Oroville — The state Department of Water Resources Friday said the cost associated with the ongoing crisis at Oroville Dam totaled about $100 million through the end of February.
Estimates for March weren’t immediately available, but Bill Croyle, acting director of the Department of Water Resources, said the daily average cost at the dam in February was about $4.7 million, a number previously reported by this newspaper.
Croyle noted the costs of repairing or replacing the dam’s damaged main spillway are likely to be “much higher” than early estimates of $100 million-$200 million, when other expenses are taken into account, such as work done to remove the pile of debris from the Diversion Pool at the base of the spillway.
“We’re going to know a lot more about some of the costs to repair this site here in the next couple weeks,” Croyle said at a press conference Friday in Oroville.
Teams, he said, have been zeroing in on reconstruction designs of the dam’s concrete spillway, which began to crumble Feb. 7. The process was expected to take about two more weeks before officials determine what a reconstructed spillway could look like.
The possible designs have ranged from “interesting” to something similar to what was there before, Croyle said. And decisions still must be made regarding whether repairs ahead of the next flood season will be temporary or permanent.
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Officials expect to whittle their options to two designs, “then we’ll go through an assessment of constructibility, schedule and resources,” he said. Preparation work at the spillway site already has begun.
SPILLWAY FLOWS RESUME
Meanwhile, dam operators Friday began releasing water down the damaged main spillway for the first time since flows were halted there Feb. 27.
Water officials said releases through the spillway would remain steady at a rate of about 50,000 cubic-feet per second for about five or six days, at which point flows would again be reduced.
Further, flows through the Hyatt Powerplant were expected to be stopped Friday. Officials intend to monitor the powerhouse under the dam while the main spillway is in use.
The goal, Croyle said, is to be able to safely use both the main spillway and the hydroelectric plant at the same time to manage the reservoir. About 13,000 cfs of water can flow through the powerhouse through the five of its six turbines that are operational.
By 3 p.m. Friday, the water surface elevation at Lake Oroville was about 864 feet, about 37 feet from the lip of the emergency spillway. Releases from the lake were measured at about 50,000 cfs, while inflows were fluctuating around 10,000 cfs.
Looking forward, the Department of Water Resources expects to use the main spillway one or two more times before June 1, depending on weather conditions during the runoff season, Croyle said.
While flows down the main spillway were halted, crews worked to repair and reinforce the damaged chute, he said. Cracks were cleaned out and caulked, concrete was reconnected to the earth and walls were stabilized.
Below the spillway, about 1.25 million cubic-yards of debris has been removed from the Diversion Pool to date. About 1.7 million cubic-yards of debris had initially been mapped out.
Croyle said work shoring up the hillside below the emergency spillway was expected to be completed in the next few days. Erosion threatened the collapse of the emergency spillway’s weir Feb. 12, which had caused a mandatory evacuation of more than 180,000 people below the dam.
An evacuation warning remained in place for areas of Thermalito and Oroville, as well as low-lying areas of Butte County along the Feather River. Community meetings have been scheduled to discuss newly-created evacuation plans in the event of another emergency at the dam.
The next meeting is for residents of the Oroville area, and it will be held at 6 p.m. March 24 at the Church of the Nazarene, 2238 Monte Vista Ave., Oroville.
Investigators were still collecting information in an effort to determine why the main spillway began to collapse Feb. 7, Croyle said, adding that pertinent information is being passed to designers of the reconstruction effort.
When pressed by a reporter on who is being held accountable for the crisis at the dam, Croyle said that the Department of Water Resources, as a dam owner, ultimately is responsible.
He added, however, that the department believes it did everything it was required to do and more before the crisis presented itself.
“This happened, stuff happens,” Croyle said. “So, you get a flat tire on your car, you run your car out of oil. I mean, these things happen. We’re going to get into how this happened, why this happened.”
At the Feather River Fish Hatchery, Tracy McReynolds, an environmental scientist for the Department of Fish and Wildlife, said 1 million spring-run Chinook salmon have been tagged and are expected to be released Monday. After that, officials will work toward tagging a second batch of one million spring-run Chinook salmon for release.
McReynolds said no “major losses” were sustained at the hatchery because of the crisis at the dam. Experts have been assessing the health of fish populations regularly, and will continue to do so.
Contact reporter Andre Byik at 896-7760.
