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   From: morons@sfchronicle.com   
      
   More than a decade ago, federal and state officials and some of   
   California’s largest water agencies rejected concerns that the   
   massive earthen spillway at Oroville Dam — at risk of collapse   
   Sunday night and prompting the evacuation of 185,000 people —   
   could erode during heavy winter rains and cause a catastrophe.   
      
   Three environmental groups — the Friends of the River, the   
   Sierra Club and the South Yuba Citizens League — filed a motion   
   with the federal government on Oct. 17, 2005, as part of   
   Oroville Dam’s relicensing process, urging federal officials to   
   require that the dam’s emergency spillway be armored with   
   concrete, rather than remain as an earthen hillside.   
      
   The groups filed the motion with FERC, the Federal Energy   
   Regulatory Commission. They said that the dam, built and owned   
   by the state of California, and finished in 1968, did not meet   
   modern safety standards because in the event of extreme rain and   
   flooding, fast-rising water would overwhelm the main concrete   
   spillway, then flow down the emergency spillway, and that could   
   cause heavy erosion that would create flooding for communities   
   downstream, but also could cause a failure, known as “loss of   
   crest control.”   
      
   “A loss of crest control could not only cause additional damage   
   to project lands and facilities but also cause damages and   
   threaten lives in the protected floodplain downstream,” the   
   groups wrote.   
   FERC rejected that request, however, after the state Department   
   of Water Resources, and the water agencies that would likely   
   have had to pay the bill for the upgrades, said they were   
   unnecessary. Those agencies included the Metropolitan Water   
   District of Southern California, which provides water to 19   
   million people in Los Angeles, San Diego and other areas, along   
   with the State Water Contractors, an association of 27 agencies   
   that buy water from the state of California through the State   
   Water Project. The association includes the Metropolitan Water   
   District, Kern County Water Agency, the Santa Clara Valley Water   
   District and the Alameda County Water District.   
      
   Federal officials at the time said that the emergency spillway   
   was designed to handle 350,000 cubic feet per second and the   
   concerns were overblown.   
      
   “It is important to recognize that during a rare event with the   
   emergency spillway flowing at its design capacity, spillway   
   operations would not affect reservoir control or endanger the   
   dam,” wrote John Onderdonk, a senior civil engineer with FERC,   
   in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s San Francisco   
   Office, in a July 27, 2006, memo to his managers.   
      
   “The emergency spillway meets FERC’s engineering guidelines for   
   an emergency spillway,” he added. “The guidelines specify that   
   during a rare flood event, it is acceptable for the emergency   
   spillway to sustain significant damage.”   
      
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   This weekend, as Lake Oroville’s level rose to the top and water   
   couldn’t be drained fast enough down the main concrete spillway   
   because it had partially collapsed on Tuesday, millions of   
   gallons of water began flowing over the dam’s emergency spillway   
   for the first time in its 50-year history.   
      
   On Sunday, with flows of only 6,000 to 12,000 cubic feet per   
   second — water only a foot or two deep and less than 5 percent   
   of the rate that FERC said was safe — erosion at the emergency   
   spillway became so severe that officials from the State   
   Department of Water Resources ordered the evacuation of more   
   than 185,000 people. The fear was that the erosion could   
   undercut the 1,730-foot-long concrete lip along the top of the   
   emergency spillway, allowing billions of gallons of water to   
   pour down the hillside toward Oroville and other towns   
   downstream.   
      
   Such an uncontrolled release from California’s second-largest   
   reservoir while it was completely full could become one of the   
   worst dam disasters in U.S. history.   
      
   “We said ‘are you really sure that running all this water over   
   the emergency spillway won’t cause the spillway to fail?'” said   
   Ron Stork, policy director with Friends of the River, a   
   Sacramento environmental group that filed the motions in 2005.   
   “They tried to be as evasive as possible. It would have cost   
   money to build a proper concrete spillway.”   
      
   Stork watched with horror Sunday night as the emergency spillway   
   was at risk of collapse.   
      
   “I’m feeling bad that we were unable to persuade DWR and FERC   
   and the Army Corps to have a safer dam,” he said Sunday.   
      
   Stork said that officials from the Department of Water Resources   
   told him informally at the time that the Metropolitan Water   
   District and the water contractors who buy water from Oroville   
   did not want to incur the extra costs.   
      
   “I’m sad and hoping, crossing my fingers, that they can prevent   
   the reservoir from failing,” he said. “I don’t think anybody at   
   DWR has ever been this close in their careers to such a   
   catastrophic failure.”   
      
   Lester Snow, who was the state Department of Water Resources   
   director from 2004 to 2010, said Sunday night that he does not   
   recall the specifics of the debate during the relicensing   
   process 11 years ago.   
      
   “The dam and the outlet structures have always done well in   
   tests and inspections,” Snow said. “I don’t recall the FERC   
   process.”   
      
   Stork said at the time he talked to Snow about the environmental   
   group’s concerns, and he recalls that Snow said the issue was   
   being handled mostly by one of his lieutenants.   
      
   A filing on May 26, 2006, by Thomas Berliner, an attorney for   
   the State Water Contractors, and Douglas Adamson, an attorney   
   for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,   
   discounted the risk. It urged FERC to reject the request to   
   require that the emergency spillway be armored, a job that would   
   have cost tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars.   
      
   “The emergency spillway was designed to safely convey the   
   Probable Maximum Flood, and DWR has reviewed and confirmed the   
   efficacy of the PMF hydrologic analysis for Oroville Reservoir,”   
   the attorneys noted.   
      
   Ultimately, they were successful. FERC did not require the state   
   to upgrade the emergency spillway.   
      
   http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/12/oroville-dam-feds-and-   
   state-officials-ignored-warnings-12-years-ago/   
      
      
   --   
   More than a decade ago, federal and state officials and some of   
   California’s largest water agencies rejected concerns that the   
   massive earthen spillway at Oroville Dam — at risk of collapse   
   Sunday night and prompting the evacuation of 185,000 people —   
   could erode during heavy winter rains and cause a catastrophe.   
      
   Those agencies included the Metropolitan Water District of   
   Southern California, which provides water to 19 million people   
   in Los Angeles, San Diego and other areas, along with the State   
      
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