Posted on 03/23/2017 7:48:58 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Oroville dam has largely faded out of the news in the past few weeks but the crisis is not over yet. A report on the safety of the dam concluded: “A very significant risk would be incurred if the Gated Spillway is not operational by November 1.” November 1 is the start of the next rainy season. From the Associated Press:
Officials with the state Department of Water Resources, which operates the dam, fear a huge rupture that opened in the main spillway could expand to cripple the flood gates that send out controlled releases of water and keep water from spilling over uncontrollably.
In a statement, spokeswoman Maggie Macias said the agency’s objective is to have a fully functional spillway before the start of the next storm season.
“We’ll be working round-the-clock through spring, summer and fall to make that happen,” she said.
In case you’ve forgotten what the main spillway looks like, here it is:
Note the size of the helicopter in this image for scale:
So California has about 7 months to shore up all of this damage and repair the spillway in time for the next rainy season. And there is concern that repairing the visible damage will not be enough. Inspectors found water was leaking between the apparently undamaged sections of concrete, meaning even the sections of the spillway that look salvageable may need to be replaced or repaired before it can be used safely. The cost to repair all of this damage is expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars.
The report also says the emergency spillway should not be used under any circumstance and needs to be redesigned. If you recall, authorities briefly allowed water to flow over the emergency spillway last month and then saw evidence the ground below it was in danger of undermining the concrete. Though the Oroville dam itself was never in danger, 188,000 people were evacuated over concern the spillway could fail catastrophically, sending a wall of water into downstream cities and towns.
bump for later
Problem, the “flood gates” cannot empty the lake - they are too high. One or both of the “drains” are damaged and not working properly. The power station doesn’t flow enough water to drain the lake in time for the next rainy season. Lib management in action.
Started raining about 5 am this morning.
Hopefully, you are safe re Anderson reservoir. Using basic 6 grade math, I was able to guesstimate/warn that there could be flooding. A younger relative used calculus and came up with the same warning. Yet the idiots down there couldn’t release enough water and give the people down stream a warning. Or they didn’t want to waste the water in the reservoir.
Moonbeam after years of being a stupid liberal is now a totally insane liberal.
Stay safe down there, old FRiend!
The cost to repair all of this damage is expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars”
Chump Change for a State like California.
We currently SPEND $69,315,068 DOLLARS Every Single Day just to keep the 3 million Illegal Aliens in this State.
President Trump should tell California to GO POUND SAND when they call asking for money.
Californians bear an enormous fiscal burden as a result of an illegal alien population estimated at almost 3 million residents. The annual expenditure of state and local tax dollars on services for that population is $25.3 billion.
http://www.fairus.org/publications/the-fiscal-burden-of-illegal-immigration-on-california-taxpayers
So 1 or 2 days of Illegal Alien funding will cover the ENTIRE COST EASILY!!
Who let you in here? Go back to DU or somewhere else that cares about your Unicorns and Pixie Dust.
They dont have to build a new spillway like the old one.
All they have to do is leave it the way it now is and shore up the damaged end and excatvate the rock down from it to the stream bed. Use some of the rock to shore up the one side where it washed away the banks and cement the whole shebang.
On the Em spillway, excavate the hill in front so the water spreads out and runs down away from there to the stream bed. Then, cement an apron all the way down for about a good ways, about 300 yards, and they can simply use that apron as an access to the parking lot. At the base of that spillway, form the apron in a arc so that water gently runs away from the base.
I mentioned a gold mining co because that rock colour indicates gold bearing material. I would say about 1000 pounds of material to the ounce. They would have to take samples. I would bet they would get it done for free as the water company would get about 10% return from the mining company.
We agree, it is NO PROBLEM getting it done and done fast. They simply have to make a mountain out of a mole hill these days.
2 oz per ton? Hummm.
Well, Newbie, guess you’re an illegal Mexican to get so fired up about my comment. Go back to Mehico and do your mariachi strumming there.
