California let's worry about every other thing except infrastructure!

[agstar77]

The majority of dams in the U.S. are privately owned. Large dams are regulated and controlled by the Federal Government. So , yes it is Trumps problem now. He has said little about infrastructure since he was elected other than pipelines where he has a major investment.

[bucket]

I don't think he will ignore the commerce created by that dam. .......

[dmlfarmer]

I disagree with many of the comments on here. First, northern California has not had "normal" rainfall as S3 claims. From Oct 1 (start of water year) until mid January rainfall has been 218% of normal. And a recent measurement in area of dam shows 292% of normal precipitation over just 4 months.

Second, I would like someone to back up the claim that the problem of the dam is structural rather than as a result of erosion of the amount of water that is having to be released to prevent overflow. The emergency spillway is operating for the first time ever, as it should with excessive water being contained. All reports I have read blame the dam problems on erosion due to the volume and speed of the water rather than say a crack in the dam.

Third, science tells us that climate change will cause more extreme weather events and more often. Is that not what this is. For to northern California to go from 6 years of drought to a year with 3 times normal rainfall sounds rather extreme.

To blame this on anyone other than nature is equivalent to blaming Saskatchewan farmers for the excessive rainfall they have experienced for the last 10 years or so.

[bucket]

The photos show the hole in the spillway.

The whole purpose of water agencies is to monitor the moisture. The lake itself was down quite a bit so they plenty of time to release excess flows long before it was sucharged a flow to rip the spillway apart.

There is a little bit of incompetence with this incident than to blame it on nature....

[rockpile]

dml - thank-you. A fact checker and everything you said is correct. Agstar - the Oroville Damn was built and is owned by the California Department of Water Resources and 100% paid for with state money. blackjack - you could be onto something there. Problems have been detected since the early 2000's and repairs done including the 2013 undercut that caused the hole every seems to be talking. But no one ever understood what might happen if it got used under circumstances like these. The 2013 Bow River floods caught a whole lot of people off guard because that much water at once was deemed out of the realm of possibility.

[furrowtickler]

The spill way failed at less than 50% capacity .
It was designed to handle 200,000 cfs
It was at less than 100,000 when the failure occurred. That's a structural problem.
They tried to keep the water outflow around 50,000 so not cause further damage to the spillway , forcing water to go over the emergency spill way for the first time .
So yes it was failure of maintenance that led to a potentially bad situation .
They should be able to drain enough out before the next rain event . But they will not have much time to repair any damage .

[bucket]

Well maybe the climate change theorists should write a new formula for the new realities....and maybe someone should wake up.


We have a valley here that was dry in the summer and they have dumped water thru it all winter for no good reason.

[sumdumguy]

When it's dry for so long, it is normal to not worry about flooding. Let's not go too hard on them. They are busy organizing the next protest.

[Oliver88]

CNBC just had some guests on to discuss infrastructure and the Northern California dam situation.
There is no way to summarize this dam failure other than INCOMPETENCE.
Countless large Government agencies involved for years that all knew there was a structural issue with this dam.
Bickering agencies can't agree on a plan so nothing was done.
Permits and regulations to FIX infrastructure is onerous and has several year timelines impeded on action from taking place.

[Guest]

it's the liberal way , like someone said , have a gay pride parade instead

[burnt]

The spill way failed at less than 50% capacity .
It was designed to handle 200,000 cfs
It was at less than 100,000 when the failure occurred. That's a structural problem.
They tried to keep the water outflow around 50,000 so not cause further damage to the spillway , forcing water to go over the emergency spill way for the first time .
So yes it was failure of maintenance that led to a potentially bad situation .
They should be able to drain enough out before the next rain event . But they will not have much time to repair any damage .

Furrow, you should know by now that refuting sentiment and speculation with science and fact is unwelcome and politically incorrect. ahahahaha!

It appears that the politicos chose to let the infrastructure deteriorate rather than increase water levies or use tax dollars to repair the aging spillway, as advised 13 years ago by various groups.

But somehow there was billiooons of dollars to spend on subsidized solar farms and wind turbines which are forcing the conventional electricity suppliers to cut back and/or sell their production at below cost.

Gee, sounds just like here at home - no money for infrastructure but lots for pet projects. And to get money for infrastructure - well you'd better show a linkage to a politically correct cause - like wind turbines.

It is events like this which show that a progressive North America is degenerating into third world status.

[dmlfarmer]

For years many of you have argued that the flooding downstream in eastern Sask and especially Manitoba is not a result of farmer ditching but of excessive rainfall. Now all of a sudden, when excessive rainfall happens in Northern Cal and threatens a dam it is not the rain but the structure.

So will everyone of you do an engineering and water flow estimates for downstream for every ditch you dig. If not, you have not grounds to blame this all on structure failures, repairs, and even liberals.

[Retired]

dlmfarmer So nice to see someone at least look at the root causes other than blame it all on your chosen hate political party, whom we will not mention.

[furrowtickler]

Yes there was a long period of heavy rains since mid December. It has happened before . In fact 1862 ish was far worse - ya , before we started punting out the evil carbon emissions stuff .
The last time was in the '70s but the spillway was structuraly sound and able to handle the 200,000 cfs release to keep the water from going over the emergency spillway . Not the case this time as the hole opened up in the main spill way , due to poor maintenance, and operations were reluctant to cause more damage and restricted flow until the lake overflowed.
So yes it was higher than normal rains but not unpresidented and it's not over yet.
If the spillway was able to open to 200,000 cfs the lake would have not overflowed to start with.
So in short , they fuked up and spent money else where other than upkeeping this dam and many others while wasting the money on other lame brain ideas . Now hundreds of thousands of people and homes are at risk and potential flood damage to some of the US most valuable farmland is higher than it should be .
So the dams are there to prevent heavy rains from causing flood damage but only if they are maintained regularly . But that takes money .
The failing infrastructure in the US is squarely on the last 2 presidents and California governors who did zero.
At least Trump is willing to address the issue and do something about it.
We will have the same issues here in Canada if not addressed very soon instead of throwing money around like drunken sailors at every level of government provincially and federal.
This is where Canada givining millions away to some billionaires charity is ridiculous.

[SASKFARMER3]

Their is a difference in canada its blame the farmer! Always caused by us never a excess rain event.

Also in USA this dam was approved to handle anything and it cracked wasn't fixed because the govonor as worried about bill shit programs and forgot about infrastructure.

So yea it probably will fail.

Also liberals don't like to here their wrong.

One other note just spent three hours with a syrian male doing a time share. Yea women equality my ass you fools.
He kept telling my wife he knows better than her and how she feels.

Boy that went over big time.

I just say back and watched him crash and burn!

Kind of really fun afternoon.

Got my 200 and discounts and I'm happy!