California races nature, clock to make key dam repairs
In this Feb 28, 2017 file photo, construction crews clear rocks away from Oroville Dam’s crippled spillway in Oroville, California. A team of experts is warning of a ‘very significant risk’ if the main spillway of the California dam
is not operational again by the next rainy season. (Inset): In this Feb 14, 2017 file photo, water gushes from the Oroville Dam’s main spillway in Oroville, California. (AP)
California is not just fighting nature as it attempts to repair the spillways at the nation’s tallest dam that was badly damaged last month by surging storm waters. It’s also racing the clock.
Safety experts say there is no time for delays in the state plan to restore the critical main spillway at the 770-foot Oroville Dam, and they warn that California would face a “very significant risk” if the spillway is not in working order by fall, the start of the next rainy season.
A Nov. 1 target to fix the spillway presents “a very demanding schedule, as everyone recognizes,” said a report prepared by an independent team of consultants and submitted to federal officials last week. A copy of the report was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.
Also Wednesday, the state Legislative
Trump
Analyst’s Office warned that tens of billions of dollars are needed for repairs and updates for aging dams, levees, wetlands and other projects in California’s flood-management system.
Authorities have not provided a current estimate for the cost of repairs needed on the Oroville dam spillways.
The report on the spillways sketches a challenging array of problems at the Northern
In this combo picture, a view of Malaysia’s landmark Petronas Twin Towers is seen before (above) and during lights out (below) for Earth Hour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 25. Earth Hour takes place worldwide and is a global call to turn off lights for 60 minutes in a bid to highlight the global
climate change. (AP)
Thompson
California dam, where last month authorities ordered the evacuation of 188,000 people after surging releases of water tore away big chunks of the main spillway and then the dam’s second, emergency spillway.
At the time, officials feared rapid deterioration of the emergency spillway could send large, uncontrolled torrents of war from the lake behind the dam through surrounding towns.
The spillway is used to release water when the reservoir is nearing full capacity.
During the releases, water was even seeping from seemingly undamaged stretches of the main spillway, the fivemember team found. Only 12 inches thick, the concrete spillway is heavily patched, at some places by clay stuffed into holes below the concrete. (AP)