California Drought

[Mike68]

Where's the desalination plant that was built and never used?

Try this link. The ones in yellow are idle.

Storms are Nature's desalination plants. All man has to do is capture and store the water that falls from the sky. Something that CA seems unwilling to do. They are OK with building expensive and inefficient desal plants with tax payer money (crony capitalism). Or destroying another State's ecosystem (Colorado River Basin). How much damage does it do to the microclimate to divert as much water as they do to LA?

 

[scdeerslayer]

Here on the gulf coast, they "over hype" hurricanes to get people to leave early.

That's so there isn't a panic just before the storm gets there and people won't be able to get out in time. Remember Hurricane Rita?

 

[ultrarunner]

Where's the desalination plant that was built and never used?

This is the one I was thinking of and didn't even know it was in the news...

My cousin is a water engineer that did a lot of work in Dubai and he mentioned they sourced parts from California...

Santa Barbara working to reactivate mothballed desalination plant - LA Times

 

[kcflhrc]

I was a Water Engineer on Saturday, fixed my leaking yard hydrant. :laughing: With a crescent wrench no less :confused2:

 

[houstonscott]

This is the one I was thinking of and didn't even know it was in the news... My cousin is a water engineer that did a lot of work in Dubai and he mentioned they sourced parts from California... Santa Barbara working to reactivate mothballed desalination plant - LA Times

yeah, there's just one in the State that just opened in Carlsbad at a cost of 900 million. Cheap compared to price of fixing just the spillway at Orville.

 

[turnkey4099]

dmccarty,

I agree completely.

It seems they never believed the emergency spillway would actually be used. They had no logical reason to dismiss the recommendation to pour concrete at the base of the spillway.

Sure enough, when it was actually used it began to fail immediately, as could be expected.

We just don't know how stable that lip is. Maybe it could be severely undermined and still hold. Who knows. But if it fails the draining would be spectacular.

If you look at some of the pictures where the water is going over the top, you can see it is also spilling over the small edge alongside the parking lot. A parking lot curb is part of the main structure holding back the water! Eeeek.

If I followed all the developments correctly, if that concret barrier falls, only the top 20-30 ft of the lake would drain.

 

[aczlan]

If I followed all the developments correctly, if that concret barrier falls, only the top 20-30 ft of the lake would drain.

That is what I understand the situation to be.

Aaron Z

 

[sld]

We've seen the integrity of the spillway. Let's hope the dam is built better!

 

[bigdeano]

I've posted some photos of the Oroville Dam taken today from a helicopter over in the Photos Forum. Enjoy.

 

[houstonscott]

I've posted some photos of the Oroville Dam taken today from a helicopter over in the Photos Forum. Enjoy.

Great shots. It's obvious the weir has major damage and has almost been undermined in two places. The undermining on the right is shocking, it almost went... It's also obvious that the undermining would drop the lake well below the 30ft that the weir protects. If the rain takes the lake level over that weir again the lake will drain right there...