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Climate change has little to do with this issue. CA has a history of infrastructure mismanagement (see HSR, Bay Bridge, etc). The CA Dept of Water Resources has
by spikels 10y ago
Climate change has little to do with this issue. CA has a history of infrastructure mismanagement (see HSR, Bay Bridge, etc). The CA Dept of Water Resources has a history of incompetence. Oroville Reservoir a history of problems.
This was a straightforward civil engineering failure. The flow of water that needed to be handled was known. It had been much higher in the past. The flow in the main spillway could be controlled by gates. There was an emergency overflow spillway.
They had plenty of time and resources to solve this problem but they didn't. We don't yet know exactly why but the design, construction, maintenance and/or operation was flawed. This is the responsibility of the operator of the dam which is ultimately the state.
I think tying everything to climate change can be counterproductive. Yes it can attract attention to an issue but it probably also distracts from less salient but perhaps more important issues in this case like keeping brush clear from the spillway or inspecting concrete structures.
We badly need better infrastructure management. And this will allow us to better respond to climate change.
/rant
- stuckagain 10y agoYour rant is just a rant. Mentioning HSR is some kind of dogwhistle. In what way is HSR mismanaged and how is that related to this dam? The events at Oroville have been exceptional and it's strains belief that you, Random Internet Guy, saw it all coming. The amount of water that has fallen in the Feather watershed this year is without precedent in recorded history. The spillway worked fine until a gaping hole appeared in it. Nobody foresaw that a massive sinkhole would destroy the main spillway.
- troisx 10y agoActually plenty of people foresaw a problem with this dam and multiple other dams in CA. I have a friend who worked on dams in CA 20 years ago who told me that they weren't getting the maintenance and upgrades they needed and it was only a matter of time before there was a failure. And he never even worked in this particular dam.
- skmurphy 10y agothe design flaw is not what happened to main spillway but that the emergency spillway flows over a dirt hillside that will quickly collapse once used in the situations where it will need to be. And not just Random Internet Guy but many others including Sierra Club noted this more than a decade ago.