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It was not on my mind at the time... But the hillside I snuck down must've been completely covered with poison oak. I have got that shit everywhere !!! View Quote Poison oak soap with oatmeal in it! That shit is a life saver. From a mountain biker and rock climber in poison oak country. |
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Not having any luck on finding the original borings so far. For now here's a photo of the dam near the end of construction in 1967: You can clearly see the emergency spillway to the left of the main spillway and flume. A review of design manuals from that era indicates the structures i.e.: emergency spillway weir, main spillway, and flume may be supported on rock anchors. In addition it would not have been uncommon to pressure grout the rock to create a curtain wall below the upper control structures. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/11755/IMG-0510-146572.png FWIW: I owned a geotechnical construction company for 22 years. We did rock anchors and grouting for a living. Now I teach people how to do it. View Quote Thanks for the expertise. What was your first reaction in seeing the disorderly structure of the rock below the ESW and how quickly its going bye bye from erosion? Do you think that entire ridge (i.e., the weir and 20 feet of regolith/chum/and splintered bedrock beneath) is susceptible of being seriously compromised as in a failure event? |
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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4lZm_qUoAAt5ON.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4lZm_jVYAAm4UQ.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4lZm_fUcAEqT94.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4mBkkIUoAEte1T.jpg View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Any pics or vids of where the rocks/bags were placed yesterday? The big hole downstream near the end of the e-spillway near the parking lot? They were dropping them in a sink hole at the north end between the parking lot and the road. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4lZm_qUoAAt5ON.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4lZm_jVYAAm4UQ.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4lZm_fUcAEqT94.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4mBkkIUoAEte1T.jpg |
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In other news, our local reservoir, Lake Berryessa, is only 1/2" from spilling into the glory hole: https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/102931/glory-hole-spills-021217-146565.jpg View Quote I've always wondered how many people has tried and successfully went down these. I'd search men in glory hole but I'm afraid I'm going to get interesting results. |
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My wife's company's employees are back at work in Marysville. They are watching things closely and I suspect they will be told to take a long weekend out of town Thursday.
I really do hope this thing doesn't go. As fucked up as the political situation is in CA the people affected here are not the libs who force this shit on them. But I do hope this is the bell that tolls for the fucked up liberal politics down there. I know wishful thinking... |
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Not having any luck on finding the original borings so far. For now here's a photo of the dam near the end of construction in 1967: You can clearly see the emergency spillway to the left of the main spillway and flume. A review of design manuals from that era indicates the structures i.e.: emergency spillway weir, main spillway, and flume may be supported on rock anchors. In addition it would not have been uncommon to pressure grout the rock to create a curtain wall below the upper control structures. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/11755/IMG-0510-146572.png FWIW: I owned a geotechnical construction company for 22 years. We did rock anchors and grouting for a living. Now I teach people how to do it. View Quote Nice picture. Looks like they cut part of the hill away to create the parking lot. Also no lower wier sturcture in evidence. At least not to my eyes. |
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I know all the drama is on the emergency spillway and the "repairs" they are doing. Lots of wishful thinking there and it might very well save the day.
What I'm wondering is how much erosion is happening on the main spillway. I've looked at press reports but nobody seems to be able to get good video of that area. Mostly my question is how many feet per day are they losing to erosion there? I am assuming it has slowed because the water discharge looks cleaner and the break looks more or less the same on what I have been able to see. Losing another big chunk of spillway would cause a whole new round of on the fly engineering, no doubt. |
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Not really a concern. The earthen dam is enormously massive, and even substantial movement from liquifaction would be shrugged off unless we're talking an unprecedented quake in the 7.5 + range, which seems outrageously outside the bounds of probability. The quake in '75 was 5.7. Its not going to blow the dam down, but it the seiche could be interesting if the water levels are at the level of the spill crest. View Quote With the water being so high, and having been up for so long, is it enormously massive enough at the top? (Seismic is not my forte) |
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Top pic looks to be a picture of a mountain side with well fractured basaltic rock. I assume we're back to "guess the rock" evaluation. I think he's onto something, but what's interesting is that (a) in the deep hole closest to the main spillway, there's a much more fractured lighter gray rock; and (b) in the other gouge closer to the parking lot there's a relatively solid piece of very white material almost like an intrusion / uplift in the area... So there's a real variety of materials on that ridge. And a lot of it is coming apart under what supposedly was a small fraction of the expected capacity of that emergency spill. |
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Stupid question time.
