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justme
2017 Feb 28, 4:23pm
It is being reported that the Lake Oroville Dam hydroelectric power station may be partially re-started on Thursday, thereby allowing some water to be released, and productively so, through the power station. Meanwhile, the main spillway is temporarily shut off for inspection and removal of accumulated debris that hinders the flow in the canal/river below the spillway.
At peak capacity, the power station consumes and releases 14 kcfps of water. It is a small number compared to the 100 kfcps capacity of the (now damaged) main spillway.
Many more details in the full article
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The above reference photo gives the proper perspective. Note auxilliary/secondary spillway, far left, and the regular/primary spillway, the long concrete "waterslide" right next to it. The big earthen dam is not affected at all.
As usual, the reporting in the mass media is not very good, but from what I've been able to piece together:
At some point on Tuesday (today is Sunday), the main spillway had a significant hole/crater developing in the concrete pathway, and somebody made the decision to close that spillway to evaluate and/or repair. In the meantime, water in the lake rose quickly enough that the secondary (passive) spillway overflowed. This caused erosion below the auxillliary spillway, and raised concerns that the emergency spillway wall could fail . The main spillway was then activated again (10pm Sunday night it was operating at 100k cfps), and this has lowered the lake level enough that the auxilliary spillway is no longer overflowing. At the same time, 40k cfps was still arriving into the lake, but a drawdown of 50ft has been estimated to be needed to accommodate incoming storms and snowmelt next week.
The big question, I think, is going to be whether the initial closure of the main spillway was the right decision. Right now it looks like it was not the right decision, given that it has been reversed, but one might argue that the spillway needed to be inspected before re-opening. The duration of the closure time for inspection has not been revealed. There was some talk that the reasoning behind the decision was to ensure the safety of some power line towers that serve the dam's power station.
This is a new thread, trying to provide REAL information and links to good information. The earlier thread by other poster https://patrick.net/users/No%20news%20is%20good%20news was a propaganda thread with fake news. No doubt this thread will also be infected, but at least it starts with facts. I moved my posts from yesterday's thread to this new thread.
#oroville #emergency #OrovilleDam #LakeOroville #news #currentevents
Recommended ignores on this thread: Ironman