This crisis is not over by a dam site. Gov. Brown's fiasco is still with us. His neglence of California's infrastructure still has the people of the greater Oroville area exposed to massive danger. The upstream resovoirs are filled to capacity and still streams are letting the massive wet snow melt from the mountains trickle into lake Oroville. That trickle can quickly become a torrent. The emergency spillway is not structurally sound and if it fails, a cubic kilometer of water could be rapidly dumped onto the downriver region. The main spillway is horribly damaged, and it does not seem like a quick fix is possible there either. This is a catastrophe waiting to happen, and it will,go down in history as Brown's Catastrophe. Hope it is not accompanied with a massive loss of life and property.

Gross silliness. This dam's location was selected in 1951 and construction started in 1957. This dam was completed under Gov. Reagan. Most of the CA Guvs have been Republican in that interim and since then. Incidents regarding that dam siting began with a couple of moderate quakes beneath the dam in 1975--during Brown's first stint. But that was an issue of site choice and may have strongly influenced the eventual termination of the Auburn Dam project. The auxiliary spillway issue arose in the 1997 when near-overtopping occurred. Again, 10 years ago, internal DWR discussions arose over that same emergency spillway but nothing was done. Now, Brown inherits this legacy issue--in a record drought--and it's somehow his blame. Monies for CA civil infrastructure maintenance have always been inadequate--always. But the recent Great Recession has spiked the funding shortfall. Brown has presided over a successful recovery--twice. Brown cleaned-up after his first predecessor, Reagan, and has now done it again after Arnold. It's also noteworthy that since the 1978 CA Prop 13--which required a 2/3 vote in the State Legislature on all major budget issues, CA budget decisions have been via ballot referendums and ballot initiatives...the ballot box decided. Your fellow voters decided. You can regurgitate your silly dogma, but it doesn't relate to reality.

Blame it on Brown! LOL

this dam is over FIFTY years old you idiot.

There are lots of old dams. Gov. Brown failed to fix the main spillway when warned about the crack or opening in it and he failed to fix the emergency spillway by concreting a path down to the Feather River in the event of an overflow. This is malfeasance in office. It does rest squarely on his shoulders. But he had the support of the CA assembly, and they failed to issue warnings. Our government is irresponsible. He put the money for repair of the dam elsewhere, and this message board if full of those complaints. But what it really boils down to, is that that the State Government put the interests of corporations before those of the safety of its citizens. This is fascism plain and simple. It is that more than anything that he (and the CA assembly) should be held accountable for.

We will be very lucky if this does not develop into a major catastrophe for California. Odds are against a safe ending to this fiasco.

I would of assumed they would be have used rebar for structural integrity. What idiot drew up the plans for the spillway?

It's worse than that. That structure was a cavalier notion. That dam's construction began in 1957. Engineering in general is a practice based on learning curves. Today's standards have evolved; many did not exist until recent decades. That main spillway was underdesigned--and its terrane in that "bedrock" abutment was misunderstood and underappreciated for its poor physical properties.

Aerial photos of the initial damage shutdown on Feb. 7 showed a old large, crescent-shaped pit adjacent to the south side of that spillway. It was apparently a former construction yard from the main dam construction phase; a road still leads toward where that now-washed-away pit was located. The pit wall was approximately closest to the spillway structure at the location of the initial spillway damage. The most telling photo is published at this link: http://west.stanford.edu/ne... See the 2nd photo, the one for Feb. 7.

Later videos--after the final massive erosion has washed that pit and a lot of other possible evidence away--show drain holes in the upper spillway walls still pouring water onto the spillway, with the spillway gates closed.

That water was draining from the surrounding soil, down into the spillway...a design implementation. What didn't occur to those engineers was how that same draining tendency of groundwater would also be accommodated by that pit wall...that's how springs work in nature.

On the day of that main spillway's first temporary shutdown, one engineer was quoted as suspecting changes in soil conditions beneath that initial damage during the drought desiccation. He also noted that such evidence was already washed away.

Yes, this is all speculative forensics lacking the washed-away evidence. But retrospective analysis is not a new practice for engineers.

That grungy newly-exposed bedrock is not ideal material for spillway construction as planned in 1957. As many commenters have noted, that was not a properly designed spillway for its specific location. Unfortunately, engineering failures are basic to evolving better designs.

Let's hope it collapses and drowns 300,000 people of only to blame it on Trump

Trump would immediately blame anyone else, probably Obama.

And it would be Trump's fault how? Your state spends to much money on BS plans like the low speed train to no where and illegals, maybe you should spend some of it on actual infrastructure

In CA, Trump lost by a 2:1 ratio.

