWR's Dam Safety Branch was \"thinking of mapping the area.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a May 2011 inspection visit, Pennington wrote that \"the long-established wet area at mid-slope on the left end of the dam remains active\" and recommended continued monitoring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July 2011, with the lake level unseasonably high -- less than 2 feet below the edge of the dam's emergency weir -- DWR's Paul Dunlap returned to check out the green spot. He found it had \"essentially dried up.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The drying out of the green spot (especially under high reservoir conditions) provides further evidence that the green spot phenomena on the dam is associated with precipitation or abutment seasonal spring activity and not seepage through the dam,\" Dunlap wrote in a report on his findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11598651\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11598651\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30-800x422.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"422\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30-800x422.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30-160x84.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30-240x127.png 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30-375x198.png 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30-520x274.png 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Screenshot-2017-07-28-09.58.30.png 956w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An image from a 2013 Oroville Dam inspection report noting the effects of moisture from the dam's \"green spot.\" \u003ccite>(California Department of Water Resources)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hose periodic observations continued -- sometimes the green spot was wet, sometimes dry -- along with Pennington's repeated recommendation that dam managers figure out how to monitor the area \"so that year to year changes can be recorded.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August 2014, an independent board met to perform the dam's five-year federal safety review. The board's recommendations, released in December, called on DWR officials to investigate the green spot and try to determine whether it posed a threat to the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This issue has a high historical profile that needs to be conclusively addressed,\" the consultants commented in one section of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's 2014 Part 12D report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board said that while much of the dam's behavior was understood, \"one issue that seems to not have been addressed by previous stability analyses is that associated with the green spot on the downstream face of the dam.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The consultants' report noted that the final construction report for the dam, which went into service in 1968, indicated that the green spot area was observed even before Lake Oroville began rising behind the structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The green spot is believed to be associated with pre-existing natural springs in the downstream left abutment area of the dam foundation,\" the Part 12D report says. The concentration of moisture, the document speculates, could be due to the composition of the rock and earth used to build the dam's downstream embankment. The fill, which may contain excessive volumes of very fine, dense material, \"may prevent free drainage of flows from those underlying springs.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The four consultants said that although there was no evidence of movement or instability in the green spot area, they recommended the Department of Water Resources investigate to see whether the persistent moisture could pose a risk to the dam, especially in the event an earthquake occurred during a period of particularly wet conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>n response, the Department of Water Resources has told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission it intends to answer questions raised in the 2014 safety board report by September 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department last year got approval to bore a hole as deep as 150 feet in the dam's left abutment, adjacent to the green spot area. The drilling was to pursue a separate issue raised by the safety board -- the seismic vulnerability of Oroville Dam and nearby facilities. As part of that work, DWR told FERC, it planned to install an instrument for \"monitoring groundwater levels in proximity (to) the historic 'green spot' within the dam embankment. Data collected may provide beneficial in understanding the origin of seepage within the left abutment.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a wave of questions raised by the UC Berkeley Center for Catastrophic Risk Management report issued last week, DWR says it's preparing a preliminary report on the green spot as well as a longer-term study of the issue. The report is due out next week, DWR spokeswoman Erin Mellon said Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to questions about DWR's response to the safety board recommendations or suggestions for monitoring made in the department's own inspection reports, Mellon said regular monitoring was ongoing and that \"to date, no issues of concern have been noted.\" \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea, the leader of the UC Berkeley study, says that DWR has been complacent in its response to a host of issues related to the dam, including the green spot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think these people are looking at these pieces of evidence and using their logic, 'Well, this dam's been here for 50 years. We've seen these wet spots before, and it's performed satisfactorily,' \" Bea said. \"What they're then concluding is that as you move forward into the future it will continue to perform satisfactorily. That conclusion is premised on a belief there won't be any changes as you move into the future.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea says that posture is similar to the one the department took to the dam's spillway. The imposing concrete structure had undergone several rounds of extensive repairs before it failed in February. Despite that history of recurring problems, there's no evidence that the department considered the possibility that the spillway might need to be rebuilt, and DWR inspections through last August consistently declared the structure fit for continued use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They kept thinking (that despite) these early warning signs -- 'Yeah, they're unusual, we've got to put concrete patches on those cracks. And yeah, there are voids under the concrete that we'll fill with concrete' -- it's going to remain stable,\" Bea said. \"That proved to be disastrously wrong.\"\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Ex-Governor's Ambitions Paved Way to Oroville Dam Crisis, Records Say",
"title": "Ex-Governor's Ambitions Paved Way to Oroville Dam Crisis, Records Say",
"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>Historical records reveal\u003ca href=\"http://governors.library.ca.gov/32-pbrown.html\"> the late Gov. Pat Brown\u003c/a> misled voters about the cost of building the nation's tallest dam, ignored recommendations to delay construction and dismissed allegations that \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2017/04/07/how-incompetent-rock-led-to-the-oroville-dam-crisis/\">substandard materials\u003c/a> were used to build the ambitious project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sixty years before a damaged spillway at the Oroville Dam \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/forum/2017/02/13/180000-still-evacuated-from-oroville-dam-emergency/\">forced thousands of people to evacuate\u003c/a>, Brown's administration overcame labor strikes, worker deaths and other scandals to get the dam built on time, the Sacramento Bee \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article150278687.html\">reports\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oroville Dam is one of the anchors of the state's water supply system. In February, two spillways at the 770-foot-tall dam \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2017/02/15/map-see-how-oroville-dam-crisis-unfolded/\">began ripping away \u003c/a>under unusually heavy rain and snow melt, threatening to flood towns downstream. Nearly 200,000 people were given only an hour's notice to escape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11459354\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11459354\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Governor_Edmund_G._-Pat-_Brown.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"444\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Governor_Edmund_G._-Pat-_Brown.jpg 592w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Governor_Edmund_G._-Pat-_Brown-160x203.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Governor_Edmund_G._-Pat-_Brown-240x304.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Governor_Edmund_G._-Pat-_Brown-375x476.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Governor_Edmund_G._-Pat-_Brown-520x660.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edmund G. \"Pat\" Brown, 32nd governor of California \u003ccite>(California State Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The state got a handle on the crisis, and it is rushing to carry out hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs before the next rainy season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bee said it didn't find anything in the historical records that directly foreshadowed the spillway troubles. But experts believe the mess was caused at least in part by\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/04/18/report-design-building-and-upkeep-flaws-led-to-oroville-spillway-failure/\"> design and construction problems\u003c/a> decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It may come back to engineering hubris, and engineering hubris inevitably comes back to bite us in the butt in California,\" said Jeffrey Mount, a geologist and water expert at the\u003ca href=\"http://www.ppic.org/main/home.asp\"> Public Policy Institute of California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown was bent on building a dam and the accompanying\u003ca href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/swp/\"> State Water Project\u003c/a> to expand water deliveries to the parched southern half of California, state archives, oral history interviews and other documents reveal. He campaigned relentlessly and convinced the Legislature and then the voters to approve a $1.75 billion bond measure when the federal government couldn't help with funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He later acknowledged in an interview for an oral history project at UC Berkeley that he and his advisers realized the project's true cost was probably around $2.5 billion, but they weren't sure voters could handle such a number.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He believed cost didn't really matter, given what was at stake. When advisers urged him to postpone construction because of cost issues, he reasoned that delay would only lead to higher costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You need water. Whatever it costs, you have to have it,\" he told the Berkeley interviewers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dam's construction took five years and was rife with problems. Local historians say 34 men died building the dam and the surrounding infrastructure. Workers went on numerous strikes, and in 1964 at least three state workers were fired for buying land near the dam site, knowing they'd profit when the state bought it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest controversy came in 1964 when an Oroville newspaper published allegations that substandard materials were being used at the construction site. Brown called the story \"irresponsible and erroneous.\" State officials later wrote a report that said there was no evidence that the dam \"was designed or is being built in an unsafe manner.\"[contextly_sidebar id=\"m0arIJKKfesRWOrf4Wopo0gqhM9xKG96\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>J. David Rogers, an engineering expert and dam historian at Missouri University of Science & Technology, said the main spillway apparently didn't get the same level of attention as the main dam. Top engineers and consultants were brought in from all over the world to ensure the bedrock was strong enough to support the dam. The spillways, however, were built on much more weathered rock that easily crumbled this winter, Rogers said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After construction was completed in 1968, the dam and Lake Oroville played a critical role in California's booming economic and population growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"No other state ever attempted anything like this,\" Rogers said. \"It was larger than any federal dam when it was built. It was the largest non-federal public works project in world history. Nothing else out there was as big and as ambitious as the California Water Project.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For his part, Brown saw the Oroville Dam and the water project as chances to leave his personal legacy. \"I think it's a monument to me, and I'm very proud of it,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Historical records reveal\u003ca href=\"http://governors.library.ca.gov/32-pbrown.html\"> the late Gov. Pat Brown\u003c/a> misled voters about the cost of building the nation's tallest dam, ignored recommendations to delay construction and dismissed allegations that \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2017/04/07/how-incompetent-rock-led-to-the-oroville-dam-crisis/\">substandard materials\u003c/a> were used to build the ambitious project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sixty years before a damaged spillway at the Oroville Dam \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/forum/2017/02/13/180000-still-evacuated-from-oroville-dam-emergency/\">forced thousands of people to evacuate\u003c/a>, Brown's administration overcame labor strikes, worker deaths and other scandals to get the dam built on time, the Sacramento Bee \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article150278687.html\">reports\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oroville Dam is one of the anchors of the state's water supply system. In February, two spillways at the 770-foot-tall dam \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2017/02/15/map-see-how-oroville-dam-crisis-unfolded/\">began ripping away \u003c/a>under unusually heavy rain and snow melt, threatening to flood towns downstream. Nearly 200,000 people were given only an hour's notice to escape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11459354\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11459354\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Governor_Edmund_G._-Pat-_Brown.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"444\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Governor_Edmund_G._-Pat-_Brown.jpg 592w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Governor_Edmund_G._-Pat-_Brown-160x203.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Governor_Edmund_G._-Pat-_Brown-240x304.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Governor_Edmund_G._-Pat-_Brown-375x476.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Governor_Edmund_G._-Pat-_Brown-520x660.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edmund G. \"Pat\" Brown, 32nd governor of California \u003ccite>(California State Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The state got a handle on the crisis, and it is rushing to carry out hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs before the next rainy season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bee said it didn't find anything in the historical records that directly foreshadowed the spillway troubles. But experts believe the mess was caused at least in part by\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/04/18/report-design-building-and-upkeep-flaws-led-to-oroville-spillway-failure/\"> design and construction problems\u003c/a> decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It may come back to engineering hubris, and engineering hubris inevitably comes back to bite us in the butt in California,\" said Jeffrey Mount, a geologist and water expert at the\u003ca href=\"http://www.ppic.org/main/home.asp\"> Public Policy Institute of California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown was bent on building a dam and the accompanying\u003ca href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/swp/\"> State Water Project\u003c/a> to expand water deliveries to the parched southern half of California, state archives, oral history interviews and other documents reveal. He campaigned relentlessly and convinced the Legislature and then the voters to approve a $1.75 billion bond measure when the federal government couldn't help with funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He later acknowledged in an interview for an oral history project at UC Berkeley that he and his advisers realized the project's true cost was probably around $2.5 billion, but they weren't sure voters could handle such a number.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He believed cost didn't really matter, given what was at stake. When advisers urged him to postpone construction because of cost issues, he reasoned that delay would only lead to higher costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You need water. Whatever it costs, you have to have it,\" he told the Berkeley interviewers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dam's construction took five years and was rife with problems. Local historians say 34 men died building the dam and the surrounding infrastructure. Workers went on numerous strikes, and in 1964 at least three state workers were fired for buying land near the dam site, knowing they'd profit when the state bought it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest controversy came in 1964 when an Oroville newspaper published allegations that substandard materials were being used at the construction site. Brown called the story \"irresponsible and erroneous.\" State officials later wrote a report that said there was no evidence that the dam \"was designed or is being built in an unsafe manner.\"\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>J. David Rogers, an engineering expert and dam historian at Missouri University of Science & Technology, said the main spillway apparently didn't get the same level of attention as the main dam. Top engineers and consultants were brought in from all over the world to ensure the bedrock was strong enough to support the dam. The spillways, however, were built on much more weathered rock that easily crumbled this winter, Rogers said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After construction was completed in 1968, the dam and Lake Oroville played a critical role in California's booming economic and population growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"No other state ever attempted anything like this,\" Rogers said. \"It was larger than any federal dam when it was built. It was the largest non-federal public works project in world history. Nothing else out there was as big and as ambitious as the California Water Project.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For his part, Brown saw the Oroville Dam and the water project as chances to leave his personal legacy. \"I think it's a monument to me, and I'm very proud of it,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "California Lawmakers Grill Water Officials for Oversight of Damaged Dam",
"title": "California Lawmakers Grill Water Officials for Oversight of Damaged Dam",
"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>California lawmakers blasted state water officials Thursday for their oversight of the half-century-old dam that anchors the state's water system in a hearing focusing on the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/04/18/report-design-building-and-upkeep-flaws-led-to-oroville-spillway-failure/\">design problems and aging\u003c/a> that contributed to the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This frightens me, that this was built in this manner,\" state Assemblyman Jim Frazier, a Democrat and an engineer by training, told the state officials overseeing the Oroville Dam, the nation's tallest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frazier cited \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/04/18/report-design-building-and-upkeep-flaws-led-to-oroville-spillway-failure/\">post-crisis inspection reports\u003c/a> of concrete as thin as the width of the palm of a hand on Oroville's main spillway. \"We have some things we need to address so this doesn't happen again.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both water-release spillways at the 770-foot-high dam, completed in the late 1960s, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2017/03/16/watch-what-happened-at-oroville-dam-and-what-could-still-go-wrong/\">washed away\u003c/a> during heavy rain and snow in February. Authorities ordered the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/03/23/six-weeks-after-crisis-oroville-evacuation-orders-finally-lifted/\">evacuation of people \u003c/a>in parts of three counties downstream, for fear that water was about to spill out of the lake — the state's second-largest — and roar through cities and towns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a hearing in Sacramento on the crisis, lawmakers cited emerging technical reports from two independent teams of experts on the Oroville Dam's two spillways. Problem areas identified so far include concrete that was far thinner than modern standards call for, cracks, tree roots that had blocked spillway drains, and bedrock anchoring the dam that was far weaker than assumed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public and private dam-safety officials say the investigation into the problems at the Oroville Dam is being watched nationally, for lessons and warnings about the nation's other aging dams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The culture of monitor, watch, patch and paint the crack must be corrected,\" said James Gallagher, a Republican Assemblyman who had been one of the people downstream of the dam evacuating with an hour's notice on Feb. 12. \"It risks the lives of my constituents and the complete shutdown of California's water system.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Department of Water Resources officials have repeatedly acknowledged that the earthen dam was designed to looser standards than today. David Gutierrez, a consultant for the state water agency, told lawmakers that the state's inspections of the spillways before the crisis had fallen short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Obviously, we've got to take a look at the process, because it didn't work,\" Gutierrez said of the state's routine for inspections of the Oroville dam's main spillway.[contextly_sidebar id=\"iISX5L3VgyYuzX9gyKGz2n2FMePWJCca\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A sheriff ordered the evacuation when the main spillway and then the emergency spillway at Oroville collapsed over several days, raising fears that several dozen feet of the earth and concrete that made up the emergency spillway could give way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill Croyle, acting director of the state water agency, rejected complaints from some critics that the state had focused on the Oroville Dam as a water supply for roughly two dozen water companies and about 26 million Californians, rather than as a flooding threat to communities below. \"The decisions we've had to make ... are focused on public safety as No. 1,\" Croyle said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state currently puts the cost of managing the spillway crisis and repairing the damage at more than a half-billion dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources said earlier this week it was asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency to fund 75 percent of all construction costs, on the grounds it was a public safety emergency. Federal authorities have not yet responded publicly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked by lawmakers to explain\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/02/15/oroville-dam-crisis-highlights-infrastructure-needs-within-state/\"> the state's plans \u003c/a>for funding the repairs, John Laird, the state's secretary of natural resources, pointed to water districts in Central and Southern California that rely on water from the Oroville Dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We've got a contract with the state water contractors, so that's where it starts,\" Laird said. \"They pay.\"\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"nprByline": "\u003cstrong>Ellen Knickmeyer\u003cbr>Associated Press\u003c/strong>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California lawmakers blasted state water officials Thursday for their oversight of the half-century-old dam that anchors the state's water system in a hearing focusing on the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/04/18/report-design-building-and-upkeep-flaws-led-to-oroville-spillway-failure/\">design problems and aging\u003c/a> that contributed to the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This frightens me, that this was built in this manner,\" state Assemblyman Jim Frazier, a Democrat and an engineer by training, told the state officials overseeing the Oroville Dam, the nation's tallest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frazier cited \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/04/18/report-design-building-and-upkeep-flaws-led-to-oroville-spillway-failure/\">post-crisis inspection reports\u003c/a> of concrete as thin as the width of the palm of a hand on Oroville's main spillway. \"We have some things we need to address so this doesn't happen again.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both water-release spillways at the 770-foot-high dam, completed in the late 1960s, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2017/03/16/watch-what-happened-at-oroville-dam-and-what-could-still-go-wrong/\">washed away\u003c/a> during heavy rain and snow in February. Authorities ordered the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/03/23/six-weeks-after-crisis-oroville-evacuation-orders-finally-lifted/\">evacuation of people \u003c/a>in parts of three counties downstream, for fear that water was about to spill out of the lake — the state's second-largest — and roar through cities and towns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a hearing in Sacramento on the crisis, lawmakers cited emerging technical reports from two independent teams of experts on the Oroville Dam's two spillways. Problem areas identified so far include concrete that was far thinner than modern standards call for, cracks, tree roots that had blocked spillway drains, and bedrock anchoring the dam that was far weaker than assumed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public and private dam-safety officials say the investigation into the problems at the Oroville Dam is being watched nationally, for lessons and warnings about the nation's other aging dams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The culture of monitor, watch, patch and paint the crack must be corrected,\" said James Gallagher, a Republican Assemblyman who had been one of the people downstream of the dam evacuating with an hour's notice on Feb. 12. \"It risks the lives of my constituents and the complete shutdown of California's water system.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Department of Water Resources officials have repeatedly acknowledged that the earthen dam was designed to looser standards than today. David Gutierrez, a consultant for the state water agency, told lawmakers that the state's inspections of the spillways before the crisis had fallen short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Obviously, we've got to take a look at the process, because it didn't work,\" Gutierrez said of the state's routine for inspections of the Oroville dam's main spillway.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A sheriff ordered the evacuation when the main spillway and then the emergency spillway at Oroville collapsed over several days, raising fears that several dozen feet of the earth and concrete that made up the emergency spillway could give way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill Croyle, acting director of the state water agency, rejected complaints from some critics that the state had focused on the Oroville Dam as a water supply for roughly two dozen water companies and about 26 million Californians, rather than as a flooding threat to communities below. \"The decisions we've had to make ... are focused on public safety as No. 1,\" Croyle said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state currently puts the cost of managing the spillway crisis and repairing the damage at more than a half-billion dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources said earlier this week it was asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency to fund 75 percent of all construction costs, on the grounds it was a public safety emergency. Federal authorities have not yet responded publicly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked by lawmakers to explain\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/02/15/oroville-dam-crisis-highlights-infrastructure-needs-within-state/\"> the state's plans \u003c/a>for funding the repairs, John Laird, the state's secretary of natural resources, pointed to water districts in Central and Southern California that rely on water from the Oroville Dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We've got a contract with the state water contractors, so that's where it starts,\" Laird said. \"They pay.\"\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "State's Water Chief: Despite Crisis, Oroville Dam's Emergency Spillway 'Worked'",
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"content": "\u003cp>SACRAMENTO — The head of California's water agency on Tuesday repeated his assertion that an emergency spillway at the Oroville Dam worked, drawing an incredulous response from a state lawmaker who represents tens of thousands of people ordered to evacuate when it was feared erosion at the spillway could lead to catastrophic flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill Croyle, acting director of the Department of Water Resources, faced lawmakers for the first time since the evacuations in February. Authorities feared a concrete wall at the top of the emergency spillway was on the verge of collapsing and sending a wall of water rushing uncontrolled through downstream communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In my opinion it didn't work at all,\" said Assemblyman James Gallagher, a Republican who represents many of the nearly 200,000 people who were ordered to evacuate. \"When it started flowing and we had that erosion cut back, to me that's a failure. It didn't work as designed.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle has controversially maintained since the days after the evacuation that the spillway did its job, though he's acknowledged that the erosion was more severe than anticipated. He told lawmakers that experts did not expect water to cut through rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I believe the emergency spillway worked,\" Croyle said. \"It performed an emergency function with the broken (main) spillway.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A breach appeared in the main spillway Feb. 7 as releases from Lake Oroville were ramped up to make room in the reservoir for a surge of runoff from a series of warm winter storms. The breach led dam managers to limit releases out of the damaged structure, and by Feb. 11 the lake filled and water began flowing over the emergency spillway for the first time since the dam went into service in 1968.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers also questioned Croyle about details of the $275 million contract to shore up both the main and emergency spillway, including who negotiated it and what penalties or incentives it includes for the contractor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle said he didn't know details of the contract but would provide them later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erin Mellon, a spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Agency, said after the hearing that the contract with Kiewit Corp. of Omaha, Nebraska, covers work through January 2019. That should be enough time to repair the entire main spillway and shore up the emergency spillway, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DWR's plan involves rebuilding enough of the main spillway to restore it to service by the anticipated return of the rainy season in November. At the same time, work will proceed on improving the area below the emergency to limit erosion there in the event of another overflow.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"nprByline": "\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/jjcooper\" target=\"_blank\">Jonathan J. Cooper\u003c/a>\u003cbr />Associated Press\u003c/strong>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>SACRAMENTO — The head of California's water agency on Tuesday repeated his assertion that an emergency spillway at the Oroville Dam worked, drawing an incredulous response from a state lawmaker who represents tens of thousands of people ordered to evacuate when it was feared erosion at the spillway could lead to catastrophic flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill Croyle, acting director of the Department of Water Resources, faced lawmakers for the first time since the evacuations in February. Authorities feared a concrete wall at the top of the emergency spillway was on the verge of collapsing and sending a wall of water rushing uncontrolled through downstream communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In my opinion it didn't work at all,\" said Assemblyman James Gallagher, a Republican who represents many of the nearly 200,000 people who were ordered to evacuate. \"When it started flowing and we had that erosion cut back, to me that's a failure. It didn't work as designed.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle has controversially maintained since the days after the evacuation that the spillway did its job, though he's acknowledged that the erosion was more severe than anticipated. He told lawmakers that experts did not expect water to cut through rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I believe the emergency spillway worked,\" Croyle said. \"It performed an emergency function with the broken (main) spillway.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A breach appeared in the main spillway Feb. 7 as releases from Lake Oroville were ramped up to make room in the reservoir for a surge of runoff from a series of warm winter storms. The breach led dam managers to limit releases out of the damaged structure, and by Feb. 11 the lake filled and water began flowing over the emergency spillway for the first time since the dam went into service in 1968.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers also questioned Croyle about details of the $275 million contract to shore up both the main and emergency spillway, including who negotiated it and what penalties or incentives it includes for the contractor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle said he didn't know details of the contract but would provide them later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erin Mellon, a spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Agency, said after the hearing that the contract with Kiewit Corp. of Omaha, Nebraska, covers work through January 2019. That should be enough time to repair the entire main spillway and shore up the emergency spillway, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DWR's plan involves rebuilding enough of the main spillway to restore it to service by the anticipated return of the rainy season in November. At the same time, work will proceed on improving the area below the emergency to limit erosion there in the event of another overflow.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Coalition Asks Feds to Lift Secrecy Shrouding Oroville Spillway Project",
"title": "Coalition Asks Feds to Lift Secrecy Shrouding Oroville Spillway Project",
