Oroville Dam's Spillway About to Collapse - Tallest Dam in the United States

https://www.rt.com/usa/377147-oroville-dam-collapse-evacuation/

The sheriff in Butte County, California has ordered an immediate evacuation of all people below the damaged Oroville dam, which is feared to be in danger of imminent collapse, Reuters reports.
“Immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered. This is NOT A Drill. This is NOT A Drill. This in NOT A Drill,” says the statement posted on the Butte County Sheriff’s Facebook page.

The statement refers to the Lake Oroville Dam, located 105 km (65 miles) north of Sacramento.

The dam’s spillway was “predicted to fail within the next hour,” the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) said at around 4:30pm PST Sunday (00:30 GMT Monday).

 

[76LD910]

The dam is fine. The emergency spillway, which is separate from the main dam and spillway, is what they're saying is expected to fail. In that event, you would be looking at 30 ft of depth of the lake headed down the river. The river is already running at capacity, so any further increase of level would lead to it overrunning its banks into the communities beyond.

I remember watching a documentary a long time ago about the huge number of levees that trap water to irrigate California's farm land. A lot of the same levees also insulate the fresh water from the pacific ocean and experts warned that a 7.0 earthquake in the right spot could cause them to fall and flood large areas with salt water, causing tens of billions of dollars in immediate damage and depriving 2/3's of California's population of drinking water.

Maybe this will cause state officials to finally address the problem before something much worse happens.

 

[Pikimon]

I remember watching a documentary a long time ago about the huge number of levees that trap water to irrigate California's farm land. A lot of the same levees also insulate the fresh water from the pacific ocean and experts warned that a 7.0 earthquake in the right spot could cause them to fall and flood large areas with salt water, causing tens of billions of dollars in immediate damage and depriving 2/3's of California's population of drinking water.

Maybe this will cause state officials to finally address the problem before something much worse happens.

There has been some progress with updating the state's infrastructure, but however its a nationwide problem that hasn't been addressed and likely won't until a giant tragedy happens.

 

[Maiden-TieJuan]

I remember watching a documentary a long time ago about the huge number of levees that trap water to irrigate California's farm land. A lot of the same levees also insulate the fresh water from the pacific ocean and experts warned that a 7.0 earthquake in the right spot could cause them to fall and flood large areas with salt water, causing tens of billions of dollars in immediate damage and depriving 2/3's of California's population of drinking water.

Maybe this will cause state officials to finally address the problem before something much worse happens.

Spoiler: Sperging about the water useage in levees and reservoirs

Something people don't know is that the central Valley of California grows roughly half of the US veg and fruits and nuts, and a LOT of the beef and chicken too. The reservoirs hold a shit ton of our water, yes. But the majority of it is sold or owned by LA and San Francisco. Like Don Pedro lake, Hetch Hetchy lake, Twain Harte lake, Pinecrest, all these and more serve San Francisco alone. Most of the other lakes serve Los Angeles. The area I grew up in had a "Extremely Severe Extreme Drought" rate, the water for the farms were cut from 6 acre feet of water to 6 INCHES acre foot of water. But they still sold the exact same amount of water to La.

Ugh. I HATE the way the cities like LA are ruining our state and taking all the water like they do. Farmers are being ruined, but hey! LA can still overwater their lawns and take hour long showers!

But I digress. Oroville Dam is failing due to a sinkhole they discovered in the overflow. Even dam overflow is almost like an after thought, especially in a dam that age. If they don't pay attention, the tiniest of cracks can cause the water to seep thru and then, when you need it the most, it will create a sinkhole and collapse. The emergency overflow is basically a hillside. That's all. So you have the regular sinkholed-up overflow that they can't use, and the emergency overflow that is washing away Rods and the entire side of the mountain that the dam attaches to.... well. Also, they are a only able to release the exact amount of water that is continually feeding into it, so the lake isn't going down, it is staying level.

TL;DR Oroville is screwed. Anyone living near the Feather river is screwed. And they are dropping rocks I to the hole trying to patch it. They is doomed.

 

[Wallace]

Good thing they won't be asking for any federal funds to fix this.

They have.

There's already fake news up on Snopes that Trump refused to give California aid.

 

[AnOminous]

They have.

There's already fake news up on Snopes that Trump refused to give California aid.

He couldn't personally do that, but Congress could make federal funds contingent on some level of coordination with federal immigration authorities. What they can't do is just directly order it. The precedent for that is South Dakota v. Dole, involving a 1987 case challenging the requirement that states raise their drinking age to 21 to qualify for federal highway funds.

It would be mean and dumb to do that with emergency funds, but the feds also routinely give state law enforcement all kinds of fancy gadgets, military surplus shit, weapons, etc. They could just say okay, don't help us, and we won't help you. No toys for you!

 

[CWCchange]

Trump was unfortunately by occupied giving Trudeau back all his sex toys left at the White House.

I hope this situation affirms Trump's commitment to our failing infrastructure.

 

[Wallace]

I hope this situation affirms Trump's commitment to our failing infrastructure.