Been trying to keep up on the thread, and that is a task in itself... The Emergency Spillway, Is it a controlled release or is it when the water hits XXX feet high, it rolls on over to the valley below? Sorry if it has been asked and answered prior.... |
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It really depends on the snowfall elevation. If it high then alot of water like last week is coming down and the lag is probably 12 hours. The latest forecast that I have seen says it will be much lower snow and while that is great it also means more snow o the ground if we get another high elevation rain event. Either way this problem is with us for a minimum of 3-4 months and even long term years possibly View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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I came for the collapse. When should I check back? The thing that's not needed is a warming trend that will start melting the existing snow-pack early. That could be catastrophic. Not only is the Feather River drainage running at or over capacity, all the feeder drainages downstream will contribute to the flow. All the lowlands, all the way to the delta, stand a chance to see major flooding. |
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View Quote Off topic, but what is that clip from? |
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Not having any luck on finding the original borings so far. For now here's a photo of the dam near the end of construction in 1967: You can clearly see the emergency spillway to the left of the main spillway and flume. A review of design manuals from that era indicates the structures i.e.: emergency spillway weir, main spillway, and flume may be supported on rock anchors. In addition it would not have been uncommon to pressure grout the rock to create a curtain wall below the upper control structures. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/11755/IMG-0510-146572.png FWIW: I owned a geotechnical construction company for 22 years. We did rock anchors and grouting for a living. Now I teach people how to do it. View Quote Somewhere in this thread, there was a link that explained why grouting was not required for this project. (IIRC) |
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It was not on my mind at the time... But the hillside I snuck down must've been completely covered with poison oak. I have got that shit everywhere !!! View Quote PROFRYAN, See if your local Walmart carries a product called Tecnu Extreme Medicated Poison Ivy Scrub Use it as described on the affected areas while in the shower. It helped a lot when I got into that stuff. HTH |
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Wow. CA really is the ultimate brokedick BMW owner. The valve system failed @ 85% - due to a concrete failure. And they just walked away from the issue. View Quote According to this link (posted earlier). They fixed the RVOS, installed new valves but still have not installed the new baffle ring. This limits the allowed system operation to 2,000 CFS. This system also discharges out the same tunnel as the No.1 and No.2 turbines (looks to also handle of the output from No.3-6, but those are connected to both diversion tunnels). It also appears that one tunnel is 50ft higher than the other, but we can't see if they change elevation as they get closer to the outputs. The photo on pg 7 of the PDF shows one as being distinctly higher than the other (one is underwater and the other is half full). Both are probably underwater at this point. Add in the limits on the flow amount, and they seems like they wouldn't be helping much. |
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With the water being so high, and having been up for so long, is it enormously massive enough at the top? (Seismic is not my forte) View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Not really a concern. The earthen dam is enormously massive, and even substantial movement from liquifaction would be shrugged off unless we're talking an unprecedented quake in the 7.5 + range, which seems outrageously outside the bounds of probability. The quake in '75 was 5.7. Its not going to blow the dam down, but it the seiche could be interesting if the water levels are at the level of the spill crest. With the water being so high, and having been up for so long, is it enormously massive enough at the top? (Seismic is not my forte) Not mine either, but all you can do with these is look for similar events. Probably the early 70s earthquake in the san fernando valley that almost took out an earthen dam would be a good comparison. That was not nearly as tall, but I think they almost lost that one. Not sure the failure mode. But yeah, obviously, if they get a quake big enough that the top falls off the dam and the level winds up lower than water level, all bets are off. Here's an article I found from a few years back where the Feds said "say, you should think about some earthquake evaluations for that Oroville dam," and the DWR guys said "meh, costs too much" (starting to see a pattern with these guys... jeesh) http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article2584322.html |
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This past Sunday night, the forecasted snow level was 'down to 5,000 ft '. Has that changed? The thing that's not needed is a warming trend that will start melting the existing snow-pack early. That could be catastrophic. Not only is the Feather River drainage running at or over capacity, all the feeder drainages downstream will contribute to the flow. All the lowlands, all the way to the delta, stand a chance to see major flooding. View Quote Trying to figure this out looking at Google maps; you mean the water structure between CA-12 & 4, maybe 40 miles south of Sacramento? Or something further north? |
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I know all the drama is on the emergency spillway and the "repairs" they are doing. Lots of wishful thinking there and it might very well save the day. What I'm wondering is how much erosion is happening on the main spillway. I've looked at press reports but nobody seems to be able to get good video of that area. Mostly my question is how many feet per day are they losing to erosion there? I am assuming it has slowed because the water discharge looks cleaner and the break looks more or less the same on what I have been able to see. Losing another big chunk of spillway would cause a whole new round of on the fly engineering, no doubt. View Quote Yesterday one of the local TV copters took video of the main spill way. There are some shrub/bushs on the left side just below a clear spot that are next to the end of the upper spill way. On the other side of the spillway are some trees that are also close to the end. Using them as markers and going back over the video of the last week there has been some erosion on the end of the upper section. It has not been noticeably advancing uphill since they increased flow to 100K CFS. A big section could rip out any second too. |
