by Plumas » Tue Feb 14, 2017 1:22 pm
Russ yer right its not good. California taxpayers voted to raise hundreds of millions a couple years back to fix problems like this in our water works. Nobody knows where that money went.
I live about 50 miles upriver of the Oroville dam. It's amazing watching them use helicopters to drop bags of rocks to prevent further erosion. Those of us who have spent a lot of time on the rivers know it's power and probably also understand putting bags of rocks on top of mud is not a plan to bank on.
My feeling is if water goes over the emergency spillway again it will fail. Period. Looking at images of the erosion below the emergency spillway it looks like bedrock is at least 50' below the weir, the story of a release of possible release of 30 feet of the lake is likely a big underestimate. Also think chances are good the main spillway will continue to erode further towards the main spillway gates. If I was a gambling man I'd put my $20 on the table and bet the dam doesn't make it till spring.
Plumas
Ah ain't no flatlander!