Not bloody likely. When was the last president who actually bothered to fix infrastructure? Roosevelt? Nowadays, any New Deal-esque idea like that would earn you the label of either communist or socialist. Maybe both.

 

[Male Idiot]

Trump had been vocal about the infrastructure and so far he at least did try to keep his promises, which point towards him trying to fix this. However it is the biggest blue state so strategically it may be more convenient for him not to.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

If any politican ever deigns addressing these matters, you can bet your ass on it, they will give these contracts to people they have a close affiliation with... And "efficiency" seems no concern when you got copious amounts of tax money to spent.

 

[Lorento]

If only California had groups of people who would do manual labour for pennies...

 

[CWCchange]

Not bloody likely. When was the last president who actually bothered to fix infrastructure? Roosevelt? Nowadays, any New Deal-esque idea like that would earn you the label of either communist or socialist. Maybe both.

Um, no... Trump wants public private partnerships, with less regulations for the latter to facilitate the final results desired on both sides and courting the best companies as opposed to crappy obscure contractors which grant politicians favors and to fill bullshit racial rainbow quotas. You also have bullshit pet projects like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's rebuilding of LaGuardia airport, which is obsolete by limited space for expansion while JFK and EWR could easily absorb its flights, and putting lipstick on the pig which is Pennslyvnia Station instead of rebuilding it in the pre-1963 fashion which everybody wants and allows more flexible to alleviate overcrowding and allow future expansion.

 

[neverendingmidi]

Um, no... Trump wants public private partnerships, with less regulations for the latter to facilitate the final results desired on both sides and courting the best companies as opposed to crappy obscure contractors which grant politicians favors and to fill bullshit racial rainbow quotas. You also have bullshit pet projects like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's rebuilding of LaGuardia airport, which is obsolete by limited space for expansion while JFK and EWR could easily absorb its flights, and putting lipstick on the pig which is Pennslyvnia Station instead of rebuilding it in the pre-1963 fashion which everybody wants and allows more flexible to alleviate overcrowding and allow future expansion.

Hell, you want vanity projects, how much has California blown on the high-speed train to nowhere?

 

[CWCchange]

^I was going to bring that up, but it goes to nowhere because it's a phased project. Still, by the time it connects Los Angeles to San Francisco, California will be bankrupt beyond saving at the current rate.

 

[Pikimon]

He couldn't personally do that, but Congress could make federal funds contingent on some level of coordination with federal immigration authorities. What they can't do is just directly order it. The precedent for that is South Dakota v. Dole, involving a 1987 case challenging the requirement that states raise their drinking age to 21 to qualify for federal highway funds.

It would be mean and dumb to do that with emergency funds, but the feds also routinely give state law enforcement all kinds of fancy gadgets, military surplus shit, weapons, etc. They could just say okay, don't help us, and we won't help you. No toys for you!

It goes a little further than that.

-Anti-Commendering doctrine set forth by Printz -John Roberts 7-2 opinion on Medicaid expansion in NFIB v. Sebellius (Which significantly watered down the ability for the fed government to force states do do things with the threat of withholding money)

And a further explanation on South Dakota v. Dole

The Court found that the legislation was in pursuit of "the general welfare," and that the means chosen to do so were reasonable. The Court also held that the Twenty-first Amendment's limitations on spending power were not prohibitions on congressional attempts to achieve federal objectives indirectly. The five percent loss of highway funds was not unduly coercive.

In that same case, a five pronged test was established:

1. The spending must promote "the general welfare."
2. The condition must be unambiguous.
3. The condition should relate "to the federal interest in particular national projects or programs."
4. The condition imposed on the states must not, in itself, be unconstitutional.
5. The condition must not be coercive.

Tying highway funds to drinking age is closely related. I can't think of something similar with respect to withholding funds in this case but in terms of sanctuary cities as an example, Trump's plan would flunk the test above. Not to mention, Trump's proposal appears to deny all federal funding to cities, regardless of which federal program provides the funding source. South Dakota v. Dole involved the withholding of only 5% of federal highway funding, which wasn't as coercive.

Furthermore this case was decided towards the end of the new deal era - where the judiciary deferred to the government. After that you had Printz, Lopez, Morrison, et al v. United States all curtailing the power of the federal government with respect to sovereign rights of the states that deviate from commerce clause power.

 

[IwegalBadnik]

Lol they want indepedence so bad but they can't fix a dam

The county this was in voted for Trump.

I do hope "build the wall" was not their reason for supporting him.

Not bloody likely. When was the last president who actually bothered to fix infrastructure? Roosevelt? Nowadays, any New Deal-esque idea like that would earn you the label of either communist or socialist. Maybe both.

Eisenhower put forward the massive effort in infrastructure that resulted in the National Highway System. To a considerable extent, Ike had more in common with FDR and Truman than with later Republicans like Reagan and the Bushes.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

well...

 

[Absolutego]

Hey, on the plus side, the bedrock is pre-exposed for them now. It's going to be much easier to re-drill anchor points and fix the spillway. And LA can't block the state government from lining the emergency spillway in concrete this time around, like they did in the 60's.