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Stupid question time. Been trying to keep up on the thread, and that is a task in itself... The Emergency Spillway, Is it a controlled release or is it when the water hits XXX feet high, it rolls on over to the valley below? Sorry if it has been asked and answered prior.... View Quote |
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I'm over on the other side of the Sierras, the Eastern Sierra. Here is some weather news by a local meteorologist. TL:DR....MORE rain and snow is pretty certain, lots more. Jerry Brown will wish he spent that HS Train money on reservoirs and infrastructure maintenance. They are busy trucking snow out of town to make room for more. Inmates from local jails up to Bridgeport are being used to dig out propane tanks all over town. http://mammothweather.com "Important points to be covering over the next 4 weeks: Mono County is officially out of the Drought. This is amazing to have happened in one water year! Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) is expected to reach historic proportions this week, in phases 8-1. (This will jack start El Nino again) Snowpack Here are a few statements about where we are in the current water year and how the Southern and Central Sierra are doing, I. Southern Sierra: The wettest winter for the Southern Sierra was the winter of 1969. It had an average of 56.3 inches of water for that wet season, averaged over 6 reporting sites. It is currently 227% of normal on February 12th. Currently, the Southern Sierra stands on par, water wise, with the winter of 1969. The wettest winter for the Central Sierra was the winter of 1983. That winter averaged 77.4 inches over 5 recording sites. As of February 12th, it is 230% of normal to date, currently well ahead of the winter of 1983. View Quote |
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Not having any luck on finding the original borings so far. For now here's a photo of the dam near the end of construction in 1967: You can clearly see the emergency spillway to the left of the main spillway and flume. A review of design manuals from that era indicates the structures i.e.: emergency spillway weir, main spillway, and flume may be supported on rock anchors. In addition it would not have been uncommon to pressure grout the rock to create a curtain wall below the upper control structures. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/11755/IMG-0510-146572.png FWIW: I owned a geotechnical construction company for 22 years. We did rock anchors and grouting for a living. Now I teach people how to do it. View Quote That's one helluva pile of rock there. Damn... or DAM!!! |
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Stupid question time. Been trying to keep up on the thread, and that is a task in itself... The Emergency Spillway, Is it a controlled release or is it when the water hits XXX feet high, it rolls on over to the valley below? Sorry if it has been asked and answered prior.... View Quote The main spillway and it's gates are ordinarily used to control the lake levels. As the main spillway was damaged, they necked the spillway flow down in an effort to slow/minimize the erosion to the damaged main spillway. Those reduced effluent release amounts didn't keep up with the inflow into the lake resulting in the water running over the espillway. The resulting erosion beneath the espillway caused them to have to forego trying to minimize damage to the main spillway and the gates were opened to lower the lake level - regardless of the erosion of the main spillway. Hope this makes sense. |
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For those that want to know the water level and when its FO time, here's an interactive/updated graph each hour on the current levels at Oroville:
https://apps.axibase.com/chartlab/dee79515 It'll give everyone an approximation when the e-spill gets activated again. |
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Trying to figure this out looking at Google maps; you mean the water structure between CA-12 & 4, maybe 40 miles south of Sacramento? Or something further north? Wow, that is a long, long way from the dam. |
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According to this link (posted earlier). They fixed the RVOS, installed new valves but still have not installed the new baffle ring. This limits the allowed system operation to 2,000 CFS. This system also discharges out the same tunnel as the No.1 and No.2 turbines (looks to also handle of the output from No.3-6, but those are connected to both diversion tunnels). It also appears that one tunnel is 50ft higher than the other, but we can't see if they change elevation as they get closer to the outputs. The photo on pg 7 of the PDF shows one as being distinctly higher than the other (one is underwater and the other is half full). Both are probably underwater at this point. Add in the limits on the flow amount, and they seems like they wouldn't be helping much. View Quote And you missed the entire point. Deteriorated concrete. The very same material the whole thing is made of. Deferred repairs. 2009 - and the repair is still not completed. A pattern of events that completely predicted the spillway failure. Impossible to say what ELSE they have not been inspecting & maintaining either. If you had a rust hole in a brake line on your vehicle,would you hammer the end flat & decide that it was only a rear brake? Drive it that way for years without looking at the rest of the steel brake lines? That is what they have done. |
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For poison oak & poison ivy.....run very hot water over the affected area....as hot as you can stand without burning yourself. This will release histamines, and will feel intense until you stop. Pat skin dry, and enjoy the relief for about 6 hours, then repete.