It is amazing how fast the lake filled after so many years of wondering where the water went.
A poor design for the emergency spillway floor and not near enough concrete in place and there was not near enough internal skeleton of iron to hold it together.
Engineer = minimal thinking

survon1=dip$h1T

Snowmelt runoff

Why do I have a bad feeling us taxpayers will get stuck with this bill? Not fair since most of the water is used by the agriculture industry in this state which exports most produce out of state and out of country for private profits.

Drive down the freeway thru the grapevine and say that. Prior to our rain the central valley is a dust bowl. Our water gets shipped down south to either the liberals by the bay or the so cals....or out to the ocean to keep the environmentalists and global warming clowns happy.

Where do you think your water comes from idiot? The naturally occurring rivers from...??? We northerners would GLADLY cut your ass off and let you drink your own piss than give you our water.

Yall don't have your priorities straight. Bitching about electric train upgrades while the infrastructure that transports your water (YOU NEED TO LIVE) goes neglected. Most of it was built during Gov Browns FATHER'S tenure...the 50s. All the money can't keep going to you. Time to put your hand down and cork it.

All kidding aside !...Under-engineered !

Entirely expectable. Looking at that barren emergency spillway--before this event--should've been troublesome 50 years ago.

Yes !...The way I built my driveway looks stronger !....How did they get away with that !...Or should I ask ?

1st grader engineers !

Engineers who designed that spillway in the Sixties didn't get math in their 1st-grade days.

It was built never to be used !

Amen, that spillway was/is only 15-inches thick. With or without rebar, that's not up to modern design standards.

Short cuts from the beginning !

Meh. CA got nuclear power plants sited and built--before plate tectonics became accepted science. Nothing about today's engineering practice has always been the same. Automobiles and aircraft were brutal mankillers in their early years. CA had the 1928 St. Francis Dam failure but in different terrane. CA is the most complex geologic region in the nation--by far. Engineering is about learning curves...that's reality. Shortcuts relate to knowledge bypassed. Fifty years ago, a lack of knowledge negated the "shortcut" options severely.

Can anyone tell me what happened to California's petition to secede from the Union. The California politicians had one before all the rain starting destroying the State, it was all over Yahoo news. Now it seems to have vanish and the politicians only want to talk about the federal government giving them taxpayer money to fix the dam. Of course, after the infrastructure is fixed by our money, then they will start the petition up again.

California has never had such a petition. You're only dealing in fringe sentiments. Most polling shows that less than 2/3 of the electorate would even consider that option. To date, no such petition has made it through the processes that would place it in the hands of Sacramento. Besides, nearly half of CA is Federal lands. Most of the state's water management infrastructure was Federally built, and is still managed by Feds.

Hard to believe they didn't see this coming.....seems I recall seeing the images on the Internet several days before the water crested at the top of the spillway - but they did nothing????

Oh, sorry, California - they must not have any illegal folks in the area skilled in dam and spillway construction and repair

What gets me, in 2005 they were made aware of cracks in the spillway and they did nothing about it. It would have been a lot cheaper to have fixed then than now, but demobrats, liaburds and progressives aren't concerned with preventive repairs.

It would have cost them an estimated $200MILLION back in 2005. They passed. "Too expensive." But they waste $25BILLION per year on their precious illegals. Meanwhile, I can't even guess how much it will cost to repair all of that erosion where half of the mountainside is gone! It will be FAR FAR north of $200MILLION. I say the other 49 States just go ahead and give them a preemptive secession. Let them get those precious "illegals that do the jobs that Americans don't want to do" to save their arses!

Care to cite that 25 billion dollar bit of spending?

It's actually $25.3BILLION, but who's counting? Certainly not you, dummy! http://www.fairus.org/news/...

Hmmm, maybe they should have done the work on the dam in the past few years when there was hardly any water in the lake instead of wasting the money on Jerry Browns stupid little choo-choo

Since that spillway hasn't been used often, there've been decades of earlier opportunity to modify those spillways. That emergency spillway should never been left unfinished--as it has been since the dam's completion. That dam began operating during Reagan's tenure; most of the CA Govs have been Republicans since then. That HSR money is earmarked money. The HSR project was initiated under Arnold. The HSR notion was approved by the CA electorate--at the ballot box. Using that bogus red herring is a flagrant telltale that you're parroting someone else's idiocy...lose it.

Of course, the HSR the public thought they approved is not the one being built.

Some rich folks in Menlo Park and Atherton voted for it thinking it would magically be underground in their precious little communities (which was never required and was wishful thinking - just like almost everything is with HSR).