"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 1:55 p.m. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With state water officials withholding key details about plans for the reconstruction of Oroville Dam's shattered spillway, a coalition of environmental groups has filed an extraordinary request with federal regulators to open up details of the project for public review and input.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five Northern California groups filed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3674632-Friends-of-the-River-FERC-Request.html\" target=\"_blank\">13-page \"request for clarification and public process\"\u003c/a> with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The filing says the organizations recognize the need to move quickly to rebuild the Oroville spillways, but challenges the California Department of Water Resources' assertion that details of the reconstruction project must be withheld to protect the dam from terrorist sabotage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"These rocks and concrete are not now nor are they likely to be as reconstruction proceeds a terrorist target,\" the document says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"Ig08ufcDgAqlOuWH1uJJGBwltkOaKCy7\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coalition filing the request includes Friends of the River, the Sierra Club, the South Yuba River Citizens League, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and American Whitewater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We're asking the commission to recognize that this is an extraordinary circumstance,\" Ron Stork, executive policy advocate with Friends of the River, said in an interview Thursday. \"They've got to invent a proceeding that allows information to be transparent for the interested and informed public to participate real time while expeditiously doing a reconstruction project that is a good one.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State water officials have yet to respond to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of the groups were involved in an unsuccessful attempt more than a decade ago to persuade FERC and the California Department of Water Resources to consider strengthening the emergency spillway system that was at the center of the near-catastrophe at the dam in February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"tQaoGLZq753TFZ3rs8x31IsX11mJgXlz\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 7, with a series of warm winter storms triggering a surge of runoff into Lake Oroville, a large crater appeared in the dam's 3,000-foot-long concrete spillway. Several days later, that led to the first-ever overflow of the dam's ungated emergency weir and down the adjacent unpaved hillside. Extensive erosion threatened to undermine the emergency weir and release a wall of water down the Feather River, prompting authorities to order the evacuation of more than 180,000 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The central issue in the request filed with federal regulators on Wednesday is the secrecy surrounding plans to rebuild the damaged main spillway and improve the emergency spillway system. State water officials have placed details of the plans, including contractors' bids to do the work, beyond public view by classifying them as critical electric infrastructure information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That designation, made under a federal law first passed after the 9/11 attacks, is meant to deny terrorists information they could use to sabotage the nation's electrical infrastructure. State officials have not disclosed what aspects of the spillway project might prove useful to potential saboteurs, but they have said they are relying on consultations with Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea to decide whether redacted versions of project documents \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article143990719.html\" target=\"_blank\">might be released\u003c/a> in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the documents the DWR is withholding are reports from the board of consultants hired to review the department's spillway reconstruction plans. The board, in \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3523667-20170317-5113-32037979.html\" target=\"_blank\">an initial report\u003c/a> FERC released last month, raised questions about the damaged structure's construction and repair history. DWR Acting Director Bill Croyle said later the report should not have been made public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DWR's stance has drawn criticism from the two state legislators who represent the area, state Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Tehama, and Assemblyman James Gallagher, who earlier this week \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3675578-20170421-0007-32122633.html\" target=\"_blank\">sent a letter\u003c/a> to Gov. Jerry Brown urging release of redacted versions of the board of consultants' reports and other information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"Ssl4AB29Iu692ZCmmghiRnp7uc0wQQCi\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stork, the Friends of the River senior policy advocate, said that FERC's traditional processes for assessing and certifying dam safety and for relicensing facilities are ill-suited to the situation at Oroville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Relicensing takes years, he said, and FERC's dam-safety process \"does not allow for any kind of public participation, at least any informed participation, because all of the information is secret.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meantime, work has already begun on the dam's spillway, and a contract has been awarded even before final decisions have been made on the design and scope of the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They're making decisions that bear on how safe Oroville Dam will be in the future, how well it can perform its various functions, including its flood-control functions,\" Stork said. \"These flood-control issues are really critical to downstream communities, and for them not to have a say in this matter is inappropriate. It's wrong.\"\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 1:55 p.m. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With state water officials withholding key details about plans for the reconstruction of Oroville Dam's shattered spillway, a coalition of environmental groups has filed an extraordinary request with federal regulators to open up details of the project for public review and input.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five Northern California groups filed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3674632-Friends-of-the-River-FERC-Request.html\" target=\"_blank\">13-page \"request for clarification and public process\"\u003c/a> with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The filing says the organizations recognize the need to move quickly to rebuild the Oroville spillways, but challenges the California Department of Water Resources' assertion that details of the reconstruction project must be withheld to protect the dam from terrorist sabotage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"These rocks and concrete are not now nor are they likely to be as reconstruction proceeds a terrorist target,\" the document says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coalition filing the request includes Friends of the River, the Sierra Club, the South Yuba River Citizens League, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and American Whitewater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We're asking the commission to recognize that this is an extraordinary circumstance,\" Ron Stork, executive policy advocate with Friends of the River, said in an interview Thursday. \"They've got to invent a proceeding that allows information to be transparent for the interested and informed public to participate real time while expeditiously doing a reconstruction project that is a good one.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State water officials have yet to respond to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of the groups were involved in an unsuccessful attempt more than a decade ago to persuade FERC and the California Department of Water Resources to consider strengthening the emergency spillway system that was at the center of the near-catastrophe at the dam in February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 7, with a series of warm winter storms triggering a surge of runoff into Lake Oroville, a large crater appeared in the dam's 3,000-foot-long concrete spillway. Several days later, that led to the first-ever overflow of the dam's ungated emergency weir and down the adjacent unpaved hillside. Extensive erosion threatened to undermine the emergency weir and release a wall of water down the Feather River, prompting authorities to order the evacuation of more than 180,000 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The central issue in the request filed with federal regulators on Wednesday is the secrecy surrounding plans to rebuild the damaged main spillway and improve the emergency spillway system. State water officials have placed details of the plans, including contractors' bids to do the work, beyond public view by classifying them as critical electric infrastructure information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That designation, made under a federal law first passed after the 9/11 attacks, is meant to deny terrorists information they could use to sabotage the nation's electrical infrastructure. State officials have not disclosed what aspects of the spillway project might prove useful to potential saboteurs, but they have said they are relying on consultations with Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea to decide whether redacted versions of project documents \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article143990719.html\" target=\"_blank\">might be released\u003c/a> in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the documents the DWR is withholding are reports from the board of consultants hired to review the department's spillway reconstruction plans. The board, in \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3523667-20170317-5113-32037979.html\" target=\"_blank\">an initial report\u003c/a> FERC released last month, raised questions about the damaged structure's construction and repair history. DWR Acting Director Bill Croyle said later the report should not have been made public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DWR's stance has drawn criticism from the two state legislators who represent the area, state Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Tehama, and Assemblyman James Gallagher, who earlier this week \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3675578-20170421-0007-32122633.html\" target=\"_blank\">sent a letter\u003c/a> to Gov. Jerry Brown urging release of redacted versions of the board of consultants' reports and other information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stork, the Friends of the River senior policy advocate, said that FERC's traditional processes for assessing and certifying dam safety and for relicensing facilities are ill-suited to the situation at Oroville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Relicensing takes years, he said, and FERC's dam-safety process \"does not allow for any kind of public participation, at least any informed participation, because all of the information is secret.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meantime, work has already begun on the dam's spillway, and a contract has been awarded even before final decisions have been made on the design and scope of the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They're making decisions that bear on how safe Oroville Dam will be in the future, how well it can perform its various functions, including its flood-control functions,\" Stork said. \"These flood-control issues are really critical to downstream communities, and for them not to have a say in this matter is inappropriate. It's wrong.\"\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "AP Investigation Details Water Officials' Missteps as Oroville Spillways Failed",
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"content": "\u003cp>OROVILLE, Butte County — Late in the afternoon of Feb. 12, Sheriff Kory Honea was at the emergency operations center for the tallest dam in America when he overheard someone say something that stopped him in his tracks:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This is not good.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over six straight days, the operators of the Oroville Dam had said there was no immediate danger after water surging down the main spillway gouged a hole the size of a football field in the concrete chute. But now suddenly they realized that the dam's emergency backup spillway — essentially an unpaved hillside — was falling apart, too, and could unleash a deadly torrent of water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Honea reacted by ordering the immediate evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, after frantic action by the dam's keepers, catastrophe was averted. But an Associated Press examination of state and federal documents, emails obtained under public records requests and numerous interviews reveal a sequence of questionable decisions and missteps, some of them made years ago, some of them in the middle of the crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among other things, the dam's federal and state overseers overestimated the durability of the two spillways. And in public statements during the emergency, they failed to acknowledge — or perhaps recognize — that while they were busy dealing with one crisis, they were creating a possible new one.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'Stuff happens. So you get a flat tire on your car. You run your car out of oil. I mean, these things happen.'\u003ccite>Bill Croyle,\u003cbr>California Department of Water Resources\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>During the darkest hours of the emergency, the fear was that if the hillside collapsed, \"it was not whether people would die, but how many would die,\" Honea recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State water officials have defended their handling of the crisis at the 770-foot-high dam in the Sierra Nevada foothills 130 miles northeast of San Francisco, saying it was managed as effectively as possible under extraordinary circumstances, including one of the wettest winters on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill Croyle, acting head of the California Department of Water Resources, became exasperated by a reporter's questions during a media briefing last month about who should be held responsible for the spillway failure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He likened the spillway failure to problems with a car. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This happens. Stuff happens,\" Croyle said. \"So you get a flat tire on your car. You run your car out of oil. I mean, these things happen.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beginning of a Crisis\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crisis began Feb. 7 with the rupture in the main spillway. Dam managers responded by obtaining an uncommon exemption from the Army Corps of Engineers to bypass a rule that would have required them to release huge amounts of water from the rapidly filling dam. Water releases down the main spillway were scaled back drastically, sometimes to zero.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Engineers did this because they wanted to inspect the hole, study how much bigger it might get and think of a way to keep the spillway from crumbling further, state officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All the while, the reservoir behind the dam kept rising, reaching the highest level in the structure's history, because of one of the biggest storms in two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dam managers repeatedly assured the public there was \"no imminent threat.\" Just 12 hours before water began running down the hillside on Feb. 11, they told Honea in an email that the water releases, though reduced, \"will still keep the lake from spilling over the emergency ... spillway.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not long after the water started going down that spillway, it began ripping away the hillside. That triggered the sheriff's evacuation order, which was quickly endorsed by the dam's managers, who said the emergency spillway could fail within an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They were futzing around with the main service spillway that had broken. They turned off the flow and were inspecting it and testing it,\" said Ron Stork, senior policy adviser with Friends of the River, an environmental group. \"And all of the time the reservoir was filling.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"And then it failed,\" Stork said of the emergency spillway. \"And you know, they almost lost control.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the first time in the history of the 50-year-old dam that the emergency spillway was used, but not the first hint it might be inadequate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>'Man, You Don't Want to Use That Emergency Spillway'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There's always been an understanding that, man, you don't want to use that emergency spillway, because when you do, it's going to be a mess,\" said Jerry Antonetti, a retired engineer who was a construction inspector for one of the dam's power plants when the dam was built in the 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friends of the River and other environmental groups had argued as far back as 2005 that the earthen spillway needed to be reinforced with concrete. The Department of Water Resources and local water agencies said that was unnecessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">The state 'earned a grade of F on its ability to timely and completely communicate during this incident.'\u003ccite>Mark Sorenson,\u003cbr>Biggs city manager\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In 2014, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission not only affirmed the safety of both spillways but also said there was no point in studying or discussing the possibility that either could fail, state water officials told the AP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, the spillways broke apart while handling just a fraction of the water they were designed to carry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As families from the Gold Rush-era towns below the dam fled their homes, Oroville Dam's managers finally ramped up water releases down the damaged main spillway, bringing the reservoir back down to safer levels. The main spillway kept eroding but handled the flow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local officials downstream said the dam's operators failed to keep them fully informed as the emergency unfolded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 7, when word started spreading that a big hole had opened in the main spillway, Honea's dispatchers called state water officials to inquire, and were told that the state was doing only \"routine maintenance inspections,\" according to the sheriff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email a day before the evacuation, Mark Sorensen, the city administrator of the small town of Biggs, about 25 miles from the dam, told the state agency that the state \"earned a grade of F on its ability to timely and completely communicate during this incident.\" State officials are expanding efforts to inform the public, but say there have been dozens of news briefings, updates and advisories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department of Water Resources officials said during the crisis that they were primarily worried that the hole in the main spillway would grow larger and take out power-line towers at the dam's hydroelectric plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the evacuation, however, agency spokesman Ed Wilson said the main concern was that the hole could take out the release gates, too. That could lead to devastating flooding downstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A federally ordered investigation is underway. In the meantime, the spillways will need hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs before the rainy season in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>'Kind of a Hindsight Thing'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rick Poeppelman, chief of the Army Corps' engineering division for the region, said his agency and the state water managers made the best decisions they could.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's kind of the hindsight thing,\" he said. \"The expectation was that the emergency spillway was going to be able to pass.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, U.S. House Democrats called on the auditing arm of Congress to review dam safety standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The Oroville Dam failure did not come without warning,\" they said in a letter to the Government Accountability Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group that includes six House members from California told the office that a changing climate raises risks for aging dams around the U.S. There is a \"real crisis for dam safety,\" the group said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>OROVILLE, Butte County — Late in the afternoon of Feb. 12, Sheriff Kory Honea was at the emergency operations center for the tallest dam in America when he overheard someone say something that stopped him in his tracks:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This is not good.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over six straight days, the operators of the Oroville Dam had said there was no immediate danger after water surging down the main spillway gouged a hole the size of a football field in the concrete chute. But now suddenly they realized that the dam's emergency backup spillway — essentially an unpaved hillside — was falling apart, too, and could unleash a deadly torrent of water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Honea reacted by ordering the immediate evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, after frantic action by the dam's keepers, catastrophe was averted. But an Associated Press examination of state and federal documents, emails obtained under public records requests and numerous interviews reveal a sequence of questionable decisions and missteps, some of them made years ago, some of them in the middle of the crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among other things, the dam's federal and state overseers overestimated the durability of the two spillways. And in public statements during the emergency, they failed to acknowledge — or perhaps recognize — that while they were busy dealing with one crisis, they were creating a possible new one.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'Stuff happens. So you get a flat tire on your car. You run your car out of oil. I mean, these things happen.'\u003ccite>Bill Croyle,\u003cbr>California Department of Water Resources\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>During the darkest hours of the emergency, the fear was that if the hillside collapsed, \"it was not whether people would die, but how many would die,\" Honea recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State water officials have defended their handling of the crisis at the 770-foot-high dam in the Sierra Nevada foothills 130 miles northeast of San Francisco, saying it was managed as effectively as possible under extraordinary circumstances, including one of the wettest winters on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill Croyle, acting head of the California Department of Water Resources, became exasperated by a reporter's questions during a media briefing last month about who should be held responsible for the spillway failure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He likened the spillway failure to problems with a car. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This happens. Stuff happens,\" Croyle said. \"So you get a flat tire on your car. You run your car out of oil. I mean, these things happen.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beginning of a Crisis\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crisis began Feb. 7 with the rupture in the main spillway. Dam managers responded by obtaining an uncommon exemption from the Army Corps of Engineers to bypass a rule that would have required them to release huge amounts of water from the rapidly filling dam. Water releases down the main spillway were scaled back drastically, sometimes to zero.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Engineers did this because they wanted to inspect the hole, study how much bigger it might get and think of a way to keep the spillway from crumbling further, state officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All the while, the reservoir behind the dam kept rising, reaching the highest level in the structure's history, because of one of the biggest storms in two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dam managers repeatedly assured the public there was \"no imminent threat.\" Just 12 hours before water began running down the hillside on Feb. 11, they told Honea in an email that the water releases, though reduced, \"will still keep the lake from spilling over the emergency ... spillway.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not long after the water started going down that spillway, it began ripping away the hillside. That triggered the sheriff's evacuation order, which was quickly endorsed by the dam's managers, who said the emergency spillway could fail within an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They were futzing around with the main service spillway that had broken. They turned off the flow and were inspecting it and testing it,\" said Ron Stork, senior policy adviser with Friends of the River, an environmental group. \"And all of the time the reservoir was filling.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"And then it failed,\" Stork said of the emergency spillway. \"And you know, they almost lost control.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the first time in the history of the 50-year-old dam that the emergency spillway was used, but not the first hint it might be inadequate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>'Man, You Don't Want to Use That Emergency Spillway'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There's always been an understanding that, man, you don't want to use that emergency spillway, because when you do, it's going to be a mess,\" said Jerry Antonetti, a retired engineer who was a construction inspector for one of the dam's power plants when the dam was built in the 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friends of the River and other environmental groups had argued as far back as 2005 that the earthen spillway needed to be reinforced with concrete. The Department of Water Resources and local water agencies said that was unnecessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">The state 'earned a grade of F on its ability to timely and completely communicate during this incident.'\u003ccite>Mark Sorenson,\u003cbr>Biggs city manager\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In 2014, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission not only affirmed the safety of both spillways but also said there was no point in studying or discussing the possibility that either could fail, state water officials told the AP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, the spillways broke apart while handling just a fraction of the water they were designed to carry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As families from the Gold Rush-era towns below the dam fled their homes, Oroville Dam's managers finally ramped up water releases down the damaged main spillway, bringing the reservoir back down to safer levels. The main spillway kept eroding but handled the flow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local officials downstream said the dam's operators failed to keep them fully informed as the emergency unfolded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 7, when word started spreading that a big hole had opened in the main spillway, Honea's dispatchers called state water officials to inquire, and were told that the state was doing only \"routine maintenance inspections,\" according to the sheriff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email a day before the evacuation, Mark Sorensen, the city administrator of the small town of Biggs, about 25 miles from the dam, told the state agency that the state \"earned a grade of F on its ability to timely and completely communicate during this incident.\" State officials are expanding efforts to inform the public, but say there have been dozens of news briefings, updates and advisories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department of Water Resources officials said during the crisis that they were primarily worried that the hole in the main spillway would grow larger and take out power-line towers at the dam's hydroelectric plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the evacuation, however, agency spokesman Ed Wilson said the main concern was that the hole could take out the release gates, too. That could lead to devastating flooding downstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A federally ordered investigation is underway. In the meantime, the spillways will need hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs before the rainy season in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>'Kind of a Hindsight Thing'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rick Poeppelman, chief of the Army Corps' engineering division for the region, said his agency and the state water managers made the best decisions they could.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's kind of the hindsight thing,\" he said. \"The expectation was that the emergency spillway was going to be able to pass.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, U.S. House Democrats called on the auditing arm of Congress to review dam safety standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The Oroville Dam failure did not come without warning,\" they said in a letter to the Government Accountability Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group that includes six House members from California told the office that a changing climate raises risks for aging dams around the U.S. There is a \"real crisis for dam safety,\" the group said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>An independent analysis of the spillway failure at Oroville Dam concludes that extensive sections of the concrete structure disintegrated due to a series of design, construction and maintenance flaws stretching back more than half a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3673031-OrovilleSpillway-RootCauseAnalysis.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">root-cause analysis\u003c/a>, by Robert Bea, a retired professor of civil engineering at UC Berkeley and co-founder of the university's \u003ca href=\"http://ccrm.berkeley.edu/\">Center for Catastrophic Risk Management\u003c/a>, contends that \"the gated spillway failures are deeply rooted in pervasive design defects and flaws developed by the California Department of Water Resources\" -- the agency that built the dam in the 1960s and now owns it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea has been called on \u003ca href=\"http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/bob-bea-the-master-of-disaster-20130225\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to investigate\u003c/a> high-profile engineering failures, including the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, the levee failure in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.\u003cbr>\n[documentcloud url=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3673031-OrovilleSpillway-RootCauseAnalysis\" notes=\"true\" text=\"false\" search=\"true\" sidebar=\"false\" pdf=\"true\" responsive=\"true\" page=\"1\"]\u003cbr>\nIn a report for the UC Berkeley center circulated Monday, Bea contends that \"the gated spillway failures are deeply rooted in pervasive design defects and flaws developed by the California Department of Water Resources.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those defects include slabs that were much too thin -- an estimated 4 to 6 inches in critical spots -- and lacking in the reinforcement and anchoring they needed to withstand the destructive power of repeated water releases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[audio src=\"http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/tcr/2017/04/2017-04-19c-tcr.mp3\" Image=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/ORO_FI_06-1920x1080.jpg\" Title=\"Report: Flaws in Design, Building and Upkeep Led to Oroville Spillway Failure\" program=\"The California Report\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR compounded those initial flaws, Bea's report says, by failing to ensure that the giant concrete chute was built on \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2017/04/07/how-incompetent-rock-led-to-the-oroville-dam-crisis/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">competent rock\u003c/a>. Contractors also used \"native soils\" -- mostly clay -- to grade sections of the spillway foundation, allowing extensive erosion and displacement of gravel intended to support a crucial drainage system, Bea concludes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spillway's built-in problems led to extensive cracking of its concrete surface and openings in the joints between adjacent slabs of concrete. Bea says repeated repairs to the concrete were ineffective in preventing large volumes of water from getting under the concrete and further eroding the surface below.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'The gated spillway failures are deeply rooted in pervasive design defects and flaws developed by the California Department of Water Resources.'\u003ccite>Professor Robert Bea\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Bea also faults DWR for allowing large trees to grow adjacent to the spillway walls. Their roots could block pipes meant to drain water from beneath the concrete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dam is the key facility of the State Water Project, which conveys agricultural and urban water supplies from the massive reservoir of Lake Oroville to farms in the San Joaquin Valley and agencies serving 26 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources had no immediate response to a request for comment on Bea's analysis. In past statements, the agency has said the Oroville spillway met the design and construction standards in place during the 1960s and that repeated inspections found it to be well-maintained and approved for continued use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea's analysis challenges both of those DWR assertions. He concludes \"the wrong standards and guidelines are being used to requalify many critical infrastructure systems for continued service.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Spillway Breach Led to February Crisis\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dam became the focus of worldwide attention in early February when a large breach appeared in its main spillway just as a surge of storm runoff flowed into Lake Oroville, the state's second-largest reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"o2IZ7WfchLDGTwdOK3eN9C8A4ixeo0kI\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With spillway releases reduced, a rapid rise in the lake sent water flowing over an untested emergency spillway. Severe erosion on the slope beneath that massive overflow structure prompted fears that it would collapse, triggering evacuation orders affecting about 180,000 people from communities along the Feather River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As that near-catastrophe unfolded, Bea said in interviews, he began assembling materials to try to explain it. He says the Department of Water Resources rebuffed a request for original design documents of the spillway and adjacent emergency weir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR representatives told him that agency guidelines barred the release of information on critical infrastructure systems -- data protected by a post-9/11 law designed to prevent such resources from falling into the hands of potential attackers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They looked at me and smiled and said, 'You might be a terrorist,' \" Bea recalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea then assembled on his own a collection of publicly available information -- including partial design information released by DWR in the 1960s and '70s, a selection of the department's dam inspection reports, and photographs from the agency, media sources and even Google Earth -- to try to analyze the causes of the spillway failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While acknowledging that he was working with what he called \"incomplete information,\" Bea says the materials pointed to the defects he outlined in his analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Drainage System and Thin Concrete\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the crucial flaws in the construction, Bea says, concerns the complex drainage system installed beneath the slab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The system consists of a network of clay pipes with an inside diameter of 6 inches and outside diameter ranging from about 8 inches to 10.5 inches at their connecting ends. The pipes are laid out in a herringbone pattern beneath the concrete. They are designed to collect water that seeps through cracks in the slab and route it to drains in the spillway's sidewalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea says that since the slab is generally just 15 inches thick, the concrete over the drain pipes is much thinner -- between 4 and 6 inches thick, or about the same as a standard sidewalk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The thinness of the concrete over the pipes showed up as cracks on the surface of the spillway -- a fact Bea says was noted after extensive repairs to the concrete were performed in 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The concrete along the spillway chute has been repaired,\" a dam inspector wrote in June 2010. \"The repaired herringbone crack pattern is said to reflect the underlying drain system.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Agency Consultants Share Similar Concerns\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some respects Bea's conclusions echo concerns raised in \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3523667-20170317-5113-32037979.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a report last month\u003c/a> by a board of engineering consultants DWR retained, at the direction of federal regulators, to oversee the agency's plans for rebuilding the spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board expressed concern about the structure's repair history. Members noted that the slab was just 12 inches thick and thinner in some areas -- much thinner than current design standards -- and had been cut open repeatedly in the past to fill voids that had opened beneath the spillway. The engineers also noted that compacted clay had been used to fill spaces that have opened under the slab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The use of the clay \"calls into question whether the portions of the slab that appear undamaged by the failure should be replaced during the restoration,\" the board wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The consultants also observed that a drainage system installed beneath the spillway slab was discharging \"extraordinarily large\" amounts of water even days after flows were halted down the concrete chute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It seems likely that piping [erosion] of foundation material beneath the chute slab may be responsible for the voids that have been found and repaired in the past,\" the consultants' report said. The board called for an investigation of that possibility, a task that will likely be taken up by a separate panel appointed to conduct a forensic investigation of the spillway failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR says the forensic panel, which was also created at the direction of federal overseers, began reviewing documents late last month and visited the spillway for the first time last week. There is no timeline yet for its report on the causes of the structure's failure, though it has been asked to submit preliminary conclusions to the spillway replacement design team by the end of the first week of May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>'A Regulated Failure'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea calls the breach and destruction of the spillway \"a regulated failure.