The emergency spillway was intended to serve this purpose. And, it’s “dam,” not “damn,” dammit.
A beaver would have built a better dam.
This year the bottom dropped out of the spillway and water started shooting out of a hole in the side. The concrete slab sides of the spillway gave way and the water flowed down the face of the dam - an earthen structure, not lined with rock or concrete. The fear was that the uncontrolled flow would erode away the face of the dam causing a catastrophic failure. Normally the backup would be to shut down the main spillway and dump water through the tunnels of the hydro plant. But there was too much water in too little time so the reservoir rose and water began flowing over the emergency spillway, which was not lined with concrete or rip rap and thus had it's own erosion problems.
My uncle owned a rock hauling company in Paradise that had contracts to supply rock for the dam, the after bay and the north end of aqueduct during the '60s and early '70s. One of his gripes was that every year he bid on a contract to supply rip rap for the emergency spillway. Every year the project was canceled by the state legislature (Jesse Unruh to be exact). Things really don't change much in California.
Did you view the videos? Most of them show views of the gated spillway next to the emergency spillway.
You are a member of a very large club. Everyone is confused , and most don't even understand what happened to the dam. It wasn't lack of maintenance at all.
Didn't they build flood gates into this damn so that they can open them to release over flow?
The water for the turbines runs under the dam, and comes out further down the river.
There is the main spillway, which is where the 'flood gates' would be. There is also an emergency spillway.
The problem was that they didn't release ENOUGH water EARLIER, because they was so concerned with filling the lake TO THE TOP, in an effort to make up for the lack of water during the previous drought period.
Once it got near the top, they started draining off water via the main spillway. Normally (meaning if the lake wasn't filled almost to the top), they could have released water at a nominal rate, and everything would have been OK.
BUT, they had to release the water at a VERY HIGH RATE due to the impending water level that was threatening to reach the 'emergency spillway'. They released the water at such a high rate that the water flowed OVER THE SIDES of the main spillway, and eroded the ground UNDERNEATH the spillway, which then caused the collapse of part of the main spillway, because it no longer had any support.
SO,,, they had to cut down the water rate going through the main spillway. This led to the lake level continuing to rise rapidly, and eventually, it overflowed the EMERGENCY SPILLWAY and started eroding away pretty much everything downhill from the emergency spillway.
They gambled on trying to get the lake FULL and they almost LOST...everything.
But that was just the first hand, and the poker game isn't over yet. Mother Nature deals the cards for the next hand.
There are two overflow spillways built into the dam. The first one is a concrete path straight down the hillside to the river that can handle a high capacity. Next to it is another emergency spillway, which is just a cement edge to the top of the dam. Below that cement edge, it is just the hillside, and they knew if it would ever be used it would cause a lot of erosion to the hill.
It was the first cement spillway that failed, it developed a large hole about halfway down the side of the hill, and half the water rushed into the hole, severely eroding the hillside. They had to reduce the flow into that spillway, and in the meantime, the water level rose so much it went over the emergency spillway as well. And not only that, it went through a parking lot and over the top, eroding that too.
The big issue is that the concrete spillway that failed was known to have problems back a few years ago.
You didn’t really think the BLM attacks on the Bundy ranch and the Malheur refuge are the only weapons the UN/globalist lackeys would use in their ongoing war on the American middle class, did you?