Others voted for it thinking it would cost what the promoters were saying it would cost (of course it will cost FAR more than that if we are so unfortunate for it to actually be finished). The recently leaked Federal government analysis predicts major cost overruns and identifies significant mismanagement. Their risk analysis concluded that the Central Valley portion (the easy part - no tunneling through mountains in earthquake prone areas) which the HSRA claimed would be completed in 2017 won't be completed until 2024 - seven years behind schedule and over cost projections.

Most voters believed it would take two hours and forty minutes to go between Los Angeles and San Francisco on HSR (that's actually a requirement in the bond measure) on regularly scheduled trains. It is, however, unlikely that if HSR is finished it will ever run regular service with that service time (it may have to run one train, once, in the wee hour of the morning with careful scheduling to avoid losing a court battle) now that they gave up on dedicated tracks up the Peninsula. When the time creeps up closer to four hours, HSR loses virtually every advantage it might have over driving, buses, or airplanes (and don't think HSR riders won't be subject to much the same TSA screenings that air travelers are -- the first bomb will end that luxury).

HSR projections have repeatedly increased fares and decreased ridership estimates to try to give the illusion that somehow the service will be financially viable. They are in a death spiral in this effort.

It's over -- all that's left is to kill it as quickly as possible before more money is poured into a bunch of tracks that future archeologists will puzzle over ("Why did this civilization build these tracks going from nowhere to nowhere and why is there no evidence they were ever used as intended -- is it some sort of religious iconolgy?").

The relevance of HSR to this discussion is that there is not an infinite supply of money (soon, California is going to be struggling just to cover pension obligations). HSR will cost taxpayer money and, if it's not cancelled, that's money that voters won't approve for other more important projects such as other Oroville dams that are waiting to become a problem.

Well Jerry Brown has long announced his desire to destroy Calif. dams. By withholding maintenance funding, it appears that he has succeeded.

Bunk.

This is the result of California's corrupt government at work! Here in California, government and corporate interests have combined creating a fascist state that uses the tax revenue to provide cheap illegal immigrant workers for corporations. The state picks up costs of the health care and food stamps for these people so corporations don't have to. The corporations line the pockets of our corrupt politicians with $ so this travesty can take place. We are very lucky that the emergency spillway remained in tact, or a cubic kilometer of water would have stricken the residents of Oroville and vicinity producing a massive death toll. Our govoner and entire CA Assembly should be recalled!

I view that the concept of democracy has failed us, especially here in California. I do not want to be any part of this corrupt system. So I am not planning to ever run for a public office of any sort.

Gross nonsense.

This fiasco is not over. The damage is massive to the regular spillway, the emergency spillway is unreliable the mountains are full of snow and the upstream lakes are filled to capacity. Brown should have fixed the spillway during the drought. We will be lucky if we don't have massive loss of life before this thing is over.

Bad things happen when a fascist government is in power.

Complete utter bullshit, you're describing the Republican party perfectly. You seem to forget this dam was conceived & built when California was a reliable Republican state.

This is not a party issue. Both Republican and Democratic politicians are corrupt! All elected officials should be polygraphed for integrity four times a year while in office. Show me a politicians and I will show you a corrupt public official.

But dumerbrats have ruled California for eons and they were ruling in 2005 when the cracks were found in the spillway, but they did nothing.

Omg. Really, so Reagan, Wilson & deukmejian were never Governor's of California..

More lies you Ignorant fool. The spillway was repaired & signed off by the army corps of engineers as being perfectly fine. It wasn't lack of maintenance that caused it to fail. It was erosion of the hillside underneath the spillway caused by the record rainfall. No amount of maintenance could of prevented it. Geez you conservatives are blinded from the truth. No wonder your suckers for Fake News.

Craig Allen, you sure do need to do your research, or is it you are just trying to convince us lowly uneducated Americans with PhD degrees the cracks were actually repaired and signed off on by the Corps of Engineers in 2005? Another thing, the Dumerbrats have been in power in California before the cracks formed up until present day, and they had rather spend taxpayer money on their illegals than to repair Oroville Dame and put hundreds of thousands of peoples' lives at stake. Plus the ground underneath the spillway did not did not erode until the spillway was blowing chunks of concrete out from where the cracks were.

To bad nothing you said is based on facts. So your claiming water running over concrete caused the spillway to fail. If that's the case spillways across the country should be failing right & left.

Funny how you ignorant internet critics with no facts know more than the engineers who inspectioned the spillway .
Furthermore, you should be kissing every undocumented immigrants ass for all the taxes & SS payments they make while being ineligible for any government benifits.

Payments to SS by undocumented immigrants who will never collect a dime have extended the solvency of SS by over 10 years.

It may have been built then, but the democrats are in power now and should have done the maintenance, but they would rather fund illegals and stupid train to no where. Maybe idiots like you would realize that California actually needs alot more dams to store the water that you get when it rains for the years when you don't have the rain.