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The regulatory processes are not sufficient to put a check and balance into the system to say, 'Hey, what a minute, what you're thinking here about design is not appropriate,' or 'What you're concluding from your inspection and repair operations is not appropriate,' \" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why deficiencies in the spillway were allowed to occur and grow into a crisis, a process that took more than five decades, is an issue he says he's still wrestling with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's obvious these things were accumulating and persisting. Why?\" Bea says he asked himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I looked back on my previous experience with our Department of Water Resources,\" Bea says. \"I worked with them back in the 2005 and 2010 period and had gotten to know [former DWR director] Lester Snow pretty well, and a couple of engineers. They're not really what I would call the evil empire.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Bea says it's clear to him that the agency and other oversight bodies, such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, are using standards that don't account for the deterioration of infrastructure over time or outdated technology. He points to the fact that the Bureau of Reclamation's current standard for spillway construction calls for 36 to 42 inches of concrete and other measures to reduce the destructive effects of high water flows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Much as I learned from working on Katrina,\" Bea said, \"DWR, FERC and our state regulatory system are using guidelines and standards that may have been appropriate for the 1960s, and were appropriate for the design and initial construction, but not appropriate for a 50-year-old system that's experienced aging and technological obsolescence. We're using the wrong standards to requalify these aged infrastructure systems.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea's analysis of the failure comes as DWR rushes forward with plans to rebuild the spillway. The department announced Monday night that it had awarded a $275 million contract for the project to Kiewit Infrastructure West, the Northern California branch of an Omaha-based construction conglomerate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR says it estimates the project's cost at $231 million. Kiewit's was the lowest of three bids, which ranged up to $344 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department says preparatory work will begin immediately. Acting Director Bill Croyle said as recently as last Thursday that it's still working to determine the project's scope and final design.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>An independent analysis of the spillway failure at Oroville Dam concludes that extensive sections of the concrete structure disintegrated due to a series of design, construction and maintenance flaws stretching back more than half a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3673031-OrovilleSpillway-RootCauseAnalysis.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">root-cause analysis\u003c/a>, by Robert Bea, a retired professor of civil engineering at UC Berkeley and co-founder of the university's \u003ca href=\"http://ccrm.berkeley.edu/\">Center for Catastrophic Risk Management\u003c/a>, contends that \"the gated spillway failures are deeply rooted in pervasive design defects and flaws developed by the California Department of Water Resources\" -- the agency that built the dam in the 1960s and now owns it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea has been called on \u003ca href=\"http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/bob-bea-the-master-of-disaster-20130225\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to investigate\u003c/a> high-profile engineering failures, including the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, the levee failure in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nIn a report for the UC Berkeley center circulated Monday, Bea contends that \"the gated spillway failures are deeply rooted in pervasive design defects and flaws developed by the California Department of Water Resources.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those defects include slabs that were much too thin -- an estimated 4 to 6 inches in critical spots -- and lacking in the reinforcement and anchoring they needed to withstand the destructive power of repeated water releases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR compounded those initial flaws, Bea's report says, by failing to ensure that the giant concrete chute was built on \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2017/04/07/how-incompetent-rock-led-to-the-oroville-dam-crisis/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">competent rock\u003c/a>. Contractors also used \"native soils\" -- mostly clay -- to grade sections of the spillway foundation, allowing extensive erosion and displacement of gravel intended to support a crucial drainage system, Bea concludes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spillway's built-in problems led to extensive cracking of its concrete surface and openings in the joints between adjacent slabs of concrete. Bea says repeated repairs to the concrete were ineffective in preventing large volumes of water from getting under the concrete and further eroding the surface below.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'The gated spillway failures are deeply rooted in pervasive design defects and flaws developed by the California Department of Water Resources.'\u003ccite>Professor Robert Bea\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Bea also faults DWR for allowing large trees to grow adjacent to the spillway walls. Their roots could block pipes meant to drain water from beneath the concrete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dam is the key facility of the State Water Project, which conveys agricultural and urban water supplies from the massive reservoir of Lake Oroville to farms in the San Joaquin Valley and agencies serving 26 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources had no immediate response to a request for comment on Bea's analysis. In past statements, the agency has said the Oroville spillway met the design and construction standards in place during the 1960s and that repeated inspections found it to be well-maintained and approved for continued use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea's analysis challenges both of those DWR assertions. He concludes \"the wrong standards and guidelines are being used to requalify many critical infrastructure systems for continued service.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Spillway Breach Led to February Crisis\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dam became the focus of worldwide attention in early February when a large breach appeared in its main spillway just as a surge of storm runoff flowed into Lake Oroville, the state's second-largest reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With spillway releases reduced, a rapid rise in the lake sent water flowing over an untested emergency spillway. Severe erosion on the slope beneath that massive overflow structure prompted fears that it would collapse, triggering evacuation orders affecting about 180,000 people from communities along the Feather River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As that near-catastrophe unfolded, Bea said in interviews, he began assembling materials to try to explain it. He says the Department of Water Resources rebuffed a request for original design documents of the spillway and adjacent emergency weir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR representatives told him that agency guidelines barred the release of information on critical infrastructure systems -- data protected by a post-9/11 law designed to prevent such resources from falling into the hands of potential attackers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They looked at me and smiled and said, 'You might be a terrorist,' \" Bea recalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea then assembled on his own a collection of publicly available information -- including partial design information released by DWR in the 1960s and '70s, a selection of the department's dam inspection reports, and photographs from the agency, media sources and even Google Earth -- to try to analyze the causes of the spillway failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While acknowledging that he was working with what he called \"incomplete information,\" Bea says the materials pointed to the defects he outlined in his analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Drainage System and Thin Concrete\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the crucial flaws in the construction, Bea says, concerns the complex drainage system installed beneath the slab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The system consists of a network of clay pipes with an inside diameter of 6 inches and outside diameter ranging from about 8 inches to 10.5 inches at their connecting ends. The pipes are laid out in a herringbone pattern beneath the concrete. They are designed to collect water that seeps through cracks in the slab and route it to drains in the spillway's sidewalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea says that since the slab is generally just 15 inches thick, the concrete over the drain pipes is much thinner -- between 4 and 6 inches thick, or about the same as a standard sidewalk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The thinness of the concrete over the pipes showed up as cracks on the surface of the spillway -- a fact Bea says was noted after extensive repairs to the concrete were performed in 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The concrete along the spillway chute has been repaired,\" a dam inspector wrote in June 2010. \"The repaired herringbone crack pattern is said to reflect the underlying drain system.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Agency Consultants Share Similar Concerns\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some respects Bea's conclusions echo concerns raised in \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3523667-20170317-5113-32037979.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a report last month\u003c/a> by a board of engineering consultants DWR retained, at the direction of federal regulators, to oversee the agency's plans for rebuilding the spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board expressed concern about the structure's repair history. Members noted that the slab was just 12 inches thick and thinner in some areas -- much thinner than current design standards -- and had been cut open repeatedly in the past to fill voids that had opened beneath the spillway. The engineers also noted that compacted clay had been used to fill spaces that have opened under the slab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The use of the clay \"calls into question whether the portions of the slab that appear undamaged by the failure should be replaced during the restoration,\" the board wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The consultants also observed that a drainage system installed beneath the spillway slab was discharging \"extraordinarily large\" amounts of water even days after flows were halted down the concrete chute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It seems likely that piping [erosion] of foundation material beneath the chute slab may be responsible for the voids that have been found and repaired in the past,\" the consultants' report said. The board called for an investigation of that possibility, a task that will likely be taken up by a separate panel appointed to conduct a forensic investigation of the spillway failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR says the forensic panel, which was also created at the direction of federal overseers, began reviewing documents late last month and visited the spillway for the first time last week. There is no timeline yet for its report on the causes of the structure's failure, though it has been asked to submit preliminary conclusions to the spillway replacement design team by the end of the first week of May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>'A Regulated Failure'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea calls the breach and destruction of the spillway \"a regulated failure.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The regulatory processes are not sufficient to put a check and balance into the system to say, 'Hey, what a minute, what you're thinking here about design is not appropriate,' or 'What you're concluding from your inspection and repair operations is not appropriate,' \" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why deficiencies in the spillway were allowed to occur and grow into a crisis, a process that took more than five decades, is an issue he says he's still wrestling with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's obvious these things were accumulating and persisting. Why?\" Bea says he asked himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I looked back on my previous experience with our Department of Water Resources,\" Bea says. \"I worked with them back in the 2005 and 2010 period and had gotten to know [former DWR director] Lester Snow pretty well, and a couple of engineers. They're not really what I would call the evil empire.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Bea says it's clear to him that the agency and other oversight bodies, such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, are using standards that don't account for the deterioration of infrastructure over time or outdated technology. He points to the fact that the Bureau of Reclamation's current standard for spillway construction calls for 36 to 42 inches of concrete and other measures to reduce the destructive effects of high water flows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Much as I learned from working on Katrina,\" Bea said, \"DWR, FERC and our state regulatory system are using guidelines and standards that may have been appropriate for the 1960s, and were appropriate for the design and initial construction, but not appropriate for a 50-year-old system that's experienced aging and technological obsolescence. We're using the wrong standards to requalify these aged infrastructure systems.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea's analysis of the failure comes as DWR rushes forward with plans to rebuild the spillway. The department announced Monday night that it had awarded a $275 million contract for the project to Kiewit Infrastructure West, the Northern California branch of an Omaha-based construction conglomerate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR says it estimates the project's cost at $231 million. Kiewit's was the lowest of three bids, which ranged up to $344 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department says preparatory work will begin immediately. Acting Director Bill Croyle said as recently as last Thursday that it's still working to determine the project's scope and final design.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"headTitle": "How ‘Incompetent Rock’ Led to the Oroville Dam Crisis | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>UPDATE: California’s Dept. of Water Resources is promising to complete by this fall a “forensic” study of February’s near-catastrophic collapse of two spillways at Oroville Dam in Butte County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR is embarking on a fast-track plan to replace the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/02/28/photo-gallery-whats-left-of-oroville-dams-shattered-spillway/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shattered spillways at Oroville Dam\u003c/a> — at least partially — by November 1, when the rainy season is expected to resume.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Engineers have largely completed geotechnical studies, hoping to better understand what led to the failures. And while DWR has declined to release those studies, citing national security concerns, an \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/04/18/report-design-building-and-upkeep-flaws-led-to-oroville-spillway-failure/\">independent review\u003c/a> corroborates conclusions in this story that the underlying geology of the site was at least partly to blame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They did not anchor the spillway in fresh rock,” says \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldridge_M._Moores\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eldridge Moores\u003c/a>, an eminent geologist and one of the world’s leading experts on the geology of the Sierra Nevada. (He’s the central figure in John McPhee’s 1993 book, \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/07/05/specials/mcphee-california.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Assembling California\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fresh” is the term geologists use for rock that is fully intact and has not yet begun to break down. It is typically smooth and highly resistant to erosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Listen to the radio story:\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nhttp://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio//2017/04/OrovilleGeologyWEBMiller170410.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But much of the rock those spillways relied upon is “weathered,” the more fractured rock that is decomposing from long exposure to the elements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fresh rock has been combined with the atmosphere,” explains Moores, and when that happens, you get this chemical change and you produce this softer sort of rock that’s falling apart.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Incompetent Rock\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Engineers call that “incompetent rock.” And that, says Moores, is what Oroville’s main concrete spillway was built on and what the emergency spillway was made of. In February, as intense storms filled the reservoir, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/02/07/engineers-assess-spillway-problem-at-oroville-dam/\">both began disintegrating\u003c/a> under the force of billions of gallons of water cascading over them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/hoPb8GrhWSM\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few miles from Oroville, Moores demonstrates by taking a rock hammer to two rocks that sit side-by-side at a spot along the Yuba River — one fresh, one in an advanced stage of weathering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hear that?” he asks, as his hammer bounces off the smooth, bluish-gray fresh sample with a distinctive “tink.” Then he thumps the reddish-brown weathered rock with a series of dull thuds, which sounds less like stone than rotting wood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That [fresh] rock is resistant to water pouring over it,” he notes. “This is not. It’s on its way to becoming dirt. if you dump your overflow into rocks like this, of course you’re going to erode them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"sharedaddy show-for-medium-up\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1540250 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405.jpeg\" alt=\"Geology_Desktop_R2_170405\" width=\"1449\" height=\"815\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405.jpeg 1449w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-800x450.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-1020x574.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-1180x664.jpeg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-960x540.jpeg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-240x135.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-375x211.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-520x292.jpeg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1449px) 100vw, 1449px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"show-for-small-only\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1540251\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Mobile_R2_170405.jpeg\" alt=\"Geology_Mobile_R2_170405\" width=\"721\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Mobile_R2_170405.jpeg 721w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Mobile_R2_170405-160x284.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Mobile_R2_170405-240x426.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Mobile_R2_170405-375x666.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Mobile_R2_170405-520x924.jpeg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 721px) 100vw, 721px\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Murky Past\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 1961 planning document for Oroville Dam says the site is “blessed with a geologic structure and foundation rock which are suitable for the foundation.” It also suggests excavating down 18 feet to clear away “soil and weathered rock” for the main body of the dam. So it’s clear that builders working for the state were aware of the “incompetent” rock that’s prevalent at the site, but it’s less clear that similar excavations were suggested, let alone required for the spillways, which sit off to the side of the main dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1540132\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 474px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1540132\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/SpillwayTest1_Graded.jpeg\" alt=\"In the 1960s, engineers built scale models of spillways to test them with various water flows and design features.\" width=\"474\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/SpillwayTest1_Graded.jpeg 474w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/SpillwayTest1_Graded-160x132.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/SpillwayTest1_Graded-240x198.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/SpillwayTest1_Graded-375x309.jpeg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the 1960s, engineers built scale models of spillways to test them with various water flows and design features. \u003ccite>(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Though the dam was completed nearly 50 years ago, Moores says the rock at the site would have already been substantially decomposed, as the weathering process takes place over hundreds or thousands of years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was not any different when they built the dam,” he says.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was sheer good fortune that dam operators never had to use the earthen emergency spillway until this year. But in February, with the main concrete spillway already crippled, they couldn’t empty the dam fast enough to keep pace with winter storms. The lake level rose quickly and rushed over the concrete lip, or “weir” of the emergency spillway. The earthen slope below the weir quickly disintegrated with water tumbling over it at 12,500 cubic feet per second, though design documents from the 1960s show that it could have to handle flows of 20-to-30 times that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I find that astounding that they would rate it like that,” says Moores. “It seems to me that even a student of geology could have told them that they were going to have an erosion problem here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite several requests, DWR did not provide an interview for this story. In a statement, it said only that the dam and spillway “met the design and construction standards of its time half a century ago.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1540133\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1540133 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded.jpeg\" alt=\"Detail from original drawings for Oroville Dam and spillways. The emergency spillway is shown to the left as the "1750' ungated overflow spillway."\" width=\"1280\" height=\"858\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded.jpeg 1280w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-800x536.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-768x515.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-1020x684.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-1180x791.jpeg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-960x644.jpeg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-240x161.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-375x251.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-520x349.jpeg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail from original drawings for Oroville Dam and spillways. The emergency spillway is shown in the upper left as the “1750′ ungated overflow spillway.” \u003ccite>(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Knowing what he does about the geology of the Sierra, I asked Moores what it tells him about other dams around the state of similar design and siting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I worry,” he said. “That’s what it tells me about the rest of the dams.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late February, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered new, detailed inspections of state dams with spillways similar to Oroville’s. Those must be completed before the next flood season and must include “geologic assessments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, acting DWR engineering chief Jeanne Kuttel told reporters that the new main spillway, when completed in two years, will be able to carry nearly twice the volume of water that the original concrete chute was ever called upon to do. She added that the new emergency spillway will be bolstered with retaining walls and channels made of erosion-resistant roller-compacted concrete — just in case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our intent is to not to have to use the emergency spillway ever again,” said Kuttel. “However, we know that Mother Nature throws a lot at us, so we’re gonna be ready.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Amidst the Sierra's jumbled geology, a leading expert says Oroville's spillways were not built on the most solid rock.",
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"description": "Amidst the Sierra's jumbled geology, a leading expert says Oroville's spillways were not built on the most solid rock.",
"title": "How 'Incompetent Rock' Led to the Oroville Dam Crisis | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>UPDATE: California’s Dept. of Water Resources is promising to complete by this fall a “forensic” study of February’s near-catastrophic collapse of two spillways at Oroville Dam in Butte County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR is embarking on a fast-track plan to replace the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/02/28/photo-gallery-whats-left-of-oroville-dams-shattered-spillway/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shattered spillways at Oroville Dam\u003c/a> — at least partially — by November 1, when the rainy season is expected to resume.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Engineers have largely completed geotechnical studies, hoping to better understand what led to the failures. And while DWR has declined to release those studies, citing national security concerns, an \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/04/18/report-design-building-and-upkeep-flaws-led-to-oroville-spillway-failure/\">independent review\u003c/a> corroborates conclusions in this story that the underlying geology of the site was at least partly to blame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They did not anchor the spillway in fresh rock,” says \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldridge_M._Moores\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eldridge Moores\u003c/a>, an eminent geologist and one of the world’s leading experts on the geology of the Sierra Nevada. (He’s the central figure in John McPhee’s 1993 book, \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/07/05/specials/mcphee-california.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Assembling California\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fresh” is the term geologists use for rock that is fully intact and has not yet begun to break down. It is typically smooth and highly resistant to erosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Listen to the radio story:\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>But much of the rock those spillways relied upon is “weathered,” the more fractured rock that is decomposing from long exposure to the elements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fresh rock has been combined with the atmosphere,” explains Moores, and when that happens, you get this chemical change and you produce this softer sort of rock that’s falling apart.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Incompetent Rock\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Engineers call that “incompetent rock.” And that, says Moores, is what Oroville’s main concrete spillway was built on and what the emergency spillway was made of. In February, as intense storms filled the reservoir, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/02/07/engineers-assess-spillway-problem-at-oroville-dam/\">both began disintegrating\u003c/a> under the force of billions of gallons of water cascading over them.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/hoPb8GrhWSM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/hoPb8GrhWSM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>A few miles from Oroville, Moores demonstrates by taking a rock hammer to two rocks that sit side-by-side at a spot along the Yuba River — one fresh, one in an advanced stage of weathering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hear that?” he asks, as his hammer bounces off the smooth, bluish-gray fresh sample with a distinctive “tink.” Then he thumps the reddish-brown weathered rock with a series of dull thuds, which sounds less like stone than rotting wood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That [fresh] rock is resistant to water pouring over it,” he notes. “This is not. It’s on its way to becoming dirt. if you dump your overflow into rocks like this, of course you’re going to erode them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"sharedaddy show-for-medium-up\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1540250 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405.jpeg\" alt=\"Geology_Desktop_R2_170405\" width=\"1449\" height=\"815\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405.jpeg 1449w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-800x450.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-1020x574.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-1180x664.jpeg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-960x540.jpeg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-240x135.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-375x211.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Desktop_R2_170405-520x292.jpeg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1449px) 100vw, 1449px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"show-for-small-only\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1540251\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Mobile_R2_170405.jpeg\" alt=\"Geology_Mobile_R2_170405\" width=\"721\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Mobile_R2_170405.jpeg 721w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Mobile_R2_170405-160x284.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Mobile_R2_170405-240x426.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Mobile_R2_170405-375x666.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Geology_Mobile_R2_170405-520x924.jpeg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 721px) 100vw, 721px\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Murky Past\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 1961 planning document for Oroville Dam says the site is “blessed with a geologic structure and foundation rock which are suitable for the foundation.” It also suggests excavating down 18 feet to clear away “soil and weathered rock” for the main body of the dam. So it’s clear that builders working for the state were aware of the “incompetent” rock that’s prevalent at the site, but it’s less clear that similar excavations were suggested, let alone required for the spillways, which sit off to the side of the main dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1540132\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 474px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1540132\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/SpillwayTest1_Graded.jpeg\" alt=\"In the 1960s, engineers built scale models of spillways to test them with various water flows and design features.\" width=\"474\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/SpillwayTest1_Graded.jpeg 474w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/SpillwayTest1_Graded-160x132.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/SpillwayTest1_Graded-240x198.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/SpillwayTest1_Graded-375x309.jpeg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the 1960s, engineers built scale models of spillways to test them with various water flows and design features. \u003ccite>(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Though the dam was completed nearly 50 years ago, Moores says the rock at the site would have already been substantially decomposed, as the weathering process takes place over hundreds or thousands of years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was not any different when they built the dam,” he says.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was sheer good fortune that dam operators never had to use the earthen emergency spillway until this year. But in February, with the main concrete spillway already crippled, they couldn’t empty the dam fast enough to keep pace with winter storms. The lake level rose quickly and rushed over the concrete lip, or “weir” of the emergency spillway. The earthen slope below the weir quickly disintegrated with water tumbling over it at 12,500 cubic feet per second, though design documents from the 1960s show that it could have to handle flows of 20-to-30 times that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I find that astounding that they would rate it like that,” says Moores. “It seems to me that even a student of geology could have told them that they were going to have an erosion problem here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite several requests, DWR did not provide an interview for this story. In a statement, it said only that the dam and spillway “met the design and construction standards of its time half a century ago.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1540133\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1540133 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded.jpeg\" alt=\"Detail from original drawings for Oroville Dam and spillways. The emergency spillway is shown to the left as the "1750' ungated overflow spillway."\" width=\"1280\" height=\"858\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded.jpeg 1280w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-800x536.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-768x515.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-1020x684.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-1180x791.jpeg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-960x644.jpeg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-240x161.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-375x251.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/Spillwaydrawing1_Graded-520x349.jpeg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail from original drawings for Oroville Dam and spillways. The emergency spillway is shown in the upper left as the “1750′ ungated overflow spillway.” \u003ccite>(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Knowing what he does about the geology of the Sierra, I asked Moores what it tells him about other dams around the state of similar design and siting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I worry,” he said. “That’s what it tells me about the rest of the dams.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late February, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered new, detailed inspections of state dams with spillways similar to Oroville’s. Those must be completed before the next flood season and must include “geologic assessments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, acting DWR engineering chief Jeanne Kuttel told reporters that the new main spillway, when completed in two years, will be able to carry nearly twice the volume of water that the original concrete chute was ever called upon to do. She added that the new emergency spillway will be bolstered with retaining walls and channels made of erosion-resistant roller-compacted concrete — just in case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our intent is to not to have to use the emergency spillway ever again,” said Kuttel. “However, we know that Mother Nature throws a lot at us, so we’re gonna be ready.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Six Weeks After Crisis, Oroville Evacuation Orders Finally Lifted",
"title": "Six Weeks After Crisis, Oroville Evacuation Orders Finally Lifted",
