Record Searchlight – by David Benda, March 6, 2019
Water is starting to seep down the rebuilt Oroville Dam spillway.
California Department of Water Resources officials said Wednesday this is common and will not affect the operation of the dam’s gates, which are not watertight.
“Once the lake reaches or exceeds the elevation of the entrance gates (813 feet) a small amount of water is expected to seep through the gates as they are not watertight,” water resources spokeswoman Erin Mellon said. “This is common and does not affect the operation of the gates nor the spillway.”
DWR in its latest update posted Tuesday it does not anticipate using the reconstructed main spillway in the coming days.
However, state officials said the spillway may have to be utilized later this year.
If the main spillway needs to be used to manage lake levels and flood control for surrounding communities, it will be able to handle flows, state officials said, noting it has been rebuilt.
The emergency spillway also was rebuilt in the wake of the Oroville Dam crisis two years ago.
Both spillways at the 770-foot earthen dam, the nation’s tallest, collapsed in February 2017, forcing nearly 200,000 people downstream to evacuate.
Repairs exceeded more than $1 billion, state officials said last fall.
Lake Oroville is at 66 percent capacity at a level of 814 feet, state officials said Tuesday.
Estimates are that the lake’s level will be 835 feet by Saturday.
On Tuesday, releases from the Hyatt Powerplant were at 5,000 cubic-feet per second — or 37,400 gallons per second — with planned increases, the Department of Water Resources said.
a terrific look a NEW leaks on the cruddy spillyway –