Page 347 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong
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OROVILLE DAM
OROVILLE SPILLWAY EMERGENCY REPAIR PROJECT (2017–2020)
In February 2017,Oroville Dam’s main spillway broke,shooting panic downriver.The event set off a series of cascading problems that took three years to clean up and restore. Today, with the spillway rebuilt and upgraded, it looks like nothing ever happened. But back then, the unprecedented crisis held the sur-
rounding communities in fear and uncertainty for several weeks.
The Oroville Dam holds a very special place in Peterson’s history. The original dam, along with all the prelim- inary work, earned Peterson its first territory expansion back in 1958. It was, in fact, what took Peterson to the next level. Sixty years later, Peterson was back on the job, this time supporting those that would repair the spillway failure of 2017.
It happened on a wet Tuesday morning—February 7, 2017. Someone from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) noticed an unusual pattern in the water flowing down the main spillway. That was cause for concern since Lake Oroville was near capacity and needed to release the extra water. And Plan B— the emergency spillway to the north—was just a long, narrow lip of concrete with a wooded hillside down to the Feather River below. And it had never been used before. Already, the 2017 season was shaping up to be the wettest on record in 35 years. And with three more big storms in the forecast, it was a crisis in the making.
Once the main spillway was shut off to investigate, DWR officials realized they were trapped in a catch-22. Either continue to use the main spillway, causing further damage, or use the emergency spillway and send tons more dirt and debris down into the Feather River. Ultimately, they opted to use the main chute. For most of Friday, February 10, the main spillway looked like a miniature version of Niagara Falls as water spewed down the damaged concrete chute. First responders came by the truckload—DWR, CAL FIRE, the Sheriff ’s Dept., local news outlets, and others. It was so bad, in fact, that the governor declared a state of emergency.
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