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"content": "\u003cp>Nearly six weeks after downstream residents were ordered to flee their homes because of trouble with Oroville Dam’s spillways, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea has lifted all evacuation warnings and advisories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents of Oroville were given just an hour to leave their homes on the afternoon of Feb.12. That was the day after Lake Oroville, rising rapidly after flood-control releases were reduced down the dam’s main spillway, flowed over an ungated emergency weir. Severe erosion on the slope below raised concerns that the emergency structure would collapse and unleash a catastrophic flood down the Feather River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"pQLJXxDjJfaqSb3683oWQ0SFS5TRUjWX\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents as far as 35 miles downstream were told to leave immediately, and an estimated 180,000 people in Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties were under evacuation orders. They were cleared to return home Feb. 14, but Butte County had remained under an evacuation advisory while the California Department of Water Resources worked to lower Lake Oroville, shore up the emergency spillway and clear a mountain of debris from the adjacent river channel. The blocked river channel had shut down the dam’s hydroelectric power plant and further limited managers’ ability to release water from the reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wednesday, Sheriff Honea said he was satisfied with the progress of the DWR’s work, which has employed an army of contractors and cost something on the order of $200 million to date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Honea acknowledged that the evacuation had been chaotic. Residents complained about not being notified they needed to leave, and there was at least one case in which a disabled Oroville resident was left behind for hours after the evacuation warning because no emergency transport was available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These past six weeks have been a very difficult and unsettling time for many individuals and families affected by the danger posed by fast-moving erosion to the emergency spillway,” Honea said. “I couldn’t be more proud of this community and the countless unsung heroes who helped their neighbors and cared for those who needed it most.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[audio src=\"http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/tcr/2017/03/2017-03-24d-tcr.mp3\" Image=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RM_Oroville-5904_03_18_2017-1920x1237.jpg\" Title=\"Six Weeks After Crisis, Oroville Evacuation Orders Finally Lifted\" program=\"The California Report\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Honea’s mantra at virtually every media briefing and public appearance over the last month and a half has been a request for residents to sign up for the county’s emergency notification system. And despite lifting the evacuation advisory, county officials are working on developing new evacuation plans in case of a future emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county has designated 11 new flood evacuation zones, complete with assembly points and emergency departure routes, along the Feather River from Oroville to the town of Gridley. Officials are holding informational meetings in each zone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The potential for future trouble with the Oroville Dam was highlighted in a report from a board of experts appointed to review the situation at the facility and oversee the process of repairing or rebuilding the spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report, obtained earlier this week by \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/03/22/experts-oroville-spillway-damage-continues-to-pose-very-significant-risk/\" target=\"_blank\">The Associated Press\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article140390898.html\" target=\"_blank\">Sacramento Bee\u003c/a>, says dam managers are facing a “very significant risk” if the main spillway is not operational in time for this fall’s rainy season. The panel also said it’s “absolutely critical” to avoid further flows over the emergency weir and down the hillside below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources has placed thousands of tons of rock in eroded sections of the eroded hillside, “armored” sections of the slope with concrete, and built a series of walls and check dams to slow any flow of water down to the river channel below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"PPgTUfXeu8Kixzpv92JzMDfT197b4WOC\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current operational status of the spillway and reservoir: Releases down the damaged concrete structure continue at about 40,000 cubic feet per second. Water is also being released through two of the five operational units in the dam’s hydroelectric plants, for a total flow of about 45,000 cfs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR officials said when flows were resumed down the main spillway last Friday that they intend to lower the lake’s surface elevation to between 835 and 838 feet above sea level. That would represent a drop of 26 to 29 feet from last week and would put the lake level 63 to 66 feet below the now-dreaded emergency weir. The agency said it plans to shut down spillway releases at that point to allow resumption of preliminary work to repair or replace the structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One aspect of that work started this week, with crews drilling for rock and soil samples near the spillway to assess underlying conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flood-control releases down the main spillway are just one part of the equation determining how fast the lake level drops, of course. The other principal factor is the amount of water flowing into the lake from the Feather River watershed, or “inflow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inflow peaked during the February spillway crisis at about 190,000 cfs. After a long run of mostly dry, clear and cool weather in the first half of March, it fell and leveled off between 15,000 cfs and 20,000 cfs. Now, with a series of storms marching through Northern California, inflow has periodically risen into the 45,000 to 50,000 cfs range — meaning the lake’s level has fallen very slowly, and some hours not at all, during the last several days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One more big storm is expected in the week ahead — a cold system that DWR forecasters say could drop 2 to 3 inches of rain or its snow equivalent on the Feather River basin over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Nearly six weeks after downstream residents were ordered to flee their homes because of trouble with Oroville Dam’s spillways, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea has lifted all evacuation warnings and advisories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents of Oroville were given just an hour to leave their homes on the afternoon of Feb.12. That was the day after Lake Oroville, rising rapidly after flood-control releases were reduced down the dam’s main spillway, flowed over an ungated emergency weir. Severe erosion on the slope below raised concerns that the emergency structure would collapse and unleash a catastrophic flood down the Feather River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents as far as 35 miles downstream were told to leave immediately, and an estimated 180,000 people in Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties were under evacuation orders. They were cleared to return home Feb. 14, but Butte County had remained under an evacuation advisory while the California Department of Water Resources worked to lower Lake Oroville, shore up the emergency spillway and clear a mountain of debris from the adjacent river channel. The blocked river channel had shut down the dam’s hydroelectric power plant and further limited managers’ ability to release water from the reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wednesday, Sheriff Honea said he was satisfied with the progress of the DWR’s work, which has employed an army of contractors and cost something on the order of $200 million to date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Honea acknowledged that the evacuation had been chaotic. Residents complained about not being notified they needed to leave, and there was at least one case in which a disabled Oroville resident was left behind for hours after the evacuation warning because no emergency transport was available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These past six weeks have been a very difficult and unsettling time for many individuals and families affected by the danger posed by fast-moving erosion to the emergency spillway,” Honea said. “I couldn’t be more proud of this community and the countless unsung heroes who helped their neighbors and cared for those who needed it most.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Honea’s mantra at virtually every media briefing and public appearance over the last month and a half has been a request for residents to sign up for the county’s emergency notification system. And despite lifting the evacuation advisory, county officials are working on developing new evacuation plans in case of a future emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county has designated 11 new flood evacuation zones, complete with assembly points and emergency departure routes, along the Feather River from Oroville to the town of Gridley. Officials are holding informational meetings in each zone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The potential for future trouble with the Oroville Dam was highlighted in a report from a board of experts appointed to review the situation at the facility and oversee the process of repairing or rebuilding the spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report, obtained earlier this week by \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/03/22/experts-oroville-spillway-damage-continues-to-pose-very-significant-risk/\" target=\"_blank\">The Associated Press\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article140390898.html\" target=\"_blank\">Sacramento Bee\u003c/a>, says dam managers are facing a “very significant risk” if the main spillway is not operational in time for this fall’s rainy season. The panel also said it’s “absolutely critical” to avoid further flows over the emergency weir and down the hillside below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources has placed thousands of tons of rock in eroded sections of the eroded hillside, “armored” sections of the slope with concrete, and built a series of walls and check dams to slow any flow of water down to the river channel below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current operational status of the spillway and reservoir: Releases down the damaged concrete structure continue at about 40,000 cubic feet per second. Water is also being released through two of the five operational units in the dam’s hydroelectric plants, for a total flow of about 45,000 cfs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR officials said when flows were resumed down the main spillway last Friday that they intend to lower the lake’s surface elevation to between 835 and 838 feet above sea level. That would represent a drop of 26 to 29 feet from last week and would put the lake level 63 to 66 feet below the now-dreaded emergency weir. The agency said it plans to shut down spillway releases at that point to allow resumption of preliminary work to repair or replace the structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One aspect of that work started this week, with crews drilling for rock and soil samples near the spillway to assess underlying conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flood-control releases down the main spillway are just one part of the equation determining how fast the lake level drops, of course. The other principal factor is the amount of water flowing into the lake from the Feather River watershed, or “inflow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inflow peaked during the February spillway crisis at about 190,000 cfs. After a long run of mostly dry, clear and cool weather in the first half of March, it fell and leveled off between 15,000 cfs and 20,000 cfs. Now, with a series of storms marching through Northern California, inflow has periodically risen into the 45,000 to 50,000 cfs range — meaning the lake’s level has fallen very slowly, and some hours not at all, during the last several days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One more big storm is expected in the week ahead — a cold system that DWR forecasters say could drop 2 to 3 inches of rain or its snow equivalent on the Feather River basin over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Oroville Update: Evacuation Advisory Finally Lifted",
"title": "Oroville Update: Evacuation Advisory Finally Lifted",
"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"post-top\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"mar23\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 1:45 p.m., Wednesday, March 23:\u003c/strong> Nearly six weeks after downstream residents were ordered to flee their homes because of trouble with Oroville Dam's spillways, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea has lifted all evacuation warnings and advisories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents of Oroville were given just an hour to leave their homes on the afternoon of Feb.12. That was the day after Lake Oroville, rising rapidly after flood-control releases were reduced down the dam's main spillway, flowed over an ungated emergency weir. Severe erosion on the slope below raised concerns that the emergency structure would collapse and unleash a catastrophic flood down the Feather River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"kSUah7JZIA0Ameah7mPu6THfcz9ueki2\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents as far as 35 miles downstream were told to leave immediately, and an estimated 180,000 people in Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties were under evacuation orders. They were cleared to return home Feb. 14, but Butte County had remained under an evacuation advisory while the California Department of Water Resources worked to lower Lake Oroville, shore up the emergency spillway and clear a mountain of debris from the adjacent river channel. The blocked river channel had shut down the dam's hydroelectric power plant and further limited managers' ability to release water from the reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wednesday, Sheriff Honea said he was satisfied with the progress of the DWR's work, which has employed an army of contractors and cost something on the order of $200 million to date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Honea acknowledged that the evacuation had been chaotic. Residents complained about not being notified they needed to leave, and there was at least one case in which a disabled Oroville resident was left behind for hours after the evacuation warning because no emergency transport was available.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch4>Oroville Dam Crisis: A Diary\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Here's KQED News' day-by-day entries tracking the unfolding crisis at Oroville Dam, beginning Feb. 7, 2017:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#feb07\">Feb. 7: Spillway problem detected\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb08\">Feb. 8: Engineers assess damage\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb09\">Feb. 9: Water likely to emergency spillway\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb10\">Feb. 10: Water nears top of reservoir\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb11\">Feb. 11: Emergency spillway overflows\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb12\">Feb. 12: Evacuations ordered\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb13\">Feb. 13: Releases lower lake\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb14\">Feb. 14: Mandatory evacuation order lifted\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb15\">Feb. 15: Shoring up emergency spillway area\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb16\">Feb. 16: New storms arrive\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb17\">Feb. 17: Reservoir releases reduced\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb19\">Feb. 19: Focus on clearing river channel\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb21\">Feb. 21: Lake inches upward as storms depart\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb22\">Feb. 22: Lake crests again as storm runoff dwindles \u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb26\">Feb. 26: DWR stops flows down spillway\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb27\">Feb. 27: Breathtaking destruction\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#mar03\">March 3: Operators restart hydro plant\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#mar04\">March 4: Power plant shut down again\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#mar06\">March 6: Moving a mountain of debris\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#mar10\">March 10: Power plant flows ramped up\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#mar17\">March 17: Main spillway reopened\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#mar23\">March 23: Evacuation advisory lifted\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\"These past six weeks have been a very difficult and unsettling time for many individuals and families affected by the danger posed by fast-moving erosion to the emergency spillway,\" Honea said. \"I couldn't be more proud of this community and the countless unsung heroes who helped their neighbors and cared for those who needed it most.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Honea's mantra at virtually every media briefing and public appearance over the last month and a half has been a request for residents to sign up for the county's emergency notification system. And despite lifting the evacuation advisory, county officials are working on developing new evacuation plans in case of a future emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county has designated 11 new flood evacuation zones, complete with assembly points and emergency departure routes, along the Feather River from Oroville to the town of Gridley. Officials are holding informational meetings in each zone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The potential for future trouble with the Oroville Dam was \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/03/22/experts-oroville-spillway-damage-continues-to-pose-very-significant-risk/\" target=\"_blank\">highlighted in a report\u003c/a> from a board of experts appointed to review the situation at the facility and oversee the process of repairing or rebuilding the spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report, obtained earlier this week by The Associated Press, says dam managers are facing a \"very significant risk\" if the main spillway is not operational in time for this fall's rainy season. The panel also said it's \"absolutely critical\" to avoid further flows over the emergency weir and down the hillside below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources has placed thousands of tons of rock in eroded sections of the eroded hillside, \"armored\" sections of the slope with concrete, and built a series of walls and check dams to slow any flow of water down to the river channel below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryDaily?s=ORO\" target=\"_blank\">current operational status of the spillway and reservoir\u003c/a>: Releases down the damaged concrete structure continue at about 40,000 cubic feet per second. Water is also being released through two of the five operational units in the dam's hydroelectric plants, for a total flow of about 45,000 cfs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR officials said when flows were resumed down the main spillway last Friday that they intend to lower the lake's surface elevation to between 835 and 838 feet above sea level. That would represent a drop of 26 to 29 feet from last week and would put the lake level 63 to 66 feet below the now-dreaded emergency weir. The agency said it plans to shut down spillway releases at that point to allow resumption of preliminary work to repairing or replacing the structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One aspect of that work started this week, with crews drilling for rock and soil samples near the spillway to assess underlying conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flood-control releases down the main spillway are just one part of the equation determining how fast the lake level drops, of course. The other principal factor is the amount of water flowing into the lake from the Feather River watershed, or \"inflow.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inflow peaked during the February spillway crisis at about 190,000 cfs. After a long run of mostly dry, clear and cool weather in the first half of March, it fell and leveled off between 15,000 cfs and 20,000 cfs. Now, with a series of storms marching through Northern California, inflow has periodically risen into the 45,000 to 50,000 cfs range -- meaning the lake's level has fallen very slowly, and some hours not at all, during the last several days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One more big storm is expected in the week ahead -- a cold system that DWR forecasters say could drop 2 to 3 inches of rain or its snow equivalent on the Feather River basin over the weekend. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"mar17\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 1:45 p.m. Friday, March 17:\u003c/strong> The Department of Water Resources has reopened the Oroville Dam's badly damaged main spillway to make room for an expected surge of runoff amid a return of stormy weather and the onset of the spring runoff season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flow of water resumed down the spillway just after 11 a.m. Friday. Bill Croyle, the agency's acting director, said during a media briefing that flows would be increased to 50,000 cubic feet per second during the day. He said managers aimed to lower Lake Oroville, the state's second-largest reservoir, from its current surface level of 864 feet above sea level to between 835 and 838 feet. That would be 63 to 66 feet below the level of the dam's emergency spillway, which overflowed Feb. 11 and triggered a mass evacuation of Oroville and other communities along the Feather River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle said the relatively high rate of flow from Lake Oroville into the Feather River will continue for five or six days, depending on the amount of runoff coming into the lake. He said DWR would \"continuously evaluate the condition of the flood-control spillway to see how it's performing, and then we'll make decisions during the week on how we'll step down from 50,000 to 40,000 (cfs) and ultimately back down to zero.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle said dam managers anticipate they will have to conduct as many as three releases during the spring as snow in the higher elevations of the Feather River melts and flows into the lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After nearly three weeks of mostly dry, sunny weather, a series of storms is expected to roll across Northern California over the next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The weather systems are expected to start out relatively warm, with freezing levels beginning about 7,500 feet over the Feather River watershed that feeds Lake Oroville, then falling to 4,000 to 5,500 feet as the heavier storms move in next week. The colder storms mean most precipitation will fall as snow over the watershed and slow the rush of runoff into the reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Releases down the shattered spillway chute were halted Feb. 27 so crews could bring in heavy equipment to clear a mountain of rubble, rock and sediment from the adjacent river channel. At the same time, workers have been scrambling to reinforce what remains of the main spillway -- grouting and cementing cracks and seams, bolting sections of the spillway to underlying rock, and enclosing an eroded area at the lip of the surviving structure in concrete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR says the work -- which at various points has meant marshaling a contractor army of helicopters, cranes, bulldozers, loaders, trucks and barges -- has cost about $4.7 million a day. If that figure is accurate, the effort to deal with the broken spillway and severe erosion below the dam's emergency weir has cost about $180 million so far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR has advised residents of downstream communities that the increased releases will trigger a rise of 13 to 15 feel along the Feather River. That has renewed fears among farmers along the stream whose land suffered severe erosion when river levels fell rapidly in late February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brad Foster, who farms near the Yuba County town of Marysville, \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-feather-river-erosion-20170315-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">told the Los Angeles Time\u003c/a>s this week:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“My concern right now is erosion,” Foster said. “We have 100-year-old oak trees lying in the river. Everything that was there, old growth that protected the banks, it was just sucked in. … This is all going to go under water and it’s all freshly slipped material. This is all going to start eroding. We don’t know if it’s going to take the banks. … The river could actually start a new channel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>... Foster said a 300-foot buffer zone of bluffs, trees and vegetation protecting his walnut orchard was wiped out and now the orchard sits in the path of future rising waters. Debris turned the river brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve never seen it so dirty in my life,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"mar10\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 7 p.m. Friday, March 10:\u003c/strong> To bring us up to date before the weekend:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Power plant:\u003c/strong> During the course of the week, the Department of Water Resources put all five of the available turbines at the Oroville Dam's Hyatt powerhouse into operation. The result: Releases from Lake Oroville, which had been halted Feb. 27 to allow crews to clear rock, rubble and mud from the river channel below the dam's devastated main spillway, have increased from 0 to about 13,000 cubic feet per second.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Lake level:\u003c/strong> The surface elevation of Lake Oroville, California's second-largest reservoir, is hovering right around 860 feet. That's 41 feet below the emergency spillway weir and right at the level that Bill Croyle, the DWR's acting chief, said last month the agency would consider restarting flows down the main spillway in order to maintain space in the reservoir for any incoming floodwaters. But runoff into the lake has remained modest as Northern California gets a prolonged break from rain and snow, and no new releases down the main spillway have been mentioned. On the other hand, much warmer weather over the next week in the Feather River basin could begin to melt the region's abundant snowpack and renew a rise in lake levels.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Main spillway:\u003c/strong> Crews have been engaged in patching and caulking cracks and holes along the surviving section of the concrete spillway and have also applied spray-on concrete -- shotcrete -- to a section under the concrete chute that showed signs of further erosion. That work is aimed at ensuring the structure can endure further releases without further major erosion.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Emergency spillway:\u003c/strong> Contractors continue to armor eroded areas below the dam's emergency weir, the slope where serious erosion the weekend of Feb. 11-12 threatened to undermine the weir and unleash a wall of water down the Feather River. The work now involves building a series of channels and check dams to slow the flow of water down the hill, should Lake Oroville go over the top of the weir again.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Debris removal:\u003c/strong> DWR has estimated that 1.7 million cubic yards of rubble, enough to cover a football field to a depth of 80 stories, would up in the river channel below the spillway. To get the Hyatt powerhouse running again, it was necessary to at least partially clear the channel. Friday, the agency said the army of contractors working on the job have removed about half the debris out of the channel.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Costs\u003c/strong>: A frequently asked question -- how much is this whole Oroville spillway emergency project costing the taxpayers? Here's an answer, \u003ca href=\"http://www.chicoer.com/general-news/20170308/dwr-tells-assemblyman-dam-repair-cost-estimated-daily-average-of-47-million\" target=\"_blank\">by way of the Chico Enterprise-Record\u003c/a>: $4.7 million a day. The details:\u003cbr>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Regarding estimated daily cost of labor, we’re focused on emergency response and recovery efforts. It would be premature to estimate costs at this time,” DWR public information officer Lauren Bisnett wrote in an email Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Representatives from the California Office of Emergency Services and the state’s Finance Department previously told this newspaper DWR was accountable for keeping track of the costs for the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday afternoon, Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, said he was expecting to hear about costs accrued, as the DWR met with the Federal Emergency Management Agency earlier Wednesday to discuss repair and maintenance costs related to damage of the spillways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curtis Grima, Gallagher’s chief of staff, later said in an email that according to conversations with DWR officials, the estimated daily average cost is $4.7 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is estimated that between 75 percent-90 percent of the cost will be reimbursed by FEMA, Grima’s email said.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"mar06\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 4:35 p.m. Monday, March 6:\u003c/strong> The Department of Water Resources reopened the Oroville Dam hydroelectric plant at about 6 p.m. Sunday -- after suspending operations for 32 hours to allow crews to deepen the river channel downstream of the plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Monday afternoon, just one of the plant's five available turbines was running, resulting in a release of about 1,750 cubic feet per second. The water agency hopes to get all five units running soon, which would increase outflow from Lake Oroville to somewhere in the range of 13,000 to 14,000 cfs (DWR has cited both figures).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reason the esoteric water release data is important: Higher flows through the powerhouse will allow the agency to limit the reservoir's rise as work continues on assessing the devastated main spillway and clearing debris from the river channel, formally known as the Thermalito Diversion Pool, below the shattered concrete structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"kSUah7JZIA0Ameah7mPu6THfcz9ueki2\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lake Oroville's surface level at 4 p.m. Monday was 856 feet above sea level. That's 45 feet below the top of the problematic emergency spillway, where an overflow and severe erosion prompted a mass evacuation of Oroville and other communities downstream on Feb. 12. And it's 18 feet above the lake level a week ago, when flows were halted down the main spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR estimates the pile of debris in the channel to be a shocking 1.7 million cubic yards. That's mostly rock blasted out of the terrain beneath and adjacent to the main spillway by emergency reservoir releases that reached a maximum of 100,000 cfs after the emergency spillway crisis. So far, the water agency says, a force of contractors driving cranes, bulldozers, heavy trucks and barges has removed about a quarter of the material to spoils sites on land along the river channels. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"mar04\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 1:30 p.m. Saturday, March 4:\u003c/strong> Friday, the Department of Water Resources declared that resuming operations through the Hyatt Power Plant at the base of Oroville Dam marked a \"pivot point\" in the effort to get a handle on water levels in Lake Oroville and to proceed with the immense job of recovering from the failure of the dam's main spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After hearing a declaration like that, you might involuntarily say \"uh oh,\" when what you've been told is a big step forward is interrupted without explanation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was the case at midday Saturday. The power plant, which gives dam operators a way to let some water out of the reservoir and allows the closure of the crippled main spillway to continue, had been releasing a relatively modest but steady 2,500 cubic feet per second late Friday and early Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water was coming through one of the power plant's five available turbines. DWR Acting Director Bill Croyle said the agency planned to have all five running by early next week, which would allow a release of about 14,000 cfs -- enough to minimize rises in the lake during a period of relatively low inflow from the Feather River watershed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Saturday, flows through the power plant stopped without a prior announcement. And that led to social media \"uh oh\" moments like this:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/R1Lover/status/838113657582047232\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, just after midday, DWR announced in a press release that it had shut down the powerhouse again. The reason: Crews need to remove more of the rock, rubble and sediment from the debris-choked channel downstream of the power facility to allow it to operate full bore. From the release:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“We will dig deeper so we can fully ramp the plant up,” said DWR Acting Director Bill Croyle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Initial flow from the plant on Friday was 1,750 cubic feet per second (cfs) and increased to 2550 cfs. Once fully operational, the plant can release up to 14,000 cfs, which is important for managing reservoir inflows and outflows through the spring runoff season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR engineers have determined that further deepening of the channel will help the power plant reach full capacity and that it will take approximately 1-2 days, at which time the plant will be restarted.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>We've asked for but haven't yet gotten details on how much more excavation needs to be done to prepare the channel for full operation of the power plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meantime, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Riverbanks-collapse-after-Oroville-Dam-spillway-10976144.php\" target=\"_blank\">the San Francisco Chronicle's Kurtis Alexander reports\u003c/a> a serious problem down the Feather River from the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steep banks along the river started collapsing after DWR abruptly cut flows down the damaged spillway on Monday from 50,000 cfs to zero. Releases into the river have continued from smaller reservoirs near Oroville, but the Feather River is now flowing at something like a summertime rate of 2,500 cfs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here's the result, Alexander reports:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>With high water no longer propping up the shores, the still-wet soil crashed under its own weight, sometimes dragging in trees, rural roads and farmland, they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The damage is catastrophic,” said Brad Foster, who has waterfront property in Marysville (Yuba County), about 25 miles south of Lake Oroville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The farmer not only saw 25-foot bluffs collapse, but also lost irrigation lines to his almonds. “When the bank pulled in,” he said, “it pulled the pumps in with it. It busted the steel pipes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials at the state Department of Water Resources, which runs the dam, said Friday that they’re monitoring the river for erosion. But they declined to discuss the situation.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"mar03\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 2:25 p.m. Friday, March 3:\u003c/strong> The Department of Water Resources halted flows down the shattered main spillway at Oroville Dam \u003ca href=\"#feb27\">earlier this week\u003c/a> with one purpose in mind: to begin clearing the monstrous pile of concrete, rock and sediment washed into the river channel below the spillway. That work, in turn, would allow the channel's water level to drop and allow the hydroelectric plant at the base of the dam to resume operations. (How monstrous is that debris pile? We'll get to that.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friday, the agency said it's making progress. The water level in the channel, which serves as a tailrace for the hydro plant and is formally called the Thermalito Diversion Pool, has fallen 22 feet over the last several days. That allowed dam managers to start up one of the plant's five available turbines, and they aim to have all of those units online by early next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Pretty exciting day for us,\" Bill Croyle, DWR's acting director, said during a midday media briefing in Oroville. \"This is a pivot point in how we are managing the inflows to the river (and) the reservoir elevation.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crucial point there: Running water through the power plant gives DWR a route other than the partially obliterated main spillway of releasing water from Lake Oroville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keeping water moving down the river also allows the agency to maintain the flow of water for several fish species, including juvenile chinook salmon that have started making their way down the Feather River on their way to the Delta and the Pacific Ocean. The abrupt halt to flows from the spillway earlier this week led to \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article135596368.html\" target=\"_blank\">the stranding\u003c/a> of both adult and juvenile fish downstream from Oroville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With one turbine running, about 1,700 cubic feet of water is being discharged through the powerhouse. DWR says that rate will rise to 14,000 cfs when all five available units are online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having that water exiting the lake will help balance inflows -- which have stayed in the 14,000-20,000 cfs range most of the week since -- and slow the lake's rise while work continues to clear rubble from the river channel and assess the terrain around the badly damaged spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And now, about that big pile of debris: DWR estimates it's about 1.7 million cubic yards. A cubic yard, as everyone knows, is a cube measuring 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet, or 27 cubic feet. How much material is 1.7 million of those cubes?