This aerial view looks east toward Oroville Dam and Lake Oroville, showing the damaged spillway with its outflow of 100,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) at the Butte County site. The California Department of Water Resources has a goal to lower the lake level by 50 feet to handle the next round of winter storms. Photo taken February 15, 2017.
Dale Kolke / California Department of Water Resources

Oroville, Calif. February 16, 2017 – DWR has begun reducing outflow from the Oroville Dam flood control spillway to support the removal of debris from the diversion pool located near the spillway.

Removal of debris from the diversion pool further protects, safeguards, and provides for the eventual reoperation of the Hyatt power plant.

This reduced outflow still provides for the reduction of reservoir levels within the timeframes prescribed by the DWR.

These actions are consistent with typical reductions in water flow encountered when head pressures behind food control spillway gates are reduced as reservoir levels fall.

As water flow rates change, automatic messages are generated by the DWR Project Operations Center and are distributed to Area Emergency Managers and the media, as per normal operating procedures.

Editor’s note: Continuous real-time updates on the Oroville Spillway Incident are posted here.

One reply on “DWR Begins Outflow Reduction at Oroville Dam”

  1. Why don’t we see pictures of the Removal of debris from the diversion pool.
    They seem to not let the public see what is going on, just as they were not letting us see what was going on with the repair of the emergency spillway. All we ever saw was the trucks being loaded a half mile from the emergency spillway.

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