California Tag

Repairs at California's Oroville Dam, center of an last weekend's emergency evacuation order, continue as the water levels in the lake steadily decline and the set flow rate is decreased.

[The Department of Water Resources] is reducing releases for two reasons. First, it needs lower water flows so it can get work crews stationed on the diversion pool, the stream directly beneath the spillway that leads into the Feather River. The pool has gotten clogged with debris from the giant crater that was discovered on the spillway Feb. 7, backing up water to the dam’s hydroelectric plant. That’s made it impossible to operate the power plant, which is capable of releasing water at 14,000 cfs.

As the water levels at the Oroville Dam continue to shrink, Californians under the initial evacuation order are streaming back their homes. Now, officials are attempting to restore normal operations ahead of more rains.

Feeling confident they’ve created sufficient empty space in Lake Oroville for the time being, state Department of Water Resources officials said they reduced spillway outflows so they could address another looming challenge: restarting the dam’s hydroelectric plant, which can release additional water when operational. The plant was shut down last week after concrete and other debris from the spillway accumulated at the bottom of the dam, backing up water to the front door of the hydro facility. DWR Acting Director Bill Croyle said the water level in the reservoir has receded enough since Sunday that it’s safe to reduce the spillway releases to allow crews to clear debris from the Feather River below the dam.

Shortly after I blogged that the Oroville Dam used its emergency spillway for first time in its nearly 50-year history, as water topped its capacity, emergency evacuation orders to Californians in the valley areas below were given. Those evacuation orders are still in effect:

2018 is going to be a big election year for California. Not only do we get to pick a new governor, but we may get a chance to vote to secede from the United States of America as well. #CalExit, a #Brexit inspired movement in which California would secede from the union, has cleared an important hurdle and a secession measure would be on our 2018 ballot. I have previously reported that leader of Yes California (the organized, supposedly San Diego-based effort for this movement) is an American who lives in Russia and runs the independence campaign from there. Louis Marinelli has now gotten approval from California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to begin collecting signatures begin gathering signatures to place secession on the California ballot.