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our calculations, using our handy cultural reference of a football field -- 120 yards long and 53.33 yards wide: 1.7 million cubic yards would be enough to bury a football field to a depth of 797 feet. That's a little higher than San Francisco's Bank of America building (779 feet).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb27\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 2:20 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27:\u003c/strong> The state Department of Water Resources has, as promised, halted flows down the damaged main spillway at Oroville Dam. Even if you've been following the progress of this incident since it began Feb. 7, and even if you understood the damage to the spillway was catastrophic, the first images of the structure are sobering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/UyvDPt-HU3g\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR stopped the release of water down the spillway early Monday afternoon with two main goals in mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, it wants contractors to begin the task of removing a staggering amount of rubble, rock and sediment that have wound up at the bottom of the river channel below the spillway. Clearing the debris, in turn, will allow dam managers to resume operations at the hydroelectric power plant at the base of the dam, a facility that was shut down as water rose behind the blockage in the channel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Second, shutting down the flows will allow geologists and other experts to inspect the shattered spillway structure and the surrounding terrain. That will give DWR officials a better understanding of the work ahead in designing a replacement spillway and the potential for further erosion when flows down the current spillway resume.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The amount of material to be removed from the channel, parts of which are 70 to 80 feet deep, is immense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There are a lot of numbers being thrown around, anywhere from 150,000 cubic yards all the way up to a million,\" DWR Acting Director Bill Croyle said in an interview Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said with flows down to zero, laser mapping technology will be used to assess just how much debris now obstructs the channel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I suspect it's going to be between a half-million and a million cubic yards,\" Croyle said. \"But again we won't know until that mapping tomorrow.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(A million cubic yards, if you're keeping score at home, would be enough material to cover five football fields, complete with end zones, to a depth of 100 feet.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle said contractors have been tasked with clearing a channel 30 feet deep, 150 wide and 1,500 feet long to help facilitate flows below the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water level in the Thermalito Diversion Pool early Monday was about 20 feet high to allow operation of the turbines in the dam's hydroelectric powerhouse. Getting the turbines back online will give water managers another way of releasing water from Lake Oroville, the state's second-largest reservoir, as the spring runoff season begins. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb26\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 4:25 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26:\u003c/strong> Having drawn down the level of Lake Oroville 60 feet in the two weeks since a spillway emergency that triggered mass evacuations, and with the prospect of mostly dry weather for at least the next week, state water officials announced Sunday they will halt flows down Oroville Dam's badly damaged main spillway to speed up recovery work there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Water Resources said it would reduce reservoir releases from 50,000 cubic feet per second to zero during the day Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR says stopping the flow of water down the main spillway will allow workers to \"aggressively attack\" a mountain of rubble that now lies submerged in the Feather River channel immediately below the broken concrete chute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The blockage in the channel, formally called the Thermalito Diversion Pool, has caused water to back up to the hydroelectric power plant at the base of the 770-foot-high dam. That high water, in turn, has forced officials to suspect operations at the plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flows down the main spillway were as high as 100,000 cfs -- 750,000 gallons a second, enough to supply four average California households for a year -- after an emergency at the dam earlier this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Damage to the spillway was detected on Feb. 7, just as a series of storms triggered a huge surge of runoff into Lake Oroville, the state's second-biggest reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With flow rates into the lake peaking at about 190,000 cfs, releases down the damaged spillway were limited to a maximum of 55,000 cfs. The result: The lake rose nearly 50 feet in just four days and, for the first time since Oroville Dam went into service in 1968, flowed over an emergency weir on Feb. 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water cascading over the ungated 1,730-foot-long weir rapidly eroded the adjacent slope. Less than 36 hours after the flow began over the weir, officials became concerned that the erosion was undermining the massive weir structure -- a collapse of which could unleash a devastating surge of water. That concern led to the mass evacuation of Oroville, the town of 16,000 just downstream of the dam, and about 180,000 people along the Feather River in Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emergency prompted federal dam safety authorities to order the Department of Water Resources to immediately form a panel of experts to investigate the cause of the main spillway failure and the performance of the emergency spillway. The federal order directs DWR to report to the panel throughout the process of designing and building a replacement for the main spillway and enhancements for the emergency spillway. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb22\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22:\u003c/strong> With runoff from our most recent spate of stormy weather dwindling, it appears that Lake Oroville's level is also falling again. According to Department of Water Resource's \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO\" target=\"_blank\">hourly data\u003c/a>, the reservoir surface peaked at 852.93 feet above sea level at 5 a.m. and had fallen to 852.89 feet by 8 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OK, that's not much -- the decline amounts to a half-inch, a change imperceptible to all but the DWR's instruments. Overall, though, the lake is about 48 feet below the edge of Oroville Dam's emergency spillway and 4 feet above the low point it reached Monday amid managers' efforts to restore space in the reservoir to receive incoming floods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A couple of notable Wednesday news pieces on the Oroville situation:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Sacramento Bee:\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article133932379.html\" target=\"_blank\">Continued erosion of Oroville Dam's main spillway part of 'normal process,' officials say\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Los Angeles Times:\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-oroville-dam-recovery-20170221-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">Oroville hoping to turn dam crisis into tourism opportunity\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 12:05 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21:\u003c/strong> Lake Oroville is on the rise again in the wake of a series of storms that soaked most of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rise, however, is very gradual. The lake remains 49 feet below the top of the emergency weir at the center of the Oroville Dam crisis that resulted in the Feb. 12 evacuation order for about 188,000 people in Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 120 hours of weather systems that culminated in the very wet Presidents Day storm dropped as much as a foot of precipitation -- rain or its snow equivalent -- in the Feather River watershed upstream of Lake Oroville. The gauge at Oroville Dam recorded 4.04 inches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The precipitation triggered a spike in runoff into the giant reservoir. The volume of water flowing in had remained in the range of 15,000 to 45,000 cubic feet per second for most of the week. On Monday, though, it increased to as much as 90,000 cfs. That's 673,000 gallons, or 2 acre-feet per second -- enough water to supply about four average California household for a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dam managers reduced the volume of water going down the facility's damaged main spillway from 100,000 cfs last week to about 60,000 cfs. The lower level allows crews to begin the work of clearing rubble, rock and sediment from the channel below the main spillway. That work, in turn, is designed to allow the hydroelectric power plant at the base of Oroville Dam to resume operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR has been quick to point out in each and every press release on the situation that work continues to \"armor\" and reinforce the severely eroded hillside below the emergency weir. That erosion occurred when floodwaters flowed across the structure for the first time since the dam was finished in 1968. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb19\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 1:45 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19:\u003c/strong> The significant weekend news at Oroville Dam: The Department of Water Resources decreased flows down the damaged main spillway to 55,000 cubic feet per second on Saturday, then announced it would ramp them up again, to 60,000 cfs, on Sunday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those levels are far lower than the 100,000 cfs released down the spillway starting a week ago, amid fears that the dam's emergency spillway system was about to fail. Those very high flows, maintained for four straight days, helped lower the lake from a foot above the 1,700-foot emergency weir last Sunday afternoon to 50 feet below it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flow reductions over the last couple of days were intended to help crews assess how much rubble, rock and sediment has been swept into the 80-foot-deep channel beneath the main spillway and begin the process of removing it. The debris has dammed the channel and made it impossible to use the hydropower plant at the base of Oroville Dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Incoming weather will no doubt play a part in releases over the next several days, with a storm expected to drop 8 inches or more of water by early Wednesday on the Feather River watershed above Lake Oroville. Snow levels are forecast to remain low, however, which will help slow down runoff into the reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below: DWR drone video showing the state of work to reinforce the badly eroded slope beneath the emergency weir, as well as the condition of the main spillway as of Saturday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/yxgtyOfwrj8?list=PLeod6x87Tu6eVFnSyEtQeOVbxvSWywPlx\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb17\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 3:25 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17:\u003c/strong> To start with the numbers: Department of Water Resources data show that despite cutting back releases down Oroville Dam's shattered spillway and the return of storms to the Feather River basin, Lake Oroville continues to empty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 3 p.m. Friday, \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO&d=17-Feb-2017+15:05&span=25hours\" target=\"_blank\">DWR's running statistics on the reservoir\u003c/a> show that its surface is now a little more than 42 feet below the lip of the dam's emergency spillway. The lake is falling at a rate of roughly 3 to 4 inches an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second in a series of winter storms arrived in the region on Friday, dropping moderate amounts of rain and snow on the 3,600-square-mile Feather River watershed. Forty-eight-hour rain totals in the area ranged from 1.36 inches at Oroville Dam to 2.44 inches at the Humbug gauge in the mountains north of the reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thursday, DWR cut releases from Lake Oroville from 100,000 cubic feet per second to 80,000 cfs. The reduction was designed to give crews a chance to begin removing the mass of concrete rubble, rock and sediment that tumbled into a channel that issues from the bottom of the dam. The agency said Friday it would cut spillway flows further -- down to 70,000 cfs -- as part of the effort to clear the channel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we've reported every day this week, work continues to repair erosion damage to the hillside below the dam's emergency spillway structure. That erosion, which occurred when the water rose above the weir at the top of the emergency spillway and gouged out huge sections of the slope below as it rushed downhill, prompted last Sunday evening's mass evacuation from Oroville and communities as far as 35 miles downriver from the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea reiterated during a press briefing Friday that those who live downstream from the dam need to be prepared to leave if trouble recurs at the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The likelihood (of trouble) is low,\" Honea said. \"But -- and I don't want to sound like a broken record, but that's my job. My job is to keep people prepared. So they've got to pay attention, they've got to be vigilant, they've got to be prepared, they've got to sign up for their emergency warning notification system. And if you're tired of hearing my say that, I'm sorry, but I'm going to keep saying it until this situation is well past us.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Honea also addressed again a question that has arisen in the aftermath of last weekend's evacuation: Whether Oroville or other communities in the evacuation zone had experienced looting after people left town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sheriff has said while there had been burglaries and thefts during the roughly 48-hour evacuation, there had been no looting. Friday, he clarified that a little.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Now that my staff has had a better opportunity to talk with me, we find that a couple of those burglary- or theft-related crimes, we can charge ... the individuals responsible with an enhancement of looting,\" Honea said. He did not immediately offer specific details of those episodes. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb16\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 3:20 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16:\u003c/strong> The Feather River watershed has gotten its first dose of rain and snow from an expected series of storms, with moderate amounts of precipitation that haven't yet caused a major increase in flows into the reservoir behind Oroville Dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the 12 hours ending at 9 a.m., precipitation totals ranged from about a half-inch at the dam itself to 1.50 inches near Bucks Lake, in the higher country of the Feather River watershed..\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, the Department of Water Resources announced today it was reducing flows down the dam's main spillway as crews get ready to remove the large volume of debris that has fallen into the channel below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rubble from the main release structure, and rock and sediment eroded from the adjacent slope, have filled the 80-foot channel immediately below the spillway chute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR reduced the spillway flows from 100,000 cubic feet per second to 80,000 cubic feet per second.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 100,000 cfs rate, which commenced Sunday afternoon as fears mounted that the dam's emergency spillway system might fail and unleash an uncontrolled surge of water down the Feather River, helped lower the lake's level 34 feet over the past four days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DWR has said the reduced releases will be sufficient to continue lowering the lake and make room for runoff from future storms and snowmelt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wettest storm in the series of storms that began Thursday is expected to arrive Monday. One precipitation forecast, from NOAA's California-Nevada River Forecast Center, says that system could drop as much 6 inches of water -- either rain or snow -- on the higher elevations of the Feather River watershed. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb15\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 4:30 p.m. Wednesday:\u003c/strong> Officials raced to drain more water from Lake Oroville as new storms began rolling into Northern California on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three storms were expected to stretch into next week. Forecasters said the first two storms could drop a total of 5 inches of rain in higher elevations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the third storm, starting as early as Monday, could be more powerful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There's a potential for several inches,\" National Weather Service forecaster Tom Dang said. \"It will be very wet.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, California Department of Water Resources chief Bill Croyle said water was draining at about four times the rate that it was flowing in and the repairs should hold at the nation's tallest dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 100,000 cubic feet of water was flowing from the reservoir each second, enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"sharedaddy show-for-medium-up\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/02/KQED_Oroville_Desktop.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1408201\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/02/KQED_Oroville_Desktop-800x645.jpg\" alt=\"KQED_Oroville_Desktop\" width=\"800\" height=\"645\">\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"show-for-small-only\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/02/KQED_Oroville_Mobile.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1408199\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/02/KQED_Oroville_Mobile.jpg\" alt=\"KQED_Oroville_Mobile\" width=\"750\" height=\"1335\">\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle said work crews had made \"great progress\" cementing thousands of tons of rocks into holes in the spillways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We shouldn't see a bump in the reservoir\" from the upcoming storms, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reservoir has dropped 20 feet since it reached capacity Sunday. Croyle said officials hope it falls 50 feet by this Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, officials warned residents who have returned to their homes that the area downstream of the dam remained under an evacuation warning and they should be prepared to leave if the risk increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED's Dan Brekke hosted a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/KQEDnews/videos/1339741799433547/\" target=\"_blank\">live Facebook video\u003c/a> below the Oroville Dam spillway earlier Wednesday:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FKQEDnews%2Fvideos%2F1339741799433547%2F&show_text=1&width=560\" width=\"560\" height=\"983\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14:\u003c/strong> The evacuation order affecting about 180,000 residents along the course of the Feather River below Oroville Dam has been reduced to a warning, allowing residents to return to their homes, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said during a press conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Taking into account the current level of risk, the predicted strength of the next round of inclement weather and the capacity of the lake to accommodate increased inflow associated with those storms, we have concluded that it is safe to reduce the immediate evacuation order currently in place to an evacuation warning,” Honea said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources indicated during the conference that the inflow of water to the reservoir continues to drop and that about 100,000 cubic feet of water per second is being released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re continuing to make significant gains in removing water from the reservoir,” acting DWR chief Bill Croyle said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR officials said the goal is to get the level of the reservoir down to flood control storage, which is about 850 feet. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14:\u003c/strong> Large-scale releases of water continue at Oroville Dam, and the level of the giant reservoir there has dropped to about 12 feet below the emergency spillway structure that engineers believed was on the verge of failure on Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources and other agencies are continuing to assess the condition of the slope below the dam, parts of which were scoured down to rock by the force of water rushing over the emergency release structure over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crisis was triggered a week ago, when serious damage to the dam's main spillway was detected just as runoff began cascading into the nearly full lake after a series of wet, warm storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Jerry Brown has issued \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=19683\" target=\"_blank\">an emergency declaration\u003c/a> to help speed up state agencies' response to the Oroville crisis. On Monday, he told reporters at \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article132550884.html\" target=\"_blank\">a Sacramento-area media briefing\u003c/a> with emergency officials that he's confident the Trump administration will respond promptly to the state's requests for aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Responding to questions about whether the Department of Water Resources should have done more to reinforce the emergency spillway system -- as \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/12/oroville-dam-feds-and-state-officials-ignored-warnings-12-years-ago/\" target=\"_blank\">suggested by environmental groups\u003c/a> during a 2005 relicensing process -- Brown said:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\"Every time you have one of these disasters, people perk up and start looking at analogous situations and things that you might not have paid as much attention to. But we live in a world of risk – the earthquake shook the Bay Bridge, and then we the state and all the different governors had to put up a new bridge.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Tuesday morning, 180,000 people remain evacuated along the course of the Feather River in the east-central Sacramento Valley. At a media briefing Monday, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the evacuation order, issued hurriedly on Sunday, would be in place until agencies handling the situation at the dam say the danger of a catastrophic emergency spillway failure has passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A series of storms expected to begin rolling across Northern California on Wednesday night are expected to trigger a new rise in Lake Oroville -- the reason dam managers are continuing to try to lower the lake as fast as the damaged main spillway will allow. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb13\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 1:20 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13:\u003c/strong> Here are four big takeaways from the Department of Water Resources (with other local officials' noontime briefing on the situation at Oroville Dam:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>First: The evacuation order that forced 180,000 people from their homes on Sunday will remain in place for now. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea, whose jurisdiction includes the dam and the communities immediately downstream, said he is depending on the advice of \"subject-matter experts\" from the DWR and other agencies before people are allowed to return home.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Second: The desperate effort to lower Lake Oroville's level after an imminent failure of the dam's emergency spillway continues. With water pounding down the severely damaged main spillway at nearly 100,000 cubic feet per second -- that's about 750,000 gallons, for those of us who don't measure water in cubic feet -- the giant reservoir is falling at about 4 inches per hour and is now about 5 feet from the top of the emergency spillway.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Third: Dam and water managers are preparing for the resumption of winter storms over the Feather River watershed above Lake Oroville. The DWR's 10-day precipitation forecast, based on analysis of weather models, suggests that the next round of storms will be much colder and drop less than half the precipitation than the very warm weather systems that helped trigger the Oroville crisis.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Fourth: The DWR and other state and federal agencies are going to face very tough questioning about whether something should have been done years ago to shore up the emergency spillway structure and adjacent hillside. Those questions will be prompted by a story by KQED Science Managing Editor and San Jose Mercury News reporter Paul Rogers, who \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/12/oroville-dam-feds-and-state-officials-ignored-warnings-12-years-ago/\" target=\"_blank\">details concerns raised about the soundness of the emergency spillway system\u003c/a> back in 2005.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb12\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 5:40 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12: \u003c/strong>Officials say the emergency spillway at Oroville Dam could fail at any time and are ordering evacuations from Oroville to Gridley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Water Resources urged residents of Oroville to head north, toward Chico. Residents elsewhere downstream should follow the orders of their local law enforcement, the department said. Officials have set up an evacuation shelter at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emergency spillway is separate from the main dam structure. It's a massive, ungated concrete weir that stretches for one-third of a mile to the north of the dam and began overflowing Saturday morning. Below an initial concrete lip, water courses over bare earth all the way to the river channel below, scouring the slope of earth, rocks and trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erosion on the hillside has increased beyond expectations. Oroville Dam contains California's second-largest reservoir, and is currently holding back more than 3.5 million acre-feet of water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 9:40 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 12:\u003c/strong> After rising to record high levels, the water level in Lake Oroville appears to be dropping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Data from the California Department of Water Resources -- see \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO\" target=\"_blank\">real-time Lake Oroville levels here\u003c/a> -- show the reservoir's surface crested at 902.59 feet above sea level at 3 a.m. Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the volume of runoff into the lake decreasing and about 500,000 gallons of water flowing out of the lake every second down the badly damaged main spillway and the emergency outlet, reservoir levels had dropped to 902.39 feet by 9 a.m. That drop is equivalent to about 2.5 inches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lake is considered full at 901 feet, and it's at that level that it began pouring over an emergency spillway early Saturday. The emergency outlet is being used for the first time since the dam went into operation in 1968.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR managers say water should stop flowing over the emergency spillway sometime Monday. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb11\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 4:45 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11:\u003c/strong> The real news of this afternoon came from a media briefing with acting Department of Water Resources chief Bill Croyle, who gave new details about the work ahead to replace Oroville Dam's shattered spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before we get to that, though, let's take a glance once more at Lake Oroville, which has continued to rise and spill over on this sparkling midwinter Saturday. The giant reservoir, California's second-largest, is now \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO\" target=\"_blank\">a foot over\u003c/a> the dam's never-before-used emergency spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR officials say that with several days of dry weather in store and the volume of runoff dropping, they expect water to continue to flow over the emergency weir until sometime Monday. \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/uux0bjzSh7Y\" target=\"_blank\">Video posted Saturday afternoon\u003c/a> (see below) showed a muddy, debris-laden torrent pouring into the waterway below the spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At his noon-hour media briefing, Croyle said the damaged main spillway will need to be completely rebuilt. He said he told Gov. Jerry Brown in a discussion on Friday the cost would come to $100 million to $200 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"My objective is to get a spillway back in operation before the wet season next year, which is typically Oct. 15 or so,\" Croyle said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle said he can only give \"a very rough range\" of the eventual cost because of the many unknowns involved in the project, including exactly where the replacement spillway will be built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We haven't gone in and looked at it, we don't know how much more damage we're going to do, decisions have to be made on a new one ... so the range is huge,\" Croyle said. \"What we told the governor yesterday afternoon is a hundred to two hundred million. Again, with the caveats we don't know a lot about the site itself.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that while the agency has the resources it needs to carry out the new spillway project and associated cleanup and repairs, he's hoping for support from the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle said dam managers face a long, complex juggling act to deal with the impact of the spillway failure amid a continuing very wet winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest challenges engineers and work crews face is how to clear the Thermalito Diversion Pool immediately below the wrecked spillway of a large volume of concrete debris and sediment that have dammed the waterway and forced closure of the hydroelectric plant at the base of Oroville Dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muddy water rose and backed up toward the powerhouse as the lower section of the main spillway disintegrated under high flows. To avoid contaminating the power facility, it was shut down early Friday. That had an unfortunate side effect: Outflows through the plant, which can handle a maximum of 12,000 cubic feet per second, were halted. That, in turn, limited the amount of water managers could release from the fast-filling reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To remove the debris blocking the waterway, Croyle said, flows down the damaged main spillway will probably need to be halted temporarily. With another series of storms forecast to arrive in the region starting Thursday, that's not something that can be done immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One piece of good news about the forecast, though: The next round of storms is expected to be colder, meaning they are far less likely to unleash the torrents of runoff produced by the last group of extremely warm weather systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/uux0bjzSh7Y\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 11:\u003c/strong> Floodwaters began flowing over Oroville Dam's emergency spillway early Saturday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's the first time since the dam went into operation in 1968 that the emergency outlet from Lake Oroville has been used. The lake filled rapidly this week after severe damage to the main spillway forced dam managers to decrease the volume of water being released at the same time a series of warm storms triggered heavy runoff into the reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Department of Water Resources officials said water began moving over the 1,700-foot-long emergency weir just before 8 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/KCRA3/videos/10155022492371514/\" target=\"_blank\">TV helicopter video \u003c/a>soon after showed sheets of water cascading over the concrete structure, although heavy flows did not appear to have begun downhill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/DVNaPBlIxe4\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the lake continues to rise. By 11 a.m., the reservoir's surface was 901.55 feet, 6 inches over the top of the emergency spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR spokesman Doug Carlson said the rate of flow over the auxiliary release structure was expected to increase from an estimated 660 cubic feet per second at 9 a.m. to 6,000 to 12,000 cubic feet per second.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said dam and water managers estimate the flow will continue for 40 to 56 hours -- a time frame that runs roughly between midnight Sunday and 4 p.m. Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 12:35 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 11:\u003c/strong> Anyone who's been watching \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO&d=11-Feb-2017+00:14&span=25hours\" target=\"_blank\">the numbers\u003c/a> associated with Oroville Dam and Lake Oroville this evening -- how much water is flowing into the lake, how much is flowing out through the partially destroyed spillway -- probably has come to a conclusion similar to this one: At some point during the next few hours, water from the state's second-largest reservoir is likely to start pouring across the dam's emergency spillway and start racing down an adjacent slope toward the waterway below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At midnight Friday, Lake Oroville had risen to within about 18 inches of the lip of the emergency spillway. With water still coming into the lake from the Feather River watershed faster than it can be released down the damaged spillway, the level is rising at about 3 inches per hour. At that rate, simple spectator arithmetic tells you that the lake will overtop the emergency spillway as early as 6 a.m. Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dam managers with the Department of Water Resources had calculated releasing 65,000 cubic feet of water per second down the damaged spillway would slow the lake's rise enough to keep water from reaching the emergency structure. Those hopes dimmed Friday evening when \u003ca href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/2017/021017oroville.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">releases were cut\u003c/a> to 55,000 CFS to lower the risk of erosion that would threaten the stability of nearby power line towers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR is unable to use another release point in the dam, a hydroelectric generating station that can handle another 12,000 CFS. Debris from the shattered spillway wound up in the channel just downstream from the power plant, causing water to back up and forcing officials to shut it down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This would mark the first time water has flowed over the emergency facility since the dam began operating in 1968. (The closest call since then: June 2011, when late-season runoff from a lush snowpack brought the lake to within 15 inches of the emergency spillway.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond the history, the event brings uncertainty about what happens next. Crews from DWR, Cal Fire and private contractors scurried over the landscape immediately below the emergency weir over the last two days, trying to prepare the way for the cataract that soon might be pouring down the slope. Preparations included clearing trees and brush and cementing boulders into place at the edge of the emergency spillway. (See KCRA-Channel 3's \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/KCRA3/videos/10155020503816514/\" target=\"_blank\">helicopter footage of the scene Friday afternoon\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To corral any debris that comes tumbling down the slope as the water comes down, log booms have been placed in the channel below the spillway (a waterway known as the Thermalito Diversion Pool) with crews ready to tow large objects to a nearby cove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the highest immediate concern to people residing downstream is whether the water coming over the emergency spillway will represent a flood threat. The Department of Water Resources says it will not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Longer term, the deeper interest will be finding out whether DWR did everything it could and should have to ensure the integrity of the spillway, and what it will do to design and build a repaired structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And now, just after midnight early Saturday morning, we'll sign off by saying: We'll see what happens after day breaks. