Oroville Lake dam crisis

[ozark trout fisher]

Apparently the Sierra Club as well as a couple of local environmental organizations have seen this coming for upwards of a decade...even predicted that a heavy storm during the non-growing season would cause a damaging amount of erosion to the emergency spillway. Sounds like they should have been listened to.

 

[dtrs5kprs]

1 minute ago, ozark trout fisher said:

Apparently the Sierra Club as well as a couple of local environmental organizations have seen this coming for upwards of a decade...even predicted that a heavy storm during the non-growing season would cause a damaging amount of erosion to the emergency spillway. Sounds like they should have been listened to.

 

As did the Bush administration in about 2005-6. If those camps align on an issue, state government needs to pay attention.

[ozark trout fisher]

4 minutes ago, dtrs5kprs said:

As did the Bush administration in about 2005-6. If those camps align on an issue, state government needs to pay attention.

I would tend to agree.

Aging and outdated dams are only going to become more of an issue. We're not tackling it with nearly enough urgency. But we tend to wait until these things punch us in the darn face rather than trying to be proactive. Even if nothing truly disastrous happens the cost of evacuating 200,000 people is going to be a debacle.

Why can't we ever see that we save money by addressing these issues before they reach DEFCON 1 status?

[shrapnel]

If you think about it it's not a matter of if, but WHEN damns will fail.  Does the COE have a plan?  So many superstructures are aging and everyday closer to fail.  I dont think it would take a very strong earthquake to drain LOZ in a matter of 2 days if Bagnell broke.

[rps]

8 minutes ago, shrapnel said:

If you think about it it's not a matter of if, but WHEN damns will fail.  Does the COE have a plan?  So many superstructures are aging and everyday closer to fail.  I dont think it would take a very strong earthquake to drain LOZ in a matter of 2 days if Bagnell broke.

If the New Madrid slips as it did in 1811 and 1812, every bridge south of St. Louis and North of Louisiana will go and the debris will take out those farther down stream. We would also lose several locks on the Arkansas River. Memphis and Cape Girardeau will cease to exist and St. Louis will lose many structures and probably suffer gas line explosions. Under those circumstances, a dam or two going down would be the least of things to fear from a quake. On the bright side, the last time before 1811 was around 900 AD.

[dtrs5kprs]

And there's your daily ray of sunshine.

[rps]

42 minutes ago, dtrs5kprs said:

And there's your daily ray of sunshine.

I try to brighten people's days whenever I can.

[snagged in outlet 3]

All those structures would need new pipe piling so that's good for some of us

[dtrs5kprs]

Corps had an event with the Saylorville dam, just north of Des Moines. Probably 3-4 years ago. Mom lives there, bro-in-law lives about 10 minutes from the lake.

As I remember, the issue then was prolonged high water sitting on an earthen dam. Weeks on end. Dam started sleeping, sloughing off, for lack of a better description. 

They did a lot of work to stabilize it...tarps, fill, etc. Held up, but it would have made a mess of DSM. Something like a 4500 acre lake.

Doesn't take much to bring on disaster.

[fishinwrench]

2 hours ago, shrapnel said:

If you think about it it's not a matter of if, but WHEN damns will fail.  Does the COE have a plan?  So many superstructures are aging and everyday closer to fail.  I dont think it would take a very strong earthquake to drain LOZ in a matter of 2 days if Bagnell broke.

Bagnell busting loose would be kinda bad, but the real disaster would occur if Truman lost its foothold.  A 45-50' wall of water would make quite a mess of this pond.   Just imagine the gigantic rafts of docks, boats, and homes pouring over the top of Bagnell Dam.  What a sight that would be!