Oroville Spillway Collapse

mytimetoshine

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Jun 23, 2013
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Bodfish Mike

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Dec 12, 2014
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Wikipedia info on Oroville Damhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oroville_Dam
Interesting to see it is a earthfill dam and the 2nd largest man-made lake in CA.
I mine in the Lake Isabella area and it is also a earthen dam it is going to be fixed starting this year by the army core of engineers. Heard a rumor that they were doing core samples and hit a 3" vein of gold -- good thing I was not on that crew as
Bakersfield would be a marsh now. All joking aside I hope Oroville Dam holds and all are safe down river till fixed.
Mike
 

Bodfish Mike

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Dec 12, 2014
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Wikipedia info on Oroville Damhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oroville_Dam
Interesting to see it is a earthfill dam and the 2nd largest man-made lake in CA.
I mine in the Lake Isabella area and it is also a earthen dam it is going to be fixed starting this year by the army core of engineers. Heard a rumor that they were doing core samples and hit a 3" vein of gold -- good thing I was not on that crew as
Bakersfield would be a marsh now. All joking aside I hope Oroville Dam holds and all are safe down river till fixed.
Mike
 

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mytimetoshine

mytimetoshine

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They had all week to evacuate now they are panicking in the dark... Liberal governing heads will be rolling for this blunder. Oh dear god we can't have gold dredgers making dirty water.. I'm watching an entire hillside of mud being washed into the river and guess what right below? A salmon hatchery...if this isn't some bullchit idk what is...

So the plan is to increase the main spillway to 100k And then drop bags of boulders from helicopters all night on the failing emergency spillway to shore it up...doesn't that sound like fun!. about 30 minutes ago all the lights on top of the dam went out.. idk what that's about but doesn't sound good and have fun flying helicopters loaded with boulders in the dark. What a nightmare. Big storm coming in a few days too...

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Goldfleks

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Sounds like the plot of a great end of the world movie. Be safe everyone out there evacuating and risking their lives to help save others.

And F Jerry Brown. Finance a multi billion dollar bullet train to nowhere meanwhile let the infrastructure collapse and destroy the lives of thousands.
 

Hard Prospector

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Elected politicians in Kali do as their told from their leash holding special interest dog handlers.

To Bodfish Mike; Its about time the AC of E getting around to over-hauling the dam(s) at Isabella......Been in the works for something like 20 years?
Always a special place in my heart for Kearnville....Just love the craft beer that comes out of that town!
 

johnnysau

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Dont look over your shoulder, something might be comin! KEEP ON discharging. WX Capture.JPG johnnysau
 

wildminer

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Dec 2, 2015
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Looks like a pineapple express to me. There will be a poor salmon season in three years due to the hatchery taking a hit. Stay safe all downstream and prayers coming your way.
 

Xraywolf

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Outlandish situation, how things got to this point in the USA is beyond me but I hope she holds and everyone stay safe.
 

johnedoe

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They had all week to evacuate now they are panicking in the dark... Liberal governing heads will be rolling for this blunder. Oh dear god we can't have gold dredgers making dirty water.. I'm watching an entire hillside of mud being washed into the river and guess what right below? A salmon hatchery...if this isn't some bullchit idk what is...

So the plan is to increase the main spillway to 100k And then drop bags of boulders from helicopters all night on the failing emergency spillway to shore it up...doesn't that sound like fun!. about 30 minutes ago all the lights on top of the dam went out.. idk what that's about but doesn't sound good and have fun flying helicopters loaded with boulders in the dark. What a nightmare. Big storm coming in a few days too...

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Somehow adding boulders to rushing water seems to escape my feeble logic of how to fix a problem that should have been addressed a long time ago.
 

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mytimetoshine

mytimetoshine

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Somehow adding boulders to rushing water seems to escape my feeble logic of how to fix a problem that should have been addressed a long time ago.
why didn't they build it with rock already at the bottom. First time it ever sees any water and it fails?

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johnedoe

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You know what they say........
There is never enough time to do the job right....
But there always seems to be enough time to do it over.
 

Goldfleks

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At least the got the salmon lol... Fish Lives Matter.
 

burtonridr

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Feb 3, 2017
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Elected officials: "Uh oh, the dam is looking a bit shaky... We better move the salmon."

Few days go by.... "Wheww salmon are safe.... Oh crap what about the people in town!!"

:icon_scratch:
 

MonicaTorres

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Feb 13, 2017
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I live in the Gold Country up in Amador County. Unfortunately, someone mentioned the drought being over - nada. One year of great rain does not erase 6 years of drought.

On the bright side, as I'm watching the neighbors "cute" little creek run through like an angry river - this spring will be beautiful.

Now - if they can get the spillway at Oroville fixed and soon, our friends and family can go back to their homes. Meanwhile - it's shear panic. Sad.

The rains are coming again up here in a few days. It's not going to be pretty. I hope all in the path of the lake make it out ok and they fix what should have been done years ago.
 

goldenIrishman

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Army Corps of Engineers Motos:

1. Why fix today what we can really mess up in an emergency?

2. We're sorry, we don't have money in the budget to fix the dam at this time.

3. We're broke.... That's why we're fining you for cleaning up that creek bed over there.
 

Laz7777

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Dec 19, 2015
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on the sunny side..wonder if the area below the dam will replenish...
worked a spot when I was a fresh greenhorn in 2009 with a couple guys...we were getting decent color about 3/4 mile below Oroville Dam Blvd.
 

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mytimetoshine

mytimetoshine

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People were really lucky last night.. This could be really bad. this next storm plus the looming snowpack melt is going to go over the emergency spillway errrr i mean 30ft section of dam. If it fails that's 30ft of of water on a huge resivour that will completely obliterate that hillside and then could start undermining the main dam.. Good luck dropping rocks on that!

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Goldfleks

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And if we lose that reservoir. we'll be in a drought this year regardless of rainfall since the Oroville dam in a huge part in the water sustainability of CA. Lets all hope that doesn't happen.
 

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