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb10\">\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>Update, 12:45 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10:\u003c/strong> State Department of Water Resources officials now say they believe the volume of water rushing into Lake Oroville is slowing enough -- and releases down a badly damaged spillway have increased enough -- that the giant reservoir will not flow over an emergency spillway as feared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dam managers increased the flow of water down the broken main spillway to 65,000 cubic feet per second -- 486,000 gallons -- in the early morning hours Friday. While department officials say damage to the structure is continuing, the erosion does not appear to pose a threat to the spillway gates or other critical infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, DWR officials noted at a noon media briefing, runoff into the lake is decreasing. The inflow hit a peak of 190,000 cubic feet per second Thursday evening and had fallen to 130,000 by midnight Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The difference between the inflow and outflow means the lake is still rising -- about 4 inches per hour at noon. Lake Oroville's surface is about 5 feet below the lip of the emergency spillway. But DWR officials say with rains having stopped for the time being, the volume of water coming into the lake should continue to drop and the lake's rise will stop short of overflowing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 9:20 a.m. Friday, Feb. 10:\u003c/strong> Two things have changed overnight at Oroville Dam and the giant reservoir behind it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First: Inflow from the Feather River watershed into Lake Oroville, while still very high, has dropped from its peak levels Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Second: California Department of Water Resources managers followed through with a plan to ramp up releases down the dam's wrecked spillway (for their rationale for doing that, see our earlier updates, below).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rate of rise in the lake -- see \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO&d=10-Feb-2017+09:13&span=25hours\" target=\"_blank\">the DWR's real-time data\u003c/a> for yourself --has decreased from nearly a foot an hour at times Thursday to about 4 or 5 inches an hour Friday morning. The reservoir surface at 9 a.m. was reported to be 895 feet -- up 45 feet from Tuesday when the spillway damage was discovered and just 6 feet below the dam's emergency spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The net result: That rate of increase would mean water from the reservoir would begin cascading over the emergency spillway sometime early Saturday morning. The lake, which has a stated maximum capacity of 3.5 million acre-feet, is now 98 percent full.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mostly light rain and snow are expected across the Feather River watershed today before clear weather Saturday. Colder weather and a break from heavy rain could help reduce the volume of water flowing into the lake. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb09\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9:\u003c/strong> The situation surrounding the damaged spillway at Oroville Dam has escalated into a crisis, with state water managers hoping they can dump enough water down the badly compromised structure to prevent the state's second-largest reservoir from pouring over an emergency release point that has never been used before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flow rates down the collapsing spillway were increased late Thursday morning to 35,000 cubic feet per second. The result was a spectacle of churning mud and water and further damage to the concrete structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/DerekKCRA/status/829844037410574336\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with storms continuing to pound the northern Sierra and torrents of water quickly filling Lake Oroville, the huge reservoir behind the dam, crews from the Department of Water Resources and Cal Fire are getting ready for what officials previously called \"a very last-ditch measure.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crews on Thursday began cutting down trees and bulldozing brush on the steep slope below an emergency spillway to try to minimize downstream debris flows should the lake exceed its 3.5 million acre-feet capacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We have crews out there just as a precaution,\" said DWR spokesman Eric See during a media briefing at midday Thursday. \"We're still taking every measure we can to not have to use the emergency spillway, but if we do, we're actually removing that debris right now so it doesn't get mobilized\" into an adjacent waterway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the possibility that Lake Oroville would overflow for the first time in its half-century history grew stronger as the day progressed, despite the water being released down the damaged spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Acting DWR chief Bill Croyle said at an evening press conference that it was becoming more and more likely that water would pour uncontrolled over the emergency spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"To be very clear, with the hydraulic conditions we have now, and with the flow that we have coming down out of the spillway chute, unless conditions change, we anticipate there may be a release of water over the emergency spillway,\" Croyle said. \"Maybe sometime on Saturday.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That event has become imminent because the volume of water flowing into the lake increased dramatically during the day as heavy rain fell across the Feather River watershed. Some locations in upstream mountains had received 4 to 5 inches of rain in the last 24 hours, with another inch or two expected before clear weather arrives Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lake Oroville will overflow the emergency spillway if it reaches an elevation of 901 feet above sea level. On Tuesday, when the spillway damaged was first noted, the lake's surface was at about 850 feet. With the spillway shut down for most of the last 48 hours, the lake has risen to 887 feet as of 7 p.m. Thursday. (See DWR's \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/DerekKCRA/status/829844037410574336\" target=\"_blank\">real-time Lake Oroville statistics\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The downside of having water go over the emergency spillway is that it would go down the hillside and take out trees and soil and create a big mess in the diversion down below,\" the DWR's See said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>See said the severe erosion seen on and around the spillway structure is being closely monitored by crews on the ground, remote cameras and drones. Engineers believe the heavy flow of water will scour its way down to bedrock before long, See said, but acknowledged there are risks to allowing the erosion to continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Erosion is occurring in multiple ways,\" See said. \"You can have erosion to the side and erosion going down the hill, and then you can have 'head cutting,' which is erosion that can actually work its way back upstream. So that's the one that's of most concern.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If engineers detect that uphill erosion, See said, it would be \"a trigger point\" that would prompt another shutdown of releases down the spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The erosion has already released massive flows of sediment into the adjacent waterway, a canal called the Thermalito Diversion Pool. The canal carries water from the dam down to and around the city of Oroville. Among the facilities to which it conveys water is the Feather River Hatchery, which raises millions of chinook salmon and steelhead trout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heavy sediment in the water can kill juvenile salmonids. With muddy water cascading into the hatchery facility Thursday morning, the Department of Fish and Wildlife began an emergency rescue of salmon and steelhead, trucking the young fish to a satellite hatchery on the Thermalito Afterbay, west of Oroville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article131743014.html\" target=\"_blank\">Sacramento Bee's account \u003c/a>of the fish rescue:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>At the hatchery Thursday, workers waded waist-deep through concrete holding ponds filled with water the color of chocolate milk. They used screens to push baby fish toward tanker trucks that would transport them a few miles southwest to Thermalito.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Harry] Morse said that wild steelhead and salmon are spawning in the Feather River, fueling concern that sediment could overwhelm their nests and kill eggs and juvenile fish.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Officials at the media briefing repeated further reassurances that the integrity of Oroville Dam, one of the largest in the United States, has not been affected by the spillway collapse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said that while local emergency agencies are preparing for evacuations downstream of the dam, he didn't believe the spillway situation posed an imminent threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 11:55 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 9:\u003c/strong> The California Department of Water Resources is fast running out of time and options for dealing with the badly damaged spillway at Oroville Dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With Lake Oroville rapidly approaching full, water managers increased flows down the spillway Wednesday afternoon and early Thursday to test the effect on the damaged structure. The result was both unsurprising and sobering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department said it expected the test, which involved releasing about 20,000 cubic feet per second down the long concrete spillway chute, would cause further damage to the structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they may not have anticipated the extent of the damage that daylight revealed early Thursday. Photos from the scene showed that the massive cavity in the face of the spillway had grown several times larger and that the adjacent slow had suffered extensive new erosion. Here are a couple of views tweeted out early Thursday:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/MickWest/status/829746045290631168\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/billhusa1/status/829749590756700160\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the spillway mostly out of commission since major releases were curtailed, Lake Oroville has been rising at the rate of about half a foot an hour since midday Tuesday. Its level has increased 30 feet since then, with the reservoir's surface now 20 feet below an emergency spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emergency spillway, which would release water down a steep slope adjacent to the spillway, has never been used in the dam's half-century of operation. DWR officials and others say water flowing down the slope will likely result in a large volume of debris being dumped into the Feather River, which flows through the city of Oroville on its way to the Sacramento Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That's one reason dam managers are willing to risk the destruction of the concrete spillway, calculating that would be preferable to the unknowns involved in an uncontrolled emergency spillover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's going to be rocks, trees, mud -- liquid concrete -- going down that river,\" retired DWR engineer Jerry Antonetti \u003ca href=\"http://www.kcra.com/article/officials-release-water-from-oroville-dam-to-test-damaged-spillway/8694754\" target=\"_blank\">told Sacramento's KCRA\u003c/a> as he watched the spillway Wednesday night. \"I'd open 'er up, sacrifice the bottom of that thing -- it's going to go in the river -- clean it out next year and build a new spillway.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 8:45 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 9:\u003c/strong> State water officials say they may be forced to continue using a badly damaged spillway at Oroville Dam to prevent the lake from reaching capacity in the next few days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doing that would likely cause further damage to the spillway structure and continue eroding the surrounding area, Department of Water Resources spokesman Doug Carlson said Wednesday afternoon. But that could be preferable to allowing the lake to begin flowing over an emergency spillway on the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carlson called the alternate spillway -- which would send water cascading down a long tree- and brush-covered slope containing roads and power lines, a \"very last-ditch measure.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's an outcome that DWR is committed to not allowing to happen,\" Carlson said. Like other DWR officials, he was quick to add that the spillway damage does not pose a threat to the dam itself, one of the largest ever built in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department conducted an experiment during the day Wednesday in which it began sending a limited amount of water -- about 20,000 cubic feet per second -- down the damaged concrete spillway structure. The purpose of the test, Carlson said, was to see how much additional damage was done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We may just let the spillway do its job\" despite the damage, Carlson said. Then, after the rainy season, \"we could shut off the spillway, keep it dry, put construction people in there, whatever has to be done -- rocks, fill, concrete mix, whatever -- and get it back to 100 percent efficiency.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DWR's spillway test came as Lake Oroville, the state's second-largest reservoir, is filling rapidly with runoff from recent storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to maintain enough space in the lake to accommodate in-rushing floodwaters, managers would normally release water down the dam's massive concrete spillway. That was just what was happening Tuesday when bystanders alerted dam personnel that there appeared to be damage to the structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Releases that were being ramped up to about 60,000 cubic feet per second were abruptly halted so that Department of Water Resources crews could assess the situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, a high volume of runoff into the lake has continued, raising it more than 20 feet since early Tuesday. Late Wednesday afternoon, the reservoir was just 30 feet below an emergency spillway that has never been used in the dam's half-century of use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's quite serious,\" Carlson said of the dam and reservoir's status. \"The good news is that we think we have it under control.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Below: DWR photo gallery depicting damage to spillway and erosion to adjacent area.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[gallery type=\"rectangular\" size=\"medium\" ids=\"11307354,11307355,11307356,11307357,11307358,11307359,11307360,11307361,11307362,11307363,11307364,11307365\"]\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb08\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 12:25 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8:\u003c/strong> State water officials say engineers are still in the process of assessing damage to the spillway at Oroville Dam and figuring out what they can do to fix it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They're evaluating the situation intensively this morning,\" said Ted Thomas, the chief spokesman for the Department of Water Resources. \"They're looking at what their options are for repair.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An extensive section of concrete on the spillway, which is used to manage the level of Lake Oroville, has peeled away or collapsed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time the problem was spotted at midday Tuesday, water managers were in the process of ramping up the volume of water being dumped down the spillway into the Feather River. That was necessary to make room for high flows coming into the reservoir, the state's second largest, from a series of storms that have dumped very heavy rain over the Feather River watershed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Releases were reduced from about 60,000 cubic feet per second to just 5,000 cfs -- the amount being routed through the dam's hydroelectric generating facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The immediate result of curtailing the releases while huge amounts of runoff stream into the reservoir has been a very rapid rise in the lake's level. In the 20 hours after releases were reduced at midday Tuesday, Lake Oroville has risen 10 feet and added 150,000 acre-feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If current release and flow rates persisted -- and that's not a sure thing by any means -- the reservoir would reach its 3.5 million acre-foot capacity in the next three or four days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that happens, Thomas said, the dam's emergency spillway -- which has not been used since the dam was finished in the late 1960s -- would channel floodwaters down a hillside into the river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomas said he expected details on a proposed fix for the spillway damage later Wednesday. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb07\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Original post, 5:35 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7:\u003c/strong> California Department of Water Resources crews are assessing a potentially serious problem with Oroville Dam, the giant structure that impounds the Feather River to create the state's second-largest reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday morning, the spillway that managers use to release water from Lake Oroville into the river appeared to suffer a partial collapse. That led to the shutdown of the spillway while engineers assess its condition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department officials say the dam itself, perched above the Sacramento Valley about 130 miles northeast of San Francisco, is not in danger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The timing of the shutdown is critical: A huge amount of runoff is coming into Lake Oroville from the Feather River watershed after recent storms. To maintain room in the reservoir to contain the incoming flows, a high volume of water --- about 55,000 cubic feet per second -- was being released down the spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the spillway closed for the time being, there's no way to release water from the dam except through a hydroelectric powerhouse built into the structure. Only about 5,000 cubic feet per second can be released through the powerhouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The net effect is that with releases virtually halted and heavy inflows from a series of very wet winter storms continuing to pour into the reservoir, the lake is rising steadily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/kurtisalexander/status/829117361600933888\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO&d=07-Feb-2017+15:47&span=25hours\" target=\"_blank\">Lake Oroville was 82 percent full\u003c/a> and was 150,000 acre-feet above the storage level prescribed to maintain room for incoming floodwaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources said \u003ca href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/2017/020717spillway.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">in a statement\u003c/a> that \"sufficient capacity exists within the reservoir to capture projected inflows for at least days, and DWR expects to resume releases from the gated spillway at a rate deemed later today after a thorough inspection is performed.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/swp/facilities/Oroville/LakeDam.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">Oroville Dam\u003c/a> is an earth-fill dam and was dedicated in 1968. At 770 feet high, it's the highest dam in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does the spillway look like under normal conditions? Here's a video shot Monday, when managers had ramped up releases from 25,000 cubic feet per second top 50,000 CFS (see below for some perspective on the flow numbers):\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/coQnMRklVg4\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flow perspective: One cubic foot of water is 7.48 gallons. So 55,000 cubic feet per second, roughly the volume being released down the spillway before problems were detected Tuesday, comes out to 411,400 gallons a second. That equals 1.26 acre-feet -- enough water to flood a football field to a depth of 15 inches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An acre-foot, in turn, is roughly the amount of water used each year by two \"average\" California households. So the volume of water pounding down the spillway \u003cem>every second\u003c/em> is close to what three households would use in a year.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\nMiranda Leitsinger, Don Clyde, Kat Snow, Craig Miller and David Marks of KQED contributed to this post. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"post-top\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"mar23\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 1:45 p.m., Wednesday, March 23:\u003c/strong> Nearly six weeks after downstream residents were ordered to flee their homes because of trouble with Oroville Dam's spillways, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea has lifted all evacuation warnings and advisories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents of Oroville were given just an hour to leave their homes on the afternoon of Feb.12. That was the day after Lake Oroville, rising rapidly after flood-control releases were reduced down the dam's main spillway, flowed over an ungated emergency weir. Severe erosion on the slope below raised concerns that the emergency structure would collapse and unleash a catastrophic flood down the Feather River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents as far as 35 miles downstream were told to leave immediately, and an estimated 180,000 people in Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties were under evacuation orders. They were cleared to return home Feb. 14, but Butte County had remained under an evacuation advisory while the California Department of Water Resources worked to lower Lake Oroville, shore up the emergency spillway and clear a mountain of debris from the adjacent river channel. The blocked river channel had shut down the dam's hydroelectric power plant and further limited managers' ability to release water from the reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wednesday, Sheriff Honea said he was satisfied with the progress of the DWR's work, which has employed an army of contractors and cost something on the order of $200 million to date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Honea acknowledged that the evacuation had been chaotic. Residents complained about not being notified they needed to leave, and there was at least one case in which a disabled Oroville resident was left behind for hours after the evacuation warning because no emergency transport was available.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch4>Oroville Dam Crisis: A Diary\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>Here's KQED News' day-by-day entries tracking the unfolding crisis at Oroville Dam, beginning Feb. 7, 2017:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#feb07\">Feb. 7: Spillway problem detected\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb08\">Feb. 8: Engineers assess damage\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb09\">Feb. 9: Water likely to emergency spillway\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb10\">Feb. 10: Water nears top of reservoir\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb11\">Feb. 11: Emergency spillway overflows\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb12\">Feb. 12: Evacuations ordered\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb13\">Feb. 13: Releases lower lake\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb14\">Feb. 14: Mandatory evacuation order lifted\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb15\">Feb. 15: Shoring up emergency spillway area\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb16\">Feb. 16: New storms arrive\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb17\">Feb. 17: Reservoir releases reduced\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb19\">Feb. 19: Focus on clearing river channel\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb21\">Feb. 21: Lake inches upward as storms depart\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb22\">Feb. 22: Lake crests again as storm runoff dwindles \u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb26\">Feb. 26: DWR stops flows down spillway\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#feb27\">Feb. 27: Breathtaking destruction\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#mar03\">March 3: Operators restart hydro plant\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#mar04\">March 4: Power plant shut down again\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#mar06\">March 6: Moving a mountain of debris\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#mar10\">March 10: Power plant flows ramped up\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#mar17\">March 17: Main spillway reopened\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#mar23\">March 23: Evacuation advisory lifted\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\"These past six weeks have been a very difficult and unsettling time for many individuals and families affected by the danger posed by fast-moving erosion to the emergency spillway,\" Honea said. \"I couldn't be more proud of this community and the countless unsung heroes who helped their neighbors and cared for those who needed it most.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Honea's mantra at virtually every media briefing and public appearance over the last month and a half has been a request for residents to sign up for the county's emergency notification system. And despite lifting the evacuation advisory, county officials are working on developing new evacuation plans in case of a future emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county has designated 11 new flood evacuation zones, complete with assembly points and emergency departure routes, along the Feather River from Oroville to the town of Gridley. Officials are holding informational meetings in each zone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The potential for future trouble with the Oroville Dam was \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/03/22/experts-oroville-spillway-damage-continues-to-pose-very-significant-risk/\" target=\"_blank\">highlighted in a report\u003c/a> from a board of experts appointed to review the situation at the facility and oversee the process of repairing or rebuilding the spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report, obtained earlier this week by The Associated Press, says dam managers are facing a \"very significant risk\" if the main spillway is not operational in time for this fall's rainy season. The panel also said it's \"absolutely critical\" to avoid further flows over the emergency weir and down the hillside below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources has placed thousands of tons of rock in eroded sections of the eroded hillside, \"armored\" sections of the slope with concrete, and built a series of walls and check dams to slow any flow of water down to the river channel below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryDaily?s=ORO\" target=\"_blank\">current operational status of the spillway and reservoir\u003c/a>: Releases down the damaged concrete structure continue at about 40,000 cubic feet per second. Water is also being released through two of the five operational units in the dam's hydroelectric plants, for a total flow of about 45,000 cfs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR officials said when flows were resumed down the main spillway last Friday that they intend to lower the lake's surface elevation to between 835 and 838 feet above sea level. That would represent a drop of 26 to 29 feet from last week and would put the lake level 63 to 66 feet below the now-dreaded emergency weir. The agency said it plans to shut down spillway releases at that point to allow resumption of preliminary work to repairing or replacing the structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One aspect of that work started this week, with crews drilling for rock and soil samples near the spillway to assess underlying conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flood-control releases down the main spillway are just one part of the equation determining how fast the lake level drops, of course. The other principal factor is the amount of water flowing into the lake from the Feather River watershed, or \"inflow.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inflow peaked during the February spillway crisis at about 190,000 cfs. After a long run of mostly dry, clear and cool weather in the first half of March, it fell and leveled off between 15,000 cfs and 20,000 cfs. Now, with a series of storms marching through Northern California, inflow has periodically risen into the 45,000 to 50,000 cfs range -- meaning the lake's level has fallen very slowly, and some hours not at all, during the last several days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One more big storm is expected in the week ahead -- a cold system that DWR forecasters say could drop 2 to 3 inches of rain or its snow equivalent on the Feather River basin over the weekend. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"mar17\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 1:45 p.m. Friday, March 17:\u003c/strong> The Department of Water Resources has reopened the Oroville Dam's badly damaged main spillway to make room for an expected surge of runoff amid a return of stormy weather and the onset of the spring runoff season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flow of water resumed down the spillway just after 11 a.m. Friday. Bill Croyle, the agency's acting director, said during a media briefing that flows would be increased to 50,000 cubic feet per second during the day. He said managers aimed to lower Lake Oroville, the state's second-largest reservoir, from its current surface level of 864 feet above sea level to between 835 and 838 feet. That would be 63 to 66 feet below the level of the dam's emergency spillway, which overflowed Feb. 11 and triggered a mass evacuation of Oroville and other communities along the Feather River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle said the relatively high rate of flow from Lake Oroville into the Feather River will continue for five or six days, depending on the amount of runoff coming into the lake. He said DWR would \"continuously evaluate the condition of the flood-control spillway to see how it's performing, and then we'll make decisions during the week on how we'll step down from 50,000 to 40,000 (cfs) and ultimately back down to zero.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle said dam managers anticipate they will have to conduct as many as three releases during the spring as snow in the higher elevations of the Feather River melts and flows into the lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After nearly three weeks of mostly dry, sunny weather, a series of storms is expected to roll across Northern California over the next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The weather systems are expected to start out relatively warm, with freezing levels beginning about 7,500 feet over the Feather River watershed that feeds Lake Oroville, then falling to 4,000 to 5,500 feet as the heavier storms move in next week. The colder storms mean most precipitation will fall as snow over the watershed and slow the rush of runoff into the reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Releases down the shattered spillway chute were halted Feb. 27 so crews could bring in heavy equipment to clear a mountain of rubble, rock and sediment from the adjacent river channel. At the same time, workers have been scrambling to reinforce what remains of the main spillway -- grouting and cementing cracks and seams, bolting sections of the spillway to underlying rock, and enclosing an eroded area at the lip of the surviving structure in concrete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR says the work -- which at various points has meant marshaling a contractor army of helicopters, cranes, bulldozers, loaders, trucks and barges -- has cost about $4.7 million a day. If that figure is accurate, the effort to deal with the broken spillway and severe erosion below the dam's emergency weir has cost about $180 million so far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR has advised residents of downstream communities that the increased releases will trigger a rise of 13 to 15 feel along the Feather River. That has renewed fears among farmers along the stream whose land suffered severe erosion when river levels fell rapidly in late February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brad Foster, who farms near the Yuba County town of Marysville, \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-feather-river-erosion-20170315-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">told the Los Angeles Time\u003c/a>s this week:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“My concern right now is erosion,” Foster said. “We have 100-year-old oak trees lying in the river. Everything that was there, old growth that protected the banks, it was just sucked in. … This is all going to go under water and it’s all freshly slipped material. This is all going to start eroding. We don’t know if it’s going to take the banks. … The river could actually start a new channel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>... Foster said a 300-foot buffer zone of bluffs, trees and vegetation protecting his walnut orchard was wiped out and now the orchard sits in the path of future rising waters. Debris turned the river brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve never seen it so dirty in my life,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"mar10\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 7 p.m. Friday, March 10:\u003c/strong> To bring us up to date before the weekend:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Power plant:\u003c/strong> During the course of the week, the Department of Water Resources put all five of the available turbines at the Oroville Dam's Hyatt powerhouse into operation. The result: Releases from Lake Oroville, which had been halted Feb. 27 to allow crews to clear rock, rubble and mud from the river channel below the dam's devastated main spillway, have increased from 0 to about 13,000 cubic feet per second.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Lake level:\u003c/strong> The surface elevation of Lake Oroville, California's second-largest reservoir, is hovering right around 860 feet. That's 41 feet below the emergency spillway weir and right at the level that Bill Croyle, the DWR's acting chief, said last month the agency would consider restarting flows down the main spillway in order to maintain space in the reservoir for any incoming floodwaters. But runoff into the lake has remained modest as Northern California gets a prolonged break from rain and snow, and no new releases down the main spillway have been mentioned. On the other hand, much warmer weather over the next week in the Feather River basin could begin to melt the region's abundant snowpack and renew a rise in lake levels.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Main spillway:\u003c/strong> Crews have been engaged in patching and caulking cracks and holes along the surviving section of the concrete spillway and have also applied spray-on concrete -- shotcrete -- to a section under the concrete chute that showed signs of further erosion. That work is aimed at ensuring the structure can endure further releases without further major erosion.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Emergency spillway:\u003c/strong> Contractors continue to armor eroded areas below the dam's emergency weir, the slope where serious erosion the weekend of Feb. 11-12 threatened to undermine the weir and unleash a wall of water down the Feather River. The work now involves building a series of channels and check dams to slow the flow of water down the hill, should Lake Oroville go over the top of the weir again.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Debris removal:\u003c/strong> DWR has estimated that 1.7 million cubic yards of rubble, enough to cover a football field to a depth of 80 stories, would up in the river channel below the spillway. To get the Hyatt powerhouse running again, it was necessary to at least partially clear the channel. Friday, the agency said the army of contractors working on the job have removed about half the debris out of the channel.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Costs\u003c/strong>: A frequently asked question -- how much is this whole Oroville spillway emergency project costing the taxpayers? Here's an answer, \u003ca href=\"http://www.chicoer.com/general-news/20170308/dwr-tells-assemblyman-dam-repair-cost-estimated-daily-average-of-47-million\" target=\"_blank\">by way of the Chico Enterprise-Record\u003c/a>: $4.7 million a day. The details:\u003cbr>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Regarding estimated daily cost of labor, we’re focused on emergency response and recovery efforts. It would be premature to estimate costs at this time,” DWR public information officer Lauren Bisnett wrote in an email Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Representatives from the California Office of Emergency Services and the state’s Finance Department previously told this newspaper DWR was accountable for keeping track of the costs for the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday afternoon, Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, said he was expecting to hear about costs accrued, as the DWR met with the Federal Emergency Management Agency earlier Wednesday to discuss repair and maintenance costs related to damage of the spillways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curtis Grima, Gallagher’s chief of staff, later said in an email that according to conversations with DWR officials, the estimated daily average cost is $4.7 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is estimated that between 75 percent-90 percent of the cost will be reimbursed by FEMA, Grima’s email said.