Despite proven and very public displays of their past failures, California's Department of Water Resources (DWR) is cutting outflows from the Oroville Dam in order to "fill 'er up." This, with just 9'9" left to a mandatory overtopping of the never-used (as currently designed) emergency spillway, a crippled main spillway, serious cracks in the main gate structures foundations, main spillway gates that are leaking like a sieve (and worse every day due to greater water pressure behind them,) and a panicked public that rightfully no longer trusts these petty potentates.
(Image courtesy of rtoinsider.com.)
Sure, maybe nothing will happen, and the water that is being dangerously jacked up to the point there is NO RESERVE at all (for a major "Pineapple Express" rain event or an unexpected upstream reservoir failure) can be sold all summer to try to pay for the $1.3 billion they paid to make repairs that apparently didn't work. BUT EVEN IF THAT's THE CASE and the dam holds, doing what DWR is doing right now-- CUTTING OUTFLOWS rather than letting the water level decrease-- amounts to criminal negligence, in my opinion. (P.S. Lake Davis up in the catchment area of Oroville Dam is at 99% capacity, for example, and there is no reporting AT ALL on line with regard to Lake Almanor, the largest upstream reservoir.)
While admittedly just an anonymous poster on a message board, this comment rings true:
"I have been informed by an important source that are are numerous 'sinkholes' in the bottom of the reservoir thru which water is leaving and there are vortexes forming from them becoming visible in some cases. This may fit well enough with the person above who suggested 'underground' river. Lots and lots of soaked hillsides including of course the abutments to the dam. Much Piping... something has to give at some point."
I don't have a real opinion on that, but I certainly would not advise anyone staying in the flood plain of this dam this summer. We've seen way too many instances already of foolhardy and neglectful behaviors on the part of DWR to suggest that we can trust their judgement about the ongoing safety of this dam and it's huge "green spots" on the main face.
This dam needs to be safely lowered to manageable levels this summer, then scrapped and rebuilt. Nothing else can make this thing safe the way it is now. It is broken beyond reasonable hope of repair.
(Image courtesy of catholic.org.)
The gate structure at the head of the main spillway is the greatest concern, and should NOT be subjected to greater and greater water pressures as it currently exists.
Here is a recent tweet from Marty DeAngelo of the "Oroville Dam Watch Group:"
"Marty D: essentially there were drain pipes under there and instead of them draining where they were supposed to, they were leaking under the gate structure, causing erosion"
The water leaking down the main spillway is obviously muddier than ever before, folks. You can clearly see that on the live feed. If the dam fails, it is likely to be as a result of erosion beneath the main spillway gates, or a failure of one (or more) of the severely stressed and leaking gates themselves...JMHO...
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P.S. Given what we know about the propensities of the Satanic elites for foreshadowing their mass sacrifice rituals, IN ADVANCE, this is definitely worth your time: