Been there. As an engineer. That's all I'm going to say about that...

Gov Moonbeam comparing an earthquake to maintenance neglect.
Responding to questions about whether the Department of Water Resources should have done more to reinforce the emergency spillway system — as suggested by environmental groups during a 2005 relicensing process — Brown said:

“Every time you have one of these disasters, people perk up and start looking at analogous situations and things that you might not have paid as much attention to. But we live in a world of risk – the earthquake shook the Bay Bridge, and then we the state and all the different governors had to put up a new bridge.”

Evacuation order lifted ..good news http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather...

Frantic fight to lower Lake Oroville water level before new storms hit ....With more storms expected to slam Northern California later this week, officials worked frantically Monday to drain water from brimming Lake Oroville in hopes of heading off a potentially catastrophic flood.

Yes and I am an admirer of straightlinelogic.

You should talk to straightlinelogic, another admirer of James Jerome Hill.

I am downstream from Camanche. I believe it is the newest one built in California.

They are government bureaucrats.

Gravity is a bitch as they say.

Especially an asset that important for millions of people. BTW the emergency spillway has been upgraded it is now the auxiliary spillway.

With 7 days in a row of rain predicted and that means lots of snow as well, is serious added pressure. I would be concerned with the parking area as that is a release point with no reinforcement till bedrock.

I hope they can do it but the danger is not going away soon.

Not really feasible, considering the sources (snow pack) and the depth of the ravines those rivers are in, diverting would be to the other side of the ravine or whatever.

If you are downstream of Shasta, you are fine, I used to have quite a bit of affiliation with Western Area Power, the Trinity, Shasta, Folsom, and Keswick dams are all federal-owned and maintained. Their maintenance is pristine. Oroville, Don Pedro, etc. are all state dams and are in pretty serious disrepair - from years of choosing to fund the nanny state and the bureaucracy instead of common sense government functions.

Not "needing to be used" should have been the opportunity to substantially rehabilitate the dam, the spillways, and excavate out the sediment that has most certainly formed behind the dam. Only a total fool (or a millennial) would think they would never need the dam again.

Not really, this isn't the midwest, the water isn't coming from hundreds of miles upstream. It's snow pack melting from 30 miles away and flowing down the side of the mountain.

They may actually be on the right track, they erected a concrete plant on top of the dam at the staging area and are pumping concrete over the top of the rocks to kind of armor-coat the emergency spillway. That may actually have some reasonable chance of success (as long as it doesn't overtop again before the concrete has a chance to set).

7/17/95https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU9BkPxITOg

At 148% of historical avg.

Are you a good rich or a bad rich?
;^)

That was in 1996, the year before I moved here.

For what it's worth, I'm hearing from private sources that the Auburn Dam is finally going to be built -- not by the state but by local Native Americans and casino money. Good luck to them!

This lake hasn't been full to even half of capacity for at least the last 7 years. I don't fault the builders for failing to notice underground damage under a spillway that hasn't needed to be used in that length of time.

The eco-nut movement blames everyone BUT the benevolent, "liberal" rich. Remember, the movement was created to give them an excuse to segregate themselves from the rest of us by zoning while pretending it's a sacrifice for the good of the planet. This is why the demographics of the Sierra Club are the same as those of Marin County.

Sacrificing is for the unwashed masses. Our SUVs are a threat to the Earth. Al Gore's huge garden and private jet are not.

I wonder how much the drought mindset , the global warming pressure had to do with the scenario? Specifically ,agency heads hoarding the water ,to a level well above historical averages for fear that a short term weather pattern (draught))5 yrs vs climate 30 year avg.
Here is the official......
Officials say they're still releasing 100,000 cubic feet per second from the paved spillway. No water is going over the emergency spillway at this point.

"It's hard to look at a crystal ball and predict how it's going to evolve," said Kevin Lawson of Cal Fire.

The flow into the lake is roughly 37,000 cubic feet per second, so they're shedding a net 60,000 or so cubic feet per second.

They're hoping to drop 8 feet per day.

It's unclear if they'll hit the target of lowering the lake by 50 feet before the next rain hits. But they're expecting a smaller level of precipitation at a cooler temperature, so it may not run into the lake as quickly, giving them more time.

"We're going to deal with that as it comes in," said acting state Department of Water Resources Director Bill Croyle.

There were questions about problems with the emergency spillway, which began eroding instead of serving its function.

"I'm not sure anything went wrong," Croyle said. "This was a new, never-happened-before event."

These compose the primary inflows North Fork Feather River, Middle Fork Feather River, West Branch Feather River, South Fork Feather River, various other smaller streams.
Instead of "Who do you love ?" it is "who do you flood"?