California Drought

[California]

Monday 3/6 DWR released another video of work over the weekend.
Lake Oroville Spillway March 4th and 5th 217 - YouTube

That video is silent, this (unrelated) guy narrates some details while showing it.
Oroville Spillway 6 March NEW CLOSE UP VIDEO DETAILS ON SPILLWAY WORK - YouTube

And the powerplant is running again.
Oroville Dam: Power plant back on, releasing water, after brief shutdown | The Sacramento Bee

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Thanks for posting the video.

 

[MossRoad]

Man, they look like ants working down there in time lapse.

 

[houstonscott]

Monday 3/6 DWR released another video of work over the weekend. Lake Oroville Spillway March 4th and 5th 217 - YouTube That video is silent, this (unrelated) guy narrates some details while showing it. Oroville Spillway 6 March NEW CLOSE UP VIDEO DETAILS ON SPILLWAY WORK - YouTube And the powerplant is running again. Oroville Dam: Power plant back on, releasing water, after brief shutdown | The Sacramento Bee

I wonder who's paying, and are those minority own or woman owned small businesses doing the work.

 

[aczlan]

I wonder who's paying, and are those minority own or woman owned small businesses doing the work.

I would guess that it is every local excavation contractor who has big enough equipment to keep up.

Aaron Z

 

[coldsteelva]

I assume that OSHA and CAL/OSHA regulations as well as DOT and CALTRANS regulations regarding hours of operation/drive time/down time have been relaxed too. Anybody know for sure?

 

[aczlan]

I assume that OSHA and CAL/OSHA regulations as well as DOT and CALTRANS regulations regarding hours of operation/drive time/down time have been relaxed too. Anybody know for sure?

They are driving off-road machines on a closed "work site", so I doubt that DOT hours of service apply.
A guy on another site is driving one of the haul trucks (off-road dump trucks) and he said 24x7 operations on 12 hour shifts.
I would assume that they have some breaks, gotta eat and use the restroom at some point. I will ask next time I see him on there.

Aaron Z

 

[California]

I've read that most of the the cost for this repair falls on the water contractors who bought the water rights for the volume of water that comes down the Feather River and gets pumped down the aqueducts to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness, with some of it going beyond to Los Angeles and San Diego. In what I read, those who need flood protection in the vicinity have a minor part in paying costs so have little voice in decisions on improvements. I hope someone can add a clearer description of this issue.

Map and photos.
California's Water Supply, A 700 Mile Journey

[first lift] "pumps water 250 feet uphill ... 44,000 horsepower ... 7,000 cubic feet per second." [comparison - 14k cfs was going over the emergency spillway].


[second lift, over the hill to Los Angeles] "2,000 feet up the mountain ... highest water lift in the world. ... uses about 60 megawatts, enough electricity for a small city.

80,000 horsepower, running on 14,400 volts. It's clear from the smile on Choyce's face that he's thrilled by the power.

"I love it. Producing 2,000 psi to push water 2,000 feet up over the mountain."

 

[David Wayne]

I have been following this for a couple weeks now and appreciate the updates and photos. Today I ran across some
internet news that said 2 of the power plant turbines are running releasing +- 3500 cubic ft, while there is 14,000
coming in. article said if they get the other three running that the discharge will increase to +- 14,000 and things will then hold steady. But if two = 3500 then five would = 8700 not 14,000. Are the other three larger? or am I missing something?

Thanks
David

 

[California]

re 8700 cfs maybe they aren't running the two at full output?

I've read consistently that the total capacity that can be drained through the turbines is 14K cfs. Also, one generator mechanism is out of state for overhaul. I wonder if they can put some sort of dummy in its place to release its allotment of water.


OT, interesting (at least to me ): After the dam was first put in use there were some drought years and insufficient water to spin the turbines. A State employee who wasn't responsible for the engineering there submitted a 'merit award' proposal to wire the turbines in series or something to attain standard voltage output at rpm lower than spec - or something like that. At any rate it allowed use of the generators under conditions where they hadn't been running.

There were several years of dispute whether he had invented something independently. He was eventually given a big award, I think over $1M.