Here is the latest video from Juan Browne. It is 19 minutes 20 seconds long. Water starts flowing at 0:50. By 10:13, the flow is running at 50,000 CFS. The rest of the video is Juan explaining the whatnots worth considering.
Water has started flowing through the damaged spillway again. Water elevation in the reservoir was 864 feet earlier in the day. Officials intend to operate the spillway for 4 or 5 days or until the reservoir elevation drops to 838 feet. Because of the damage to the spillway, flow rates need to be about 40,000 CFS to keep from head cutting the spillway any more. That means that the spillway will have to be used as an on/off switch - at least during this run. The Hyatt power plant has been shut off for the time being to prevent damage from too high tail water.
Costs for repairing the damage have been averaging $4.7 million per day. According to Juan Browne, approximately $100 million has been spent to date. Those costs will only go up from here. Plans for a temporary fix and a permanent fix for the spillway should be available in 2 weeks. The reason they need both is because a permanent fix will take more than a year and they may have a similar situation occur next year.
Grover
I’m not sure if anyone is following this topic but it looks like the California government doesn’t want known how bad the real situation is with the dam.
"We in Northern California know many things about Oroville Dam we likely didn’t know before a near failure of its emergency spillway Feb. 12 grabbed our attention. It’s the tallest dam in the country. It is California’s second-largest reservoir. It holds way more water than anyone wants to think about rushing at their home – in technical terms, 3.5 million acre-feet..." "Despite broad public interest, Brown’s administration is using federal security regulations designed to protect us from terrorism to keep key documents private. It is a convenient and giant loophole given the true danger here is from Mother Nature and officials who have not moved quickly enough to ensure Oroville Dam is safe. Given the serious nature of February’s near failure, the fair question for the public to ask now is this: Why should we trust state officials to do this work with little public scrutiny?"I guess in all fairness, information on the weaknesses of a dam could be used by bad guys. But, there might be more to the situation than politicians want us to see. Here's the article from the Sacramento Bee. They also have a great video of the damage. Dear California water officials: After Orville Dam scare, why should we trust you? http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/joyce-terhaar/article144534874.html