California's Lake Oroville Main Spillway Severely Damaged/Eroded. Oroville Dam's Recently Reconstructed Main Spillway Fundamentally Flawed

Oroville reading at 11%

[link to cdec.water.ca.gov]

[link to cdec.water.ca.gov]

DATA BUMP

9 PM 'DATA' 534.77 NO 'N'...THIS TIME...WTF?

535.68 NOW WHATEVER THE FUCK THAT MEANS....IT IS GOING UP

N = Error in Data
[link to cdec.water.ca.gov]

Jack in VA has been showing what appears to be water underneath the new spillway. That rock in that area is not good bedrock.

If you read about the St Francis Dam failure in 1928, it was a big cement dam, but they didn't know about the faults in the rock to the sides. There had been ancient landslides and the rock was not solid as it appeared. First time they filled it, water began to move through the rock on the sides, the abutments where the cement was hooked in, and it created hydraulic uplift. That is, in more simple terms, water pressure lifting up whatever is on top, in this case rock and cement. Hundreds of people drowned when the dam failed, and it failed very quickly, like in a few hours.

People can't picture the power of water. You can't imagine water forcing up a cement dam or the rock above. But it can. Hydraulic uplift was not well understood 90 years ago but it is now, and it is scary.


Cahill and Robert Bea, the disaster guy from Berkley, both think water is moving through rocks under the gates, which is rock to the side of the dam itself. The spillway is off to the side. Can hydraulic uplift make the new spillway, which is well bolted into the rock, go up? Maybe not. But if it is starting to move underneath and fissures widen, it could bring down the lake to whatever depth it erodes. I remain very concerned. I wish they would lower the water as much as possible and reduce water pressure on any seepage in the rocks....or into that green spot.

and water under the new spillway says either they screwed up.. or that whole LEFT embankment is fucked... Good post .. thankyou.

GLP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wake the F%$dge up!!!!!


Last weekend the DWR said they were going to take the new spillway up to 60,000 cfs but they only took it up to 25,000 cfs and then quickly shut down the spillway.
Then within a week the official data for Orovile is now all wrong. The lake is rising and 2 days ago it was 860 feet. It should be at 866 feet or more today because the spillway is closed.

By next weekend the Oroville reservior will be 880 feet if they do not open the spillway and the Oroville Dam will flow over the top by the end of April or the first week in May.

IMHO, they discovered a design flaw in the spillway when they water rate was at 25,000 cfs.... and the spillways must have started to vibrate.

A vibrating spillway will collapse.


Here is the big question... when do they start evacuations of the millions of people living in the valley below Oroville Dam?

The greatest catastrophe in the history of the USA could very well be happening in a few weeks.... while GLP watches the Game of Thrones and Americans pick their noses and read texts from Kim Kardashian.
Oh brother.

I have done the math.
There are live Oroville spillway cameras that give full evidence of the water situation on the spillway.
Unless they open the spillway doors and release at least 10,000 cfs down the spillway... water will go over the top of the dam in a few weeks. Once the water goes over the top of the dam it will start eroding the backside of the dam. Then, the dam will fail.

It will take out the left abutment...viewed as you face the dam possibly before it would go over the top. ... And then there is that leaking on to the dam front itself.. which I accidently in a previous post called the right abutment...

Still no “news” reports