You're welcome. |
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Nobody answered this earlier:
Is Razor Ramon the founder of Chico, CA? |
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I don't want to alarm anyone, but apparently this thing has a history of dropping an earthquake after a "rapid fluctuation" in water levels. http://www.johnmartin.com/earthquakes/eqpapers/00000052.htm Here's a question for the geologists. The crappy material a the emergency spillway... it looks OLD and weathered/decomposed to me, but is it possible some of that fracturing was not initially there when they built this sucker, and that the fracturing occurred later as a result of seismic activity? View Quote |
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Off topic, but what is that clip from? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Off topic, but what is that clip from? This movie |
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Water is not compressible. Depending on the distance between the debris and the face of the dam, using explosives could cause dam failures from the shockwaves. View Quote Dam it this statement is infuriating to hear. Water is compressible, along with everything else. Generally I hear how hydraulic oil isn't compressible. |
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Welp, just another unedumicated monday-morning quarterbacker here, but: Seems to me there is no possible way they could line the entire e-spillway with the rocks-and-concrete mix (riprap, they're calling it?), b/c it's just TOO fucking wide. And, looks like chances favor, they ARE going to be using it again. In fact, if the inflow continues as projected, they aren't really going to have any choice in the matter. Any chance, then, they can build a berm of rocks-and-concrete mix all along the parking lot edge to at least concentrate the flow into a smaller area to be lined? Still an impossible task, I expect, but looking at the pic, it would at least cut the area that needed lining in half. At least the e-spillway flow is nice and gentle, as compared to the firehose blast on the main spillway. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Welp, just another unedumicated monday-morning quarterbacker here, but: Quoted:
The elevation of the spillway intakes seems to be pretty much the same as the bottom of the normal boat ramp. The picture showing the helicopters sitting on it showed it as dead level, and not sloping upward/downward. So I'm still thinking this is around 850 ft needed to get to the spillway gates: https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/41058/oroville-intake-low-water-boat-ramp-elevation-146414.png It also shows there's not really much to the emergency weir wall, especially once the parking lot starts. Seems to me there is no possible way they could line the entire e-spillway with the rocks-and-concrete mix (riprap, they're calling it?), b/c it's just TOO fucking wide. And, looks like chances favor, they ARE going to be using it again. In fact, if the inflow continues as projected, they aren't really going to have any choice in the matter. Any chance, then, they can build a berm of rocks-and-concrete mix all along the parking lot edge to at least concentrate the flow into a smaller area to be lined? Still an impossible task, I expect, but looking at the pic, it would at least cut the area that needed lining in half. At least the e-spillway flow is nice and gentle, as compared to the firehose blast on the main spillway. |
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Wow, that is a long, long way from the dam. View Quote Given the fact that the snowpack in the Sierras is at about 180% of normal this winter...all that water is going to be competing for river channel to run off through. Ain't enough river channel to handle it all. |
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Ìnteresting. The work is being done at the base of the highest portion of the weir and along the road between it and the primary spillway. Nothing on the hole where the main weir ends and the smaller weir along the parking lot begins. Doesnt show the far end of the lot at all. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Ìnteresting. The work is being done at the base of the highest portion of the weir and along the road between it and the primary spillway. Nothing on the hole where the main weir ends and the smaller weir along the parking lot begins. Doesnt show the far end of the lot at all. |
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