Engineers test Oroville Spillway | Photos

[WB Staff]

OROVILLE
State engineers gingerly began releasing water again through the damaged Oroville Dam spillway Wednesday in a controlled test to see how much water the scarred facility could handle, as reservoir levels continued to climb behind the critical flood-control structure.

With dozens of engineers monitoring from strategic locations around the dam’s exterior, a sheet of white water began cascading down the 3,000-foot-long spillway a little after 3 p.m. Within seconds of hitting the damaged area, a crater about 250 feet long, a portion of the water turned into a long ribbon of mud as sediment that had been trapped inside the hole ran down the concrete spillway.

Misdirected by the jagged chunks of concrete lying in the spillway, some of the water left the chute and ran down an adjacent hill.

California Department of Water Resources officials said they planned to open the spillway for more than two hours Wednesday, ramping up the water release to about 20,000 cubic feet per second. That’s considered a “light spill,” engineers said, and was less than half as much water as the spillway was releasing when the giant scar was discovered Tuesday and releases were shut down.

More info and vid: http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/califo ... 79999.html

[WB Staff]

From DWR

[WB Staff]

Link to Periscope of DWR meeting on Oroville Spillway.

Watch it here: NO, you don't have to download the app, just click the arrow.

https://www.periscope.tv/w/1RDxlReyXANGL

[steve0806]

Hope you will keep us informed on future news releases. Thanks for this coverage.

[mark poulson]

I think that guy did a good job presenting what's going on, with no notes and very little advanced warning.
It looks to me like he really knows his stuff, or he could never have been so calm and collected.
He also didn't shy away from saying what he didn't know yet, always a sign of someone who isn't afraid to tell the truth.

[WB Staff]

Noon Update 2/9 Photo and Vid: http://www.westernbass.com/forum/orovil ... 06843.html

[mark poulson]

Looking at how the dam and it's infrastructure were built, so there is the ability to dump water without damaging the dam itself, it's almost as if those people knew what they were doing when they designed and built it.