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"mar06\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 4:35 p.m. Monday, March 6:\u003c/strong> The Department of Water Resources reopened the Oroville Dam hydroelectric plant at about 6 p.m. Sunday -- after suspending operations for 32 hours to allow crews to deepen the river channel downstream of the plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Monday afternoon, just one of the plant's five available turbines was running, resulting in a release of about 1,750 cubic feet per second. The water agency hopes to get all five units running soon, which would increase outflow from Lake Oroville to somewhere in the range of 13,000 to 14,000 cfs (DWR has cited both figures).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reason the esoteric water release data is important: Higher flows through the powerhouse will allow the agency to limit the reservoir's rise as work continues on assessing the devastated main spillway and clearing debris from the river channel, formally known as the Thermalito Diversion Pool, below the shattered concrete structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lake Oroville's surface level at 4 p.m. Monday was 856 feet above sea level. That's 45 feet below the top of the problematic emergency spillway, where an overflow and severe erosion prompted a mass evacuation of Oroville and other communities downstream on Feb. 12. And it's 18 feet above the lake level a week ago, when flows were halted down the main spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR estimates the pile of debris in the channel to be a shocking 1.7 million cubic yards. That's mostly rock blasted out of the terrain beneath and adjacent to the main spillway by emergency reservoir releases that reached a maximum of 100,000 cfs after the emergency spillway crisis. So far, the water agency says, a force of contractors driving cranes, bulldozers, heavy trucks and barges has removed about a quarter of the material to spoils sites on land along the river channels. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"mar04\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 1:30 p.m. Saturday, March 4:\u003c/strong> Friday, the Department of Water Resources declared that resuming operations through the Hyatt Power Plant at the base of Oroville Dam marked a \"pivot point\" in the effort to get a handle on water levels in Lake Oroville and to proceed with the immense job of recovering from the failure of the dam's main spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After hearing a declaration like that, you might involuntarily say \"uh oh,\" when what you've been told is a big step forward is interrupted without explanation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was the case at midday Saturday. The power plant, which gives dam operators a way to let some water out of the reservoir and allows the closure of the crippled main spillway to continue, had been releasing a relatively modest but steady 2,500 cubic feet per second late Friday and early Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water was coming through one of the power plant's five available turbines. DWR Acting Director Bill Croyle said the agency planned to have all five running by early next week, which would allow a release of about 14,000 cfs -- enough to minimize rises in the lake during a period of relatively low inflow from the Feather River watershed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Saturday, flows through the power plant stopped without a prior announcement. And that led to social media \"uh oh\" moments like this:\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Then, just after midday, DWR announced in a press release that it had shut down the powerhouse again. The reason: Crews need to remove more of the rock, rubble and sediment from the debris-choked channel downstream of the power facility to allow it to operate full bore. From the release:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“We will dig deeper so we can fully ramp the plant up,” said DWR Acting Director Bill Croyle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Initial flow from the plant on Friday was 1,750 cubic feet per second (cfs) and increased to 2550 cfs. Once fully operational, the plant can release up to 14,000 cfs, which is important for managing reservoir inflows and outflows through the spring runoff season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR engineers have determined that further deepening of the channel will help the power plant reach full capacity and that it will take approximately 1-2 days, at which time the plant will be restarted.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>We've asked for but haven't yet gotten details on how much more excavation needs to be done to prepare the channel for full operation of the power plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meantime, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Riverbanks-collapse-after-Oroville-Dam-spillway-10976144.php\" target=\"_blank\">the San Francisco Chronicle's Kurtis Alexander reports\u003c/a> a serious problem down the Feather River from the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steep banks along the river started collapsing after DWR abruptly cut flows down the damaged spillway on Monday from 50,000 cfs to zero. Releases into the river have continued from smaller reservoirs near Oroville, but the Feather River is now flowing at something like a summertime rate of 2,500 cfs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here's the result, Alexander reports:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>With high water no longer propping up the shores, the still-wet soil crashed under its own weight, sometimes dragging in trees, rural roads and farmland, they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The damage is catastrophic,” said Brad Foster, who has waterfront property in Marysville (Yuba County), about 25 miles south of Lake Oroville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The farmer not only saw 25-foot bluffs collapse, but also lost irrigation lines to his almonds. “When the bank pulled in,” he said, “it pulled the pumps in with it. It busted the steel pipes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials at the state Department of Water Resources, which runs the dam, said Friday that they’re monitoring the river for erosion. But they declined to discuss the situation.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"mar03\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 2:25 p.m. Friday, March 3:\u003c/strong> The Department of Water Resources halted flows down the shattered main spillway at Oroville Dam \u003ca href=\"#feb27\">earlier this week\u003c/a> with one purpose in mind: to begin clearing the monstrous pile of concrete, rock and sediment washed into the river channel below the spillway. That work, in turn, would allow the channel's water level to drop and allow the hydroelectric plant at the base of the dam to resume operations. (How monstrous is that debris pile? We'll get to that.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friday, the agency said it's making progress. The water level in the channel, which serves as a tailrace for the hydro plant and is formally called the Thermalito Diversion Pool, has fallen 22 feet over the last several days. That allowed dam managers to start up one of the plant's five available turbines, and they aim to have all of those units online by early next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Pretty exciting day for us,\" Bill Croyle, DWR's acting director, said during a midday media briefing in Oroville. \"This is a pivot point in how we are managing the inflows to the river (and) the reservoir elevation.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crucial point there: Running water through the power plant gives DWR a route other than the partially obliterated main spillway of releasing water from Lake Oroville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keeping water moving down the river also allows the agency to maintain the flow of water for several fish species, including juvenile chinook salmon that have started making their way down the Feather River on their way to the Delta and the Pacific Ocean. The abrupt halt to flows from the spillway earlier this week led to \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article135596368.html\" target=\"_blank\">the stranding\u003c/a> of both adult and juvenile fish downstream from Oroville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With one turbine running, about 1,700 cubic feet of water is being discharged through the powerhouse. DWR says that rate will rise to 14,000 cfs when all five available units are online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having that water exiting the lake will help balance inflows -- which have stayed in the 14,000-20,000 cfs range most of the week since -- and slow the lake's rise while work continues to clear rubble from the river channel and assess the terrain around the badly damaged spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And now, about that big pile of debris: DWR estimates it's about 1.7 million cubic yards. A cubic yard, as everyone knows, is a cube measuring 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet, or 27 cubic feet. How much material is 1.7 million of those cubes?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our calculations, using our handy cultural reference of a football field -- 120 yards long and 53.33 yards wide: 1.7 million cubic yards would be enough to bury a football field to a depth of 797 feet. That's a little higher than San Francisco's Bank of America building (779 feet).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb27\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 2:20 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27:\u003c/strong> The state Department of Water Resources has, as promised, halted flows down the damaged main spillway at Oroville Dam. Even if you've been following the progress of this incident since it began Feb. 7, and even if you understood the damage to the spillway was catastrophic, the first images of the structure are sobering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/UyvDPt-HU3g\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR stopped the release of water down the spillway early Monday afternoon with two main goals in mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, it wants contractors to begin the task of removing a staggering amount of rubble, rock and sediment that have wound up at the bottom of the river channel below the spillway. Clearing the debris, in turn, will allow dam managers to resume operations at the hydroelectric power plant at the base of the dam, a facility that was shut down as water rose behind the blockage in the channel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Second, shutting down the flows will allow geologists and other experts to inspect the shattered spillway structure and the surrounding terrain. That will give DWR officials a better understanding of the work ahead in designing a replacement spillway and the potential for further erosion when flows down the current spillway resume.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The amount of material to be removed from the channel, parts of which are 70 to 80 feet deep, is immense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There are a lot of numbers being thrown around, anywhere from 150,000 cubic yards all the way up to a million,\" DWR Acting Director Bill Croyle said in an interview Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said with flows down to zero, laser mapping technology will be used to assess just how much debris now obstructs the channel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I suspect it's going to be between a half-million and a million cubic yards,\" Croyle said. \"But again we won't know until that mapping tomorrow.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(A million cubic yards, if you're keeping score at home, would be enough material to cover five football fields, complete with end zones, to a depth of 100 feet.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle said contractors have been tasked with clearing a channel 30 feet deep, 150 wide and 1,500 feet long to help facilitate flows below the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water level in the Thermalito Diversion Pool early Monday was about 20 feet high to allow operation of the turbines in the dam's hydroelectric powerhouse. Getting the turbines back online will give water managers another way of releasing water from Lake Oroville, the state's second-largest reservoir, as the spring runoff season begins. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb26\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 4:25 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26:\u003c/strong> Having drawn down the level of Lake Oroville 60 feet in the two weeks since a spillway emergency that triggered mass evacuations, and with the prospect of mostly dry weather for at least the next week, state water officials announced Sunday they will halt flows down Oroville Dam's badly damaged main spillway to speed up recovery work there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Water Resources said it would reduce reservoir releases from 50,000 cubic feet per second to zero during the day Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR says stopping the flow of water down the main spillway will allow workers to \"aggressively attack\" a mountain of rubble that now lies submerged in the Feather River channel immediately below the broken concrete chute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The blockage in the channel, formally called the Thermalito Diversion Pool, has caused water to back up to the hydroelectric power plant at the base of the 770-foot-high dam. That high water, in turn, has forced officials to suspect operations at the plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flows down the main spillway were as high as 100,000 cfs -- 750,000 gallons a second, enough to supply four average California households for a year -- after an emergency at the dam earlier this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Damage to the spillway was detected on Feb. 7, just as a series of storms triggered a huge surge of runoff into Lake Oroville, the state's second-biggest reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With flow rates into the lake peaking at about 190,000 cfs, releases down the damaged spillway were limited to a maximum of 55,000 cfs. The result: The lake rose nearly 50 feet in just four days and, for the first time since Oroville Dam went into service in 1968, flowed over an emergency weir on Feb. 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water cascading over the ungated 1,730-foot-long weir rapidly eroded the adjacent slope. Less than 36 hours after the flow began over the weir, officials became concerned that the erosion was undermining the massive weir structure -- a collapse of which could unleash a devastating surge of water. That concern led to the mass evacuation of Oroville, the town of 16,000 just downstream of the dam, and about 180,000 people along the Feather River in Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emergency prompted federal dam safety authorities to order the Department of Water Resources to immediately form a panel of experts to investigate the cause of the main spillway failure and the performance of the emergency spillway. The federal order directs DWR to report to the panel throughout the process of designing and building a replacement for the main spillway and enhancements for the emergency spillway. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb22\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22:\u003c/strong> With runoff from our most recent spate of stormy weather dwindling, it appears that Lake Oroville's level is also falling again. According to Department of Water Resource's \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO\" target=\"_blank\">hourly data\u003c/a>, the reservoir surface peaked at 852.93 feet above sea level at 5 a.m. and had fallen to 852.89 feet by 8 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OK, that's not much -- the decline amounts to a half-inch, a change imperceptible to all but the DWR's instruments. Overall, though, the lake is about 48 feet below the edge of Oroville Dam's emergency spillway and 4 feet above the low point it reached Monday amid managers' efforts to restore space in the reservoir to receive incoming floods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A couple of notable Wednesday news pieces on the Oroville situation:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Sacramento Bee:\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article133932379.html\" target=\"_blank\">Continued erosion of Oroville Dam's main spillway part of 'normal process,' officials say\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Los Angeles Times:\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-oroville-dam-recovery-20170221-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">Oroville hoping to turn dam crisis into tourism opportunity\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 12:05 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21:\u003c/strong> Lake Oroville is on the rise again in the wake of a series of storms that soaked most of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rise, however, is very gradual. The lake remains 49 feet below the top of the emergency weir at the center of the Oroville Dam crisis that resulted in the Feb. 12 evacuation order for about 188,000 people in Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 120 hours of weather systems that culminated in the very wet Presidents Day storm dropped as much as a foot of precipitation -- rain or its snow equivalent -- in the Feather River watershed upstream of Lake Oroville. The gauge at Oroville Dam recorded 4.04 inches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The precipitation triggered a spike in runoff into the giant reservoir. The volume of water flowing in had remained in the range of 15,000 to 45,000 cubic feet per second for most of the week. On Monday, though, it increased to as much as 90,000 cfs. That's 673,000 gallons, or 2 acre-feet per second -- enough water to supply about four average California household for a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dam managers reduced the volume of water going down the facility's damaged main spillway from 100,000 cfs last week to about 60,000 cfs. The lower level allows crews to begin the work of clearing rubble, rock and sediment from the channel below the main spillway. That work, in turn, is designed to allow the hydroelectric power plant at the base of Oroville Dam to resume operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR has been quick to point out in each and every press release on the situation that work continues to \"armor\" and reinforce the severely eroded hillside below the emergency weir. That erosion occurred when floodwaters flowed across the structure for the first time since the dam was finished in 1968. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb19\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 1:45 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19:\u003c/strong> The significant weekend news at Oroville Dam: The Department of Water Resources decreased flows down the damaged main spillway to 55,000 cubic feet per second on Saturday, then announced it would ramp them up again, to 60,000 cfs, on Sunday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those levels are far lower than the 100,000 cfs released down the spillway starting a week ago, amid fears that the dam's emergency spillway system was about to fail. Those very high flows, maintained for four straight days, helped lower the lake from a foot above the 1,700-foot emergency weir last Sunday afternoon to 50 feet below it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flow reductions over the last couple of days were intended to help crews assess how much rubble, rock and sediment has been swept into the 80-foot-deep channel beneath the main spillway and begin the process of removing it. The debris has dammed the channel and made it impossible to use the hydropower plant at the base of Oroville Dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Incoming weather will no doubt play a part in releases over the next several days, with a storm expected to drop 8 inches or more of water by early Wednesday on the Feather River watershed above Lake Oroville. Snow levels are forecast to remain low, however, which will help slow down runoff into the reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below: DWR drone video showing the state of work to reinforce the badly eroded slope beneath the emergency weir, as well as the condition of the main spillway as of Saturday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/yxgtyOfwrj8?list=PLeod6x87Tu6eVFnSyEtQeOVbxvSWywPlx\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb17\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 3:25 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17:\u003c/strong> To start with the numbers: Department of Water Resources data show that despite cutting back releases down Oroville Dam's shattered spillway and the return of storms to the Feather River basin, Lake Oroville continues to empty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 3 p.m. Friday, \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO&d=17-Feb-2017+15:05&span=25hours\" target=\"_blank\">DWR's running statistics on the reservoir\u003c/a> show that its surface is now a little more than 42 feet below the lip of the dam's emergency spillway. The lake is falling at a rate of roughly 3 to 4 inches an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second in a series of winter storms arrived in the region on Friday, dropping moderate amounts of rain and snow on the 3,600-square-mile Feather River watershed. Forty-eight-hour rain totals in the area ranged from 1.36 inches at Oroville Dam to 2.44 inches at the Humbug gauge in the mountains north of the reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thursday, DWR cut releases from Lake Oroville from 100,000 cubic feet per second to 80,000 cfs. The reduction was designed to give crews a chance to begin removing the mass of concrete rubble, rock and sediment that tumbled into a channel that issues from the bottom of the dam. The agency said Friday it would cut spillway flows further -- down to 70,000 cfs -- as part of the effort to clear the channel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we've reported every day this week, work continues to repair erosion damage to the hillside below the dam's emergency spillway structure. That erosion, which occurred when the water rose above the weir at the top of the emergency spillway and gouged out huge sections of the slope below as it rushed downhill, prompted last Sunday evening's mass evacuation from Oroville and communities as far as 35 miles downriver from the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea reiterated during a press briefing Friday that those who live downstream from the dam need to be prepared to leave if trouble recurs at the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The likelihood (of trouble) is low,\" Honea said. \"But -- and I don't want to sound like a broken record, but that's my job. My job is to keep people prepared. So they've got to pay attention, they've got to be vigilant, they've got to be prepared, they've got to sign up for their emergency warning notification system. And if you're tired of hearing my say that, I'm sorry, but I'm going to keep saying it until this situation is well past us.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Honea also addressed again a question that has arisen in the aftermath of last weekend's evacuation: Whether Oroville or other communities in the evacuation zone had experienced looting after people left town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sheriff has said while there had been burglaries and thefts during the roughly 48-hour evacuation, there had been no looting. Friday, he clarified that a little.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Now that my staff has had a better opportunity to talk with me, we find that a couple of those burglary- or theft-related crimes, we can charge ... the individuals responsible with an enhancement of looting,\" Honea said. He did not immediately offer specific details of those episodes. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb16\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 3:20 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16:\u003c/strong> The Feather River watershed has gotten its first dose of rain and snow from an expected series of storms, with moderate amounts of precipitation that haven't yet caused a major increase in flows into the reservoir behind Oroville Dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the 12 hours ending at 9 a.m., precipitation totals ranged from about a half-inch at the dam itself to 1.50 inches near Bucks Lake, in the higher country of the Feather River watershed..\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, the Department of Water Resources announced today it was reducing flows down the dam's main spillway as crews get ready to remove the large volume of debris that has fallen into the channel below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rubble from the main release structure, and rock and sediment eroded from the adjacent slope, have filled the 80-foot channel immediately below the spillway chute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR reduced the spillway flows from 100,000 cubic feet per second to 80,000 cubic feet per second.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 100,000 cfs rate, which commenced Sunday afternoon as fears mounted that the dam's emergency spillway system might fail and unleash an uncontrolled surge of water down the Feather River, helped lower the lake's level 34 feet over the past four days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DWR has said the reduced releases will be sufficient to continue lowering the lake and make room for runoff from future storms and snowmelt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wettest storm in the series of storms that began Thursday is expected to arrive Monday. One precipitation forecast, from NOAA's California-Nevada River Forecast Center, says that system could drop as much 6 inches of water -- either rain or snow -- on the higher elevations of the Feather River watershed. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb15\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 4:30 p.m. Wednesday:\u003c/strong> Officials raced to drain more water from Lake Oroville as new storms began rolling into Northern California on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three storms were expected to stretch into next week. Forecasters said the first two storms could drop a total of 5 inches of rain in higher elevations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the third storm, starting as early as Monday, could be more powerful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There's a potential for several inches,\" National Weather Service forecaster Tom Dang said. \"It will be very wet.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, California Department of Water Resources chief Bill Croyle said water was draining at about four times the rate that it was flowing in and the repairs should hold at the nation's tallest dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 100,000 cubic feet of water was flowing from the reservoir each second, enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"sharedaddy show-for-medium-up\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/02/KQED_Oroville_Desktop.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1408201\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/02/KQED_Oroville_Desktop-800x645.jpg\" alt=\"KQED_Oroville_Desktop\" width=\"800\" height=\"645\">\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"show-for-small-only\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/02/KQED_Oroville_Mobile.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1408199\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/02/KQED_Oroville_Mobile.jpg\" alt=\"KQED_Oroville_Mobile\" width=\"750\" height=\"1335\">\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle said work crews had made \"great progress\" cementing thousands of tons of rocks into holes in the spillways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We shouldn't see a bump in the reservoir\" from the upcoming storms, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reservoir has dropped 20 feet since it reached capacity Sunday. Croyle said officials hope it falls 50 feet by this Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, officials warned residents who have returned to their homes that the area downstream of the dam remained under an evacuation warning and they should be prepared to leave if the risk increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED's Dan Brekke hosted a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/KQEDnews/videos/1339741799433547/\" target=\"_blank\">live Facebook video\u003c/a> below the Oroville Dam spillway earlier Wednesday:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FKQEDnews%2Fvideos%2F1339741799433547%2F&show_text=1&width=560\" width=\"560\" height=\"983\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14:\u003c/strong> The evacuation order affecting about 180,000 residents along the course of the Feather River below Oroville Dam has been reduced to a warning, allowing residents to return to their homes, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said during a press conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Taking into account the current level of risk, the predicted strength of the next round of inclement weather and the capacity of the lake to accommodate increased inflow associated with those storms, we have concluded that it is safe to reduce the immediate evacuation order currently in place to an evacuation warning,” Honea said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources indicated during the conference that the inflow of water to the reservoir continues to drop and that about 100,000 cubic feet of water per second is being released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re continuing to make significant gains in removing water from the reservoir,” acting DWR chief Bill Croyle said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR officials said the goal is to get the level of the reservoir down to flood control storage, which is about 850 feet. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14:\u003c/strong> Large-scale releases of water continue at Oroville Dam, and the level of the giant reservoir there has dropped to about 12 feet below the emergency spillway structure that engineers believed was on the verge of failure on Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources and other agencies are continuing to assess the condition of the slope below the dam, parts of which were scoured down to rock by the force of water rushing over the emergency release structure over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crisis was triggered a week ago, when serious damage to the dam's main spillway was detected just as runoff began cascading into the nearly full lake after a series of wet, warm storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Jerry Brown has issued \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=19683\" target=\"_blank\">an emergency declaration\u003c/a> to help speed up state agencies' response to the Oroville crisis. On Monday, he told reporters at \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article132550884.html\" target=\"_blank\">a Sacramento-area media briefing\u003c/a> with emergency officials that he's confident the Trump administration will respond promptly to the state's requests for aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Responding to questions about whether the Department of Water Resources should have done more to reinforce the emergency spillway system -- as \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/12/oroville-dam-feds-and-state-officials-ignored-warnings-12-years-ago/\" target=\"_blank\">suggested by environmental groups\u003c/a> during a 2005 relicensing process -- Brown said:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\"Every time you have one of these disasters, people perk up and start looking at analogous situations and things that you might not have paid as much attention to. But we live in a world of risk – the earthquake shook the Bay Bridge, and then we the state and all the different governors had to put up a new bridge.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Tuesday morning, 180,000 people remain evacuated along the course of the Feather River in the east-central Sacramento Valley. At a media briefing Monday, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the evacuation order, issued hurriedly on Sunday, would be in place until agencies handling the situation at the dam say the danger of a catastrophic emergency spillway failure has passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A series of storms expected to begin rolling across Northern California on Wednesday night are expected to trigger a new rise in Lake Oroville -- the reason dam managers are continuing to try to lower the lake as fast as the damaged main spillway will allow. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb13\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 1:20 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13:\u003c/strong> Here are four big takeaways from the Department of Water Resources (with other local officials' noontime briefing on the situation at Oroville Dam:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>First: The evacuation order that forced 180,000 people from their homes on Sunday will remain in place for now. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea, whose jurisdiction includes the dam and the communities immediately downstream, said he is depending on the advice of \"subject-matter experts\" from the DWR and other agencies before people are allowed to return home.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Second: The desperate effort to lower Lake Oroville's level after an imminent failure of the dam's emergency spillway continues. With water pounding down the severely damaged main spillway at nearly 100,000 cubic feet per second -- that's about 750,000 gallons, for those of us who don't measure water in cubic feet -- the giant reservoir is falling at about 4 inches per hour and is now about 5 feet from the top of the emergency spillway.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Third: Dam and water managers are preparing for the resumption of winter storms over the Feather River watershed above Lake Oroville. The DWR's 10-day precipitation forecast, based on analysis of weather models, suggests that the next round of storms will be much colder and drop less than half the precipitation than the very warm weather systems that helped trigger the Oroville crisis.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Fourth: The DWR and other state and federal agencies are going to face very tough questioning about whether something should have been done years ago to shore up the emergency spillway structure and adjacent hillside. Those questions will be prompted by a story by KQED Science Managing Editor and San Jose Mercury News reporter Paul Rogers, who \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/12/oroville-dam-feds-and-state-officials-ignored-warnings-12-years-ago/\" target=\"_blank\">details concerns raised about the soundness of the emergency spillway system\u003c/a> back in 2005.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb12\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 5:40 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12: \u003c/strong>Officials say the emergency spillway at Oroville Dam could fail at any time and are ordering evacuations from Oroville to Gridley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Water Resources urged residents of Oroville to head north, toward Chico. Residents elsewhere downstream should follow the orders of their local law enforcement, the department said. Officials have set up an evacuation shelter at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emergency spillway is separate from the main dam structure. It's a massive, ungated concrete weir that stretches for one-third of a mile to the north of the dam and began overflowing Saturday morning. Below an initial concrete lip, water courses over bare earth all the way to the river channel below, scouring the slope of earth, rocks and trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erosion on the hillside has increased beyond expectations. Oroville Dam contains California's second-largest reservoir, and is currently holding back more than 3.5 million acre-feet of water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 9:40 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 12:\u003c/strong> After rising to record high levels, the water level in Lake Oroville appears to be dropping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Data from the California Department of Water Resources -- see \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO\" target=\"_blank\">real-time Lake Oroville levels here\u003c/a> -- show the reservoir's surface crested at 902.59 feet above sea level at 3 a.m. Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the volume of runoff into the lake decreasing and about 500,000 gallons of water flowing out of the lake every second down the badly damaged main spillway and the emergency outlet, reservoir levels had dropped to 902.39 feet by 9 a.m. That drop is equivalent to about 2.5 inches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lake is considered full at 901 feet, and it's at that level that it began pouring over an emergency spillway early Saturday. The emergency outlet is being used for the first time since the dam went into operation in 1968.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR managers say water should stop flowing over the emergency spillway sometime Monday. