Sacramento Bee - Oroville Dam's
power plant has been switched back on again and has resumed
releasing water from the reservoir.
The power plant, which is considered vital to the state
Department of Water Resources'
efforts to navigate the troubled dam through a wet spring,
was turned back on Sunday evening after a hiatus of about 32
hours. Water levels inside Lake Oroville
rose about 4 feet during the shutdown but are still well
below the top of the dam.
The plant is ramping up slowly; water was flowing out of
the reservoir at a modest 1,746 cubic feet per second as of
Monday morning, according to Department of Water
Resources figures.
When fully operational, the power plant can release about
14,000 cfs. That would help DWR keep water levels down at
California's
second largest reservoir during the spring runoff season
while it starts repairing the battered spillway. Crews have
been dredging the clogged river channel at the bottom of the
dam's heavily damaged concrete spillway to lower the water
level and allow the power plant to function.
The plant was switched on Friday morning but shut down
again 24 hours later because DWR officials realized they
needed to dredge the channel more thoroughly to get the
power plant running on all cylinders.
The main spillway, which had been releasing water at
rates of as much as 100,000 cfs to lower the lake levels,
has been shut down for a week to allow the dredging to
proceed.
An enormous gash was spotted in the spillway Feb.
7, prompting a temporary shutdown of water releases
as a major storm rolled in. Water eventually rolled over the
adjacent emergency spillway for the first time ever. When it
appeared the emergency spillway would fail, officials
ordered the evacuation of 188,000 downstream residents. DWR
was able to stabilize the situation by dramatically ramping
up water releases over the main spillway, halting the flow
of water over the emergency spillway.
(c)2017 The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento,
Calif.)
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Calif.) at www.sacbee.com
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