Yeah. Others don't get that my "fix" suggestion was sarcasm, often mistaken for truth here. Anyway, I read something before about the drain diversion tunnels. One is at river level, the other is higher; so the lower one can pretty much empty the lake over a period of time. The "management" almost killed some workers in the drain diversion tunnel by exceeding max tolerances for flow when testing the drain, and the ensuing wind vortex almost sucked them away. Plus they damaged the works. So why haven't they fixed the diversion "drain" tunnels? Seems that it should be done in parallel with the main spillway repairs. (No reply necessary, I'm done with this.)
Yeah. Others don't get that my "fix" suggestion was sarcasm, often mistaken for truth here. Anyway, I read something before about the drain diversion tunnels. One is at river level, the other is higher; so the lower one can pretty much empty the lake over a period of time. The "management" almost killed some workers in the drain diversion tunnel by exceeding max tolerances for flow when testing the drain, and the ensuing wind vortex almost sucked them away. Plus they damaged the works. So why haven't they fixed the diversion "drain" tunnels? Seems that it should be done in parallel with the main spillway repairs. (No reply necessary, I'm done with this.)
The concrete must not have been the best quality.
They should have over engineered this like the concrete dams.
It was to take a pounding but failed over the years with many cracks appearing and those that did the repair thought adding some grout would fix it when they had to know the foundation was giving way underneath and the top structure was collapsing into the void. The spillway is another issue we need to know how the foundation is holding up.
Now everyone should worry about the huge earthen dam.
Did they do a quality job or a slipshod one?
They also recover slight amounts of silver and other minerals within that ore.
It depends on the company. But we had a mining engineer renting space in a equipment garage who contracted for the mining companies in the UP of Mich. He explained that in order to make a profit, they needed to recover at least an ounce to the ton. A ton of ore isnt really that much material.
I am very familiar with this operation:
Wiki:
Goldstrike is a gold mine in Eureka County in north-eastern Nevada. It is located on the Carlin Trend, a prolific gold mining district. It is owned and operated by the world’s largest gold mining company, Barrick Gold. Goldstrike is the largest gold mine in North America. Since Barrick acquired Goldstrike in 1986 it has produced 42 million ounces of gold.[
Like most Carlin type gold deposits in Nevada the gold was epithermally deposited in carbonate or silicate sedimentary rocks. The source of the heat was magmatic but the exact mechanism is still under debate. The Betze-Post deposits are up to 6,000 feet (1,800 m) long, 600 feet (180 m) thick and 800 feet (240 m) wide. In 2007 the average processed gold grade was 0.136 troy ounces (4.2 g) per ton of ore, with a recovery rate of 85.5%.[2
Folks around here in Nevada would be all over 1 oz per ton.
http://www.geo.msu.edu/extra/geogmich/gold.html
It depends how easy the material is to get at. Lots of these mines failed because of poor methods of extraction and production. You can bet your bottom dollar that they would NEVER let them use sulfide mining methods unless they let them transport that ore to a facility where they have the permitted leech fields working.
This dam is located right smack in the heart of the gold areas of CA. And if any geologists look at that colour, they will come to the same conclusion that it looks good. They need to sample it and see. But the dumbasses from that state would simply pass on it and never give it a chance. Its easier to beg for somebody elses money to fix that spillway-the federal government...you and I.
Oh darn!
Good point
If you have a moment, please peruse this post below. Why? it immediately gets a person up to speed on what the long thread has already discovered: The upper spillway has serious design flaws. The experts are not sure if the upper spillway is completely safe. On top of this, experts do not believe what is being stated by DWR. Flat out disagreements between DWR and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) fed govt recommended dam experts & other experts outside of DWR.
I can reference specific information* on evidence that completely supports what the FERC recommended dam experts state in items 1-9 in the post below. *i.e. posts, photographs, blueprints, explanations, etc in the long thread.
Thanks for parsing and summarizing. A good update for those of us, who just want a quick summary of what’s happening and a review of the issues/problems. The big thread will become an excellent record of the history, issues in the past and issues now re what not to do.
Don’t know how much rain the catchment area of the lake got yesterday. The northbay got hammered with 1.5 to 3 inches yesterday with most coming down in a short time after 1 pm.
More rain coming early next week.
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