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb11\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 4:45 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11:\u003c/strong> The real news of this afternoon came from a media briefing with acting Department of Water Resources chief Bill Croyle, who gave new details about the work ahead to replace Oroville Dam's shattered spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before we get to that, though, let's take a glance once more at Lake Oroville, which has continued to rise and spill over on this sparkling midwinter Saturday. The giant reservoir, California's second-largest, is now \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO\" target=\"_blank\">a foot over\u003c/a> the dam's never-before-used emergency spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR officials say that with several days of dry weather in store and the volume of runoff dropping, they expect water to continue to flow over the emergency weir until sometime Monday. \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/uux0bjzSh7Y\" target=\"_blank\">Video posted Saturday afternoon\u003c/a> (see below) showed a muddy, debris-laden torrent pouring into the waterway below the spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At his noon-hour media briefing, Croyle said the damaged main spillway will need to be completely rebuilt. He said he told Gov. Jerry Brown in a discussion on Friday the cost would come to $100 million to $200 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"My objective is to get a spillway back in operation before the wet season next year, which is typically Oct. 15 or so,\" Croyle said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle said he can only give \"a very rough range\" of the eventual cost because of the many unknowns involved in the project, including exactly where the replacement spillway will be built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We haven't gone in and looked at it, we don't know how much more damage we're going to do, decisions have to be made on a new one ... so the range is huge,\" Croyle said. \"What we told the governor yesterday afternoon is a hundred to two hundred million. Again, with the caveats we don't know a lot about the site itself.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that while the agency has the resources it needs to carry out the new spillway project and associated cleanup and repairs, he's hoping for support from the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Croyle said dam managers face a long, complex juggling act to deal with the impact of the spillway failure amid a continuing very wet winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest challenges engineers and work crews face is how to clear the Thermalito Diversion Pool immediately below the wrecked spillway of a large volume of concrete debris and sediment that have dammed the waterway and forced closure of the hydroelectric plant at the base of Oroville Dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muddy water rose and backed up toward the powerhouse as the lower section of the main spillway disintegrated under high flows. To avoid contaminating the power facility, it was shut down early Friday. That had an unfortunate side effect: Outflows through the plant, which can handle a maximum of 12,000 cubic feet per second, were halted. That, in turn, limited the amount of water managers could release from the fast-filling reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To remove the debris blocking the waterway, Croyle said, flows down the damaged main spillway will probably need to be halted temporarily. With another series of storms forecast to arrive in the region starting Thursday, that's not something that can be done immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One piece of good news about the forecast, though: The next round of storms is expected to be colder, meaning they are far less likely to unleash the torrents of runoff produced by the last group of extremely warm weather systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/uux0bjzSh7Y\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 11:\u003c/strong> Floodwaters began flowing over Oroville Dam's emergency spillway early Saturday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's the first time since the dam went into operation in 1968 that the emergency outlet from Lake Oroville has been used. The lake filled rapidly this week after severe damage to the main spillway forced dam managers to decrease the volume of water being released at the same time a series of warm storms triggered heavy runoff into the reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Department of Water Resources officials said water began moving over the 1,700-foot-long emergency weir just before 8 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/KCRA3/videos/10155022492371514/\" target=\"_blank\">TV helicopter video \u003c/a>soon after showed sheets of water cascading over the concrete structure, although heavy flows did not appear to have begun downhill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/DVNaPBlIxe4\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the lake continues to rise. By 11 a.m., the reservoir's surface was 901.55 feet, 6 inches over the top of the emergency spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR spokesman Doug Carlson said the rate of flow over the auxiliary release structure was expected to increase from an estimated 660 cubic feet per second at 9 a.m. to 6,000 to 12,000 cubic feet per second.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said dam and water managers estimate the flow will continue for 40 to 56 hours -- a time frame that runs roughly between midnight Sunday and 4 p.m. Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 12:35 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 11:\u003c/strong> Anyone who's been watching \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO&d=11-Feb-2017+00:14&span=25hours\" target=\"_blank\">the numbers\u003c/a> associated with Oroville Dam and Lake Oroville this evening -- how much water is flowing into the lake, how much is flowing out through the partially destroyed spillway -- probably has come to a conclusion similar to this one: At some point during the next few hours, water from the state's second-largest reservoir is likely to start pouring across the dam's emergency spillway and start racing down an adjacent slope toward the waterway below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At midnight Friday, Lake Oroville had risen to within about 18 inches of the lip of the emergency spillway. With water still coming into the lake from the Feather River watershed faster than it can be released down the damaged spillway, the level is rising at about 3 inches per hour. At that rate, simple spectator arithmetic tells you that the lake will overtop the emergency spillway as early as 6 a.m. Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dam managers with the Department of Water Resources had calculated releasing 65,000 cubic feet of water per second down the damaged spillway would slow the lake's rise enough to keep water from reaching the emergency structure. Those hopes dimmed Friday evening when \u003ca href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/2017/021017oroville.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">releases were cut\u003c/a> to 55,000 CFS to lower the risk of erosion that would threaten the stability of nearby power line towers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR is unable to use another release point in the dam, a hydroelectric generating station that can handle another 12,000 CFS. Debris from the shattered spillway wound up in the channel just downstream from the power plant, causing water to back up and forcing officials to shut it down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This would mark the first time water has flowed over the emergency facility since the dam began operating in 1968. (The closest call since then: June 2011, when late-season runoff from a lush snowpack brought the lake to within 15 inches of the emergency spillway.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond the history, the event brings uncertainty about what happens next. Crews from DWR, Cal Fire and private contractors scurried over the landscape immediately below the emergency weir over the last two days, trying to prepare the way for the cataract that soon might be pouring down the slope. Preparations included clearing trees and brush and cementing boulders into place at the edge of the emergency spillway. (See KCRA-Channel 3's \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/KCRA3/videos/10155020503816514/\" target=\"_blank\">helicopter footage of the scene Friday afternoon\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To corral any debris that comes tumbling down the slope as the water comes down, log booms have been placed in the channel below the spillway (a waterway known as the Thermalito Diversion Pool) with crews ready to tow large objects to a nearby cove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the highest immediate concern to people residing downstream is whether the water coming over the emergency spillway will represent a flood threat. The Department of Water Resources says it will not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Longer term, the deeper interest will be finding out whether DWR did everything it could and should have to ensure the integrity of the spillway, and what it will do to design and build a repaired structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And now, just after midnight early Saturday morning, we'll sign off by saying: We'll see what happens after day breaks. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb10\">\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>Update, 12:45 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10:\u003c/strong> State Department of Water Resources officials now say they believe the volume of water rushing into Lake Oroville is slowing enough -- and releases down a badly damaged spillway have increased enough -- that the giant reservoir will not flow over an emergency spillway as feared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dam managers increased the flow of water down the broken main spillway to 65,000 cubic feet per second -- 486,000 gallons -- in the early morning hours Friday. While department officials say damage to the structure is continuing, the erosion does not appear to pose a threat to the spillway gates or other critical infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, DWR officials noted at a noon media briefing, runoff into the lake is decreasing. The inflow hit a peak of 190,000 cubic feet per second Thursday evening and had fallen to 130,000 by midnight Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The difference between the inflow and outflow means the lake is still rising -- about 4 inches per hour at noon. Lake Oroville's surface is about 5 feet below the lip of the emergency spillway. But DWR officials say with rains having stopped for the time being, the volume of water coming into the lake should continue to drop and the lake's rise will stop short of overflowing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 9:20 a.m. Friday, Feb. 10:\u003c/strong> Two things have changed overnight at Oroville Dam and the giant reservoir behind it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First: Inflow from the Feather River watershed into Lake Oroville, while still very high, has dropped from its peak levels Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Second: California Department of Water Resources managers followed through with a plan to ramp up releases down the dam's wrecked spillway (for their rationale for doing that, see our earlier updates, below).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rate of rise in the lake -- see \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO&d=10-Feb-2017+09:13&span=25hours\" target=\"_blank\">the DWR's real-time data\u003c/a> for yourself --has decreased from nearly a foot an hour at times Thursday to about 4 or 5 inches an hour Friday morning. The reservoir surface at 9 a.m. was reported to be 895 feet -- up 45 feet from Tuesday when the spillway damage was discovered and just 6 feet below the dam's emergency spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The net result: That rate of increase would mean water from the reservoir would begin cascading over the emergency spillway sometime early Saturday morning. The lake, which has a stated maximum capacity of 3.5 million acre-feet, is now 98 percent full.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mostly light rain and snow are expected across the Feather River watershed today before clear weather Saturday. Colder weather and a break from heavy rain could help reduce the volume of water flowing into the lake. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb09\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9:\u003c/strong> The situation surrounding the damaged spillway at Oroville Dam has escalated into a crisis, with state water managers hoping they can dump enough water down the badly compromised structure to prevent the state's second-largest reservoir from pouring over an emergency release point that has never been used before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flow rates down the collapsing spillway were increased late Thursday morning to 35,000 cubic feet per second. The result was a spectacle of churning mud and water and further damage to the concrete structure.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>But with storms continuing to pound the northern Sierra and torrents of water quickly filling Lake Oroville, the huge reservoir behind the dam, crews from the Department of Water Resources and Cal Fire are getting ready for what officials previously called \"a very last-ditch measure.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crews on Thursday began cutting down trees and bulldozing brush on the steep slope below an emergency spillway to try to minimize downstream debris flows should the lake exceed its 3.5 million acre-feet capacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We have crews out there just as a precaution,\" said DWR spokesman Eric See during a media briefing at midday Thursday. \"We're still taking every measure we can to not have to use the emergency spillway, but if we do, we're actually removing that debris right now so it doesn't get mobilized\" into an adjacent waterway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the possibility that Lake Oroville would overflow for the first time in its half-century history grew stronger as the day progressed, despite the water being released down the damaged spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Acting DWR chief Bill Croyle said at an evening press conference that it was becoming more and more likely that water would pour uncontrolled over the emergency spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"To be very clear, with the hydraulic conditions we have now, and with the flow that we have coming down out of the spillway chute, unless conditions change, we anticipate there may be a release of water over the emergency spillway,\" Croyle said. \"Maybe sometime on Saturday.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That event has become imminent because the volume of water flowing into the lake increased dramatically during the day as heavy rain fell across the Feather River watershed. Some locations in upstream mountains had received 4 to 5 inches of rain in the last 24 hours, with another inch or two expected before clear weather arrives Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lake Oroville will overflow the emergency spillway if it reaches an elevation of 901 feet above sea level. On Tuesday, when the spillway damaged was first noted, the lake's surface was at about 850 feet. With the spillway shut down for most of the last 48 hours, the lake has risen to 887 feet as of 7 p.m. Thursday. (See DWR's \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/DerekKCRA/status/829844037410574336\" target=\"_blank\">real-time Lake Oroville statistics\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The downside of having water go over the emergency spillway is that it would go down the hillside and take out trees and soil and create a big mess in the diversion down below,\" the DWR's See said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>See said the severe erosion seen on and around the spillway structure is being closely monitored by crews on the ground, remote cameras and drones. Engineers believe the heavy flow of water will scour its way down to bedrock before long, See said, but acknowledged there are risks to allowing the erosion to continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Erosion is occurring in multiple ways,\" See said. \"You can have erosion to the side and erosion going down the hill, and then you can have 'head cutting,' which is erosion that can actually work its way back upstream. So that's the one that's of most concern.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If engineers detect that uphill erosion, See said, it would be \"a trigger point\" that would prompt another shutdown of releases down the spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The erosion has already released massive flows of sediment into the adjacent waterway, a canal called the Thermalito Diversion Pool. The canal carries water from the dam down to and around the city of Oroville. Among the facilities to which it conveys water is the Feather River Hatchery, which raises millions of chinook salmon and steelhead trout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heavy sediment in the water can kill juvenile salmonids. With muddy water cascading into the hatchery facility Thursday morning, the Department of Fish and Wildlife began an emergency rescue of salmon and steelhead, trucking the young fish to a satellite hatchery on the Thermalito Afterbay, west of Oroville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article131743014.html\" target=\"_blank\">Sacramento Bee's account \u003c/a>of the fish rescue:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>At the hatchery Thursday, workers waded waist-deep through concrete holding ponds filled with water the color of chocolate milk. They used screens to push baby fish toward tanker trucks that would transport them a few miles southwest to Thermalito.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Harry] Morse said that wild steelhead and salmon are spawning in the Feather River, fueling concern that sediment could overwhelm their nests and kill eggs and juvenile fish.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Officials at the media briefing repeated further reassurances that the integrity of Oroville Dam, one of the largest in the United States, has not been affected by the spillway collapse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said that while local emergency agencies are preparing for evacuations downstream of the dam, he didn't believe the spillway situation posed an imminent threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 11:55 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 9:\u003c/strong> The California Department of Water Resources is fast running out of time and options for dealing with the badly damaged spillway at Oroville Dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With Lake Oroville rapidly approaching full, water managers increased flows down the spillway Wednesday afternoon and early Thursday to test the effect on the damaged structure. The result was both unsurprising and sobering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department said it expected the test, which involved releasing about 20,000 cubic feet per second down the long concrete spillway chute, would cause further damage to the structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they may not have anticipated the extent of the damage that daylight revealed early Thursday. Photos from the scene showed that the massive cavity in the face of the spillway had grown several times larger and that the adjacent slow had suffered extensive new erosion. Here are a couple of views tweeted out early Thursday:\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>With the spillway mostly out of commission since major releases were curtailed, Lake Oroville has been rising at the rate of about half a foot an hour since midday Tuesday. Its level has increased 30 feet since then, with the reservoir's surface now 20 feet below an emergency spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emergency spillway, which would release water down a steep slope adjacent to the spillway, has never been used in the dam's half-century of operation. DWR officials and others say water flowing down the slope will likely result in a large volume of debris being dumped into the Feather River, which flows through the city of Oroville on its way to the Sacramento Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That's one reason dam managers are willing to risk the destruction of the concrete spillway, calculating that would be preferable to the unknowns involved in an uncontrolled emergency spillover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's going to be rocks, trees, mud -- liquid concrete -- going down that river,\" retired DWR engineer Jerry Antonetti \u003ca href=\"http://www.kcra.com/article/officials-release-water-from-oroville-dam-to-test-damaged-spillway/8694754\" target=\"_blank\">told Sacramento's KCRA\u003c/a> as he watched the spillway Wednesday night. \"I'd open 'er up, sacrifice the bottom of that thing -- it's going to go in the river -- clean it out next year and build a new spillway.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 8:45 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 9:\u003c/strong> State water officials say they may be forced to continue using a badly damaged spillway at Oroville Dam to prevent the lake from reaching capacity in the next few days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doing that would likely cause further damage to the spillway structure and continue eroding the surrounding area, Department of Water Resources spokesman Doug Carlson said Wednesday afternoon. But that could be preferable to allowing the lake to begin flowing over an emergency spillway on the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carlson called the alternate spillway -- which would send water cascading down a long tree- and brush-covered slope containing roads and power lines, a \"very last-ditch measure.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's an outcome that DWR is committed to not allowing to happen,\" Carlson said. Like other DWR officials, he was quick to add that the spillway damage does not pose a threat to the dam itself, one of the largest ever built in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department conducted an experiment during the day Wednesday in which it began sending a limited amount of water -- about 20,000 cubic feet per second -- down the damaged concrete spillway structure. The purpose of the test, Carlson said, was to see how much additional damage was done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We may just let the spillway do its job\" despite the damage, Carlson said. Then, after the rainy season, \"we could shut off the spillway, keep it dry, put construction people in there, whatever has to be done -- rocks, fill, concrete mix, whatever -- and get it back to 100 percent efficiency.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DWR's spillway test came as Lake Oroville, the state's second-largest reservoir, is filling rapidly with runoff from recent storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to maintain enough space in the lake to accommodate in-rushing floodwaters, managers would normally release water down the dam's massive concrete spillway. That was just what was happening Tuesday when bystanders alerted dam personnel that there appeared to be damage to the structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Releases that were being ramped up to about 60,000 cubic feet per second were abruptly halted so that Department of Water Resources crews could assess the situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, a high volume of runoff into the lake has continued, raising it more than 20 feet since early Tuesday. Late Wednesday afternoon, the reservoir was just 30 feet below an emergency spillway that has never been used in the dam's half-century of use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's quite serious,\" Carlson said of the dam and reservoir's status. \"The good news is that we think we have it under control.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Below: DWR photo gallery depicting damage to spillway and erosion to adjacent area.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb08\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Update, 12:25 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8:\u003c/strong> State water officials say engineers are still in the process of assessing damage to the spillway at Oroville Dam and figuring out what they can do to fix it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They're evaluating the situation intensively this morning,\" said Ted Thomas, the chief spokesman for the Department of Water Resources. \"They're looking at what their options are for repair.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An extensive section of concrete on the spillway, which is used to manage the level of Lake Oroville, has peeled away or collapsed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time the problem was spotted at midday Tuesday, water managers were in the process of ramping up the volume of water being dumped down the spillway into the Feather River. That was necessary to make room for high flows coming into the reservoir, the state's second largest, from a series of storms that have dumped very heavy rain over the Feather River watershed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Releases were reduced from about 60,000 cubic feet per second to just 5,000 cfs -- the amount being routed through the dam's hydroelectric generating facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The immediate result of curtailing the releases while huge amounts of runoff stream into the reservoir has been a very rapid rise in the lake's level. In the 20 hours after releases were reduced at midday Tuesday, Lake Oroville has risen 10 feet and added 150,000 acre-feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If current release and flow rates persisted -- and that's not a sure thing by any means -- the reservoir would reach its 3.5 million acre-foot capacity in the next three or four days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that happens, Thomas said, the dam's emergency spillway -- which has not been used since the dam was finished in the late 1960s -- would channel floodwaters down a hillside into the river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomas said he expected details on a proposed fix for the spillway damage later Wednesday. \u003ca href=\"#post-top\">Back to top.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"feb07\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Original post, 5:35 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7:\u003c/strong> California Department of Water Resources crews are assessing a potentially serious problem with Oroville Dam, the giant structure that impounds the Feather River to create the state's second-largest reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday morning, the spillway that managers use to release water from Lake Oroville into the river appeared to suffer a partial collapse. That led to the shutdown of the spillway while engineers assess its condition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department officials say the dam itself, perched above the Sacramento Valley about 130 miles northeast of San Francisco, is not in danger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The timing of the shutdown is critical: A huge amount of runoff is coming into Lake Oroville from the Feather River watershed after recent storms. To maintain room in the reservoir to contain the incoming flows, a high volume of water --- about 55,000 cubic feet per second -- was being released down the spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the spillway closed for the time being, there's no way to release water from the dam except through a hydroelectric powerhouse built into the structure. Only about 5,000 cubic feet per second can be released through the powerhouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The net effect is that with releases virtually halted and heavy inflows from a series of very wet winter storms continuing to pour into the reservoir, the lake is rising steadily.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO&d=07-Feb-2017+15:47&span=25hours\" target=\"_blank\">Lake Oroville was 82 percent full\u003c/a> and was 150,000 acre-feet above the storage level prescribed to maintain room for incoming floodwaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources said \u003ca href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/2017/020717spillway.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">in a statement\u003c/a> that \"sufficient capacity exists within the reservoir to capture projected inflows for at least days, and DWR expects to resume releases from the gated spillway at a rate deemed later today after a thorough inspection is performed.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/swp/facilities/Oroville/LakeDam.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">Oroville Dam\u003c/a> is an earth-fill dam and was dedicated in 1968. At 770 feet high, it's the highest dam in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does the spillway look like under normal conditions? Here's a video shot Monday, when managers had ramped up releases from 25,000 cubic feet per second top 50,000 CFS (see below for some perspective on the flow numbers):\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/coQnMRklVg4\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flow perspective: One cubic foot of water is 7.48 gallons. So 55,000 cubic feet per second, roughly the volume being released down the spillway before problems were detected Tuesday, comes out to 411,400 gallons a second. That equals 1.26 acre-feet -- enough water to flood a football field to a depth of 15 inches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An acre-foot, in turn, is roughly the amount of water used each year by two \"average\" California households. So the volume of water pounding down the spillway \u003cem>every second\u003c/em> is close to what three households would use in a year.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\nMiranda Leitsinger, Don Clyde, Kat Snow, Craig Miller and David Marks of KQED contributed to this post. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Experts: Oroville Spillway Damage Continues to Pose 'Very Significant Risk'",
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"content": "\u003cp>California officials are courting a \"very significant risk\" if a damaged spillway on the nation's tallest dam is not operational by the next rainy season, and the state's plan leaves no time for any delays, a team of safety experts has warned in a report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crews working to repair a crippled spillway on the Lake Oroville dam will be racing the clock to have the structure in good enough shape to be used for flood control by next fall, according to the report prepared by an independent team of consultants and submitted to federal officials last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crews hope to prevent a repeat, or worse, of dramatic events that led to nearly 200,000 people being evacuated last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Repair contracts will have to be awarded by June and workers will have to have the spillway in solid enough shape to operate by Nov. 1, the experts warned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This is a very demanding schedule, as everyone recognizes. There seems to be no room anywhere to expand any part of the schedule,\" the five-member expert team said in the report for state and federal water and dam-safety officials. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"A very significant risk would be incurred if the Gated Spillway is not operational by November 1,\" the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"LeUmmYqQs8grBhCWwIPDZUgf2nmXASFE\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report does not explain the nature of the risk. However, officials with the state Department of Water Resources, which operates Oroville Dam and Lake Oroville -- the nation's tallest dam and California's second-largest reservoir -- fear that a huge rupture in the main spillway could expand and cripple a set of giant flood gates that control releases of water from the lake. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The independent consultants were selected by the state last month at the request of at the request of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department of Water Resources spokeswoman Maggie Macias did not immediately return a call for comment Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 12, authorities ordered the evacuation of 188,000 people in three counties downstream of the dam after a chain of events that began with major damage detected on the main spillway just as a series of warm and very wet winter storms rolled across the Feather river watershed. Dam managers limited releases down the spillway, and within days, Lake Oroville surged uncontrolled over the top of an emergency weir and down an adjacent hillside. The resulting erosion raised concerns that the emergency structure would collapse and send a wall of water down the Feather River into Oroville and other communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The experts called it \"absolutely critical\" that the dam's state operators avoid another overflow on the emergency spillway. The state should start work now redesigning a new emergency spillway for the 50-year-old dam, the consultants said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The experts inspected the main spillway before delivering the recommendations to the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water was even seeping from seemingly undamaged stretches of the main spillway, the experts said. Only 12 inches thick, the concrete spillway is heavily patched, at some places by clay stuffed into holes below the concrete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This calls into question whether the portions of the slab that appear undamaged by the failure should be replaced,\" the consultants said, raising the prospect of a much bigger long-term repair job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fully repairing the spillway will likely take two years, the consultants said. California still has at least a month left in the current, unusually wet rainy season. A record snowfall in the Sierra Nevada will send more and more runoff into Lake Oroville as weather warms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State water officials plan to use the damaged main spillway sparingly to control the runoff, releasing water down it to try to ensure it doesn't spill out over the non-functional emergency spillway again.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"A very significant risk would be incurred if the Gated Spillway is not operational by November 1,\" the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report does not explain the nature of the risk. However, officials with the state Department of Water Resources, which operates Oroville Dam and Lake Oroville -- the nation's tallest dam and California's second-largest reservoir -- fear that a huge rupture in the main spillway could expand and cripple a set of giant flood gates that control releases of water from the lake. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The independent consultants were selected by the state last month at the request of at the request of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department of Water Resources spokeswoman Maggie Macias did not immediately return a call for comment Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 12, authorities ordered the evacuation of 188,000 people in three counties downstream of the dam after a chain of events that began with major damage detected on the main spillway just as a series of warm and very wet winter storms rolled across the Feather river watershed. Dam managers limited releases down the spillway, and within days, Lake Oroville surged uncontrolled over the top of an emergency weir and down an adjacent hillside. The resulting erosion raised concerns that the emergency structure would collapse and send a wall of water down the Feather River into Oroville and other communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The experts called it \"absolutely critical\" that the dam's state operators avoid another overflow on the emergency spillway. The state should start work now redesigning a new emergency spillway for the 50-year-old dam, the consultants said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The experts inspected the main spillway before delivering the recommendations to the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water was even seeping from seemingly undamaged stretches of the main spillway, the experts said. Only 12 inches thick, the concrete spillway is heavily patched, at some places by clay stuffed into holes below the concrete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This calls into question whether the portions of the slab that appear undamaged by the failure should be replaced,\" the consultants said, raising the prospect of a much bigger long-term repair job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fully repairing the spillway will likely take two years, the consultants said. California still has at least a month left in the current, unusually wet rainy season. A record snowfall in the Sierra Nevada will send more and more runoff into Lake Oroville as weather warms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State water officials plan to use the damaged main spillway sparingly to control the runoff, releasing water down it to try to ensure it doesn't spill out over the non-functional emergency spillway again.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"masters-of-scale": {
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},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"morning-edition": {
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"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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"onourwatch": {
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"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"order": 11
},
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"on-the-media": {
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"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
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"planet-money": {
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
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"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
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},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 5
},
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
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