Oroville Dam’s battered flood-control spillways have been largely rebuilt, but the cost of last February’s near-disaster keeps rising. On Friday, state officials put the total price tag at $870 million.

The latest figure from the California Department of Water Resources represents a 32 percent increase from DWR’s estimate in October, when the cost was pegged at approximately $660 million.

State officials insist the climbing price tag is not from unexpected cost overruns. Instead, DWR spokeswoman Erin Mellon said the agency has finally been able to estimate the cost of recovery work that includes removal of debris from the Feather River channel below the dam; relocation of power transmission lines; staff time and other work that’s been undertaken since last winter’s crisis. Those costs came to $210 million.

“So it’s not a jump in costs at all,” she said.

Of the total $870 million cost, the largest expense is the reconstruction of the dam’s two badly damaged flood-control spillways. Mellon said the reconstruction work, which is proceeding in two phases and is expected to be completed this fall, is expected to cost $500 million. That estimate hasn’t changed since last October. …

Click here to read the full article from the Sacramento Bee </s> SAN FRANCISCO — California officials say the costs of dealing with last February's near-disaster at the tallest dam in the country have climbed to $870 million.

That's up from the $500 million total that the state estimated last fall. Both spillways at the Oroville Dam collapsed in February, forcing officials to order nearly 200,000 people to be evacuated.

Department of Water Resources spokeswoman Erin Mellon says California still hopes that federal emergency funds will cover three-fourths of the cost. Mellon says the costs so far do not include more than $1 billion in legal claims filed by property owners downstream. </s> SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – California officials say the costs of dealing with last February’s near-disaster at the tallest dam in the country have climbed to $870 million.

That’s up from the $500 million total that the state estimated last fall. Both spillways at the Oroville Dam collapsed in February, forcing officials to order nearly 200,000 people to be evacuated.

Department of Water Resources spokeswoman Erin Mellon says California still hopes that federal emergency funds will cover three-fourths of the cost. Mellon says the costs so far do not include more than $1 billion in legal claims filed by property owners downstream.

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• GET KRON4 NEWS ON YOUR AMAZON ALEXA DEVICE </s> SAN FRANCISCO — The costs of dealing with last year's near-disaster at the nation's tallest dam have reached $870 million, say California officials.

The figure for emergency response and repairs following the crisis at northern California's Oroville Dam should stand, Erin Mellon, spokeswoman for the state Department of Water Resources, said Friday. The total was pegged at $660 million in October.

Both spillways at the 230-metre earthen dam collapsed in February, forcing evacuation orders for nearly 200,000 people downstream. Officials feared massive, uncontrolled releases of water, but they did not materialize, and residents were allowed to return to their homes within days.

A report by independent dam-safety experts blamed the crisis on state operators' and regulators' "long-term systemic failure" to recognize built-in design and construction flaws in the half-century-old dam.

Mellon says California still hopes federal emergency funds will cover three-fourths of the cost, which includes about a half-billion dollars the state is spending to repair and improve both spillways.

Friday's jump in the overall price tag comes from expenses that include the removal of massive amounts of debris left by the torrents of water released from Oroville's reservoir during the crisis, Mellon said.

Other new costs in the total include moving power lines connected to the dam's hydroelectric system and building access roads for repair crews.

The price tag does not include more than $1 billion in legal claims filed by property owners downstream, Mellon said.

The water behind Oroville Dam is part of a complex north-south delivery system that serves millions in central and Southern California. The state still intends for water contractors who draw supplies from that system to pay any emergency costs refused by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mellon said. </s> The costs of dealing with last year's near-disaster at the nation's tallest dam have reached $870 million, California officials said Friday.

The figure for emergency response and repairs following the crisis at Northern California's Oroville Dam should stand, said Erin Mellon, spokeswoman for the state Department of Water Resources. The total was pegged at $660 million in October.

Both spillways at the 770-foot (230-meter) earthen dam collapsed in February, forcing evacuation orders for nearly 200,000 people downstream. Officials feared massive, uncontrolled releases of water, but they did not materialize, and residents were allowed to return to their homes within days.

A report by independent dam-safety experts blamed the crisis on state operators' and regulators' "long-term systemic failure" to recognize built-in design and construction flaws in the half-century-old dam.

Mellon says California still hopes federal emergency funds will cover three-fourths of the cost, which includes about a half-billion dollars the state is spending to repair and improve both spillways.

Friday's jump in the overall price tag comes from expenses that include the removal of massive amounts of debris left by the torrents of water released from Oroville's reservoir during the crisis, Mellon said.

Other new costs in the total include moving power lines connected to the dam's hydroelectric system and building access roads for repair crews.

The price tag does not include more than $1 billion in legal claims filed by property owners downstream, Mellon said.

The water behind Oroville Dam is part of a complex north-south delivery system that serves millions in central and Southern California. The state still intends for water contractors who draw supplies from that system to pay any emergency costs refused by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mellon said.

Construction crews had worked early morning to late night to make both damaged spillways operable again before California's winter rainy season started.

The Department of Water Resources has noted three flaws in the rush repair job so far, deputy director Ted Craddock said, and is evaluating the seriousness of the problems and how to handle them with a team of consulting dam experts.

Officials said problems in the new repairs include "surface imperfections" in three of the 234 concrete slabs laid so far to repair the 3,000-foot (900-meter) spillway, whose failure in February left deep canyons of rock and earth gouged through the concrete and surrounding hillside.

Dam operators said the kind of strong, searing winds that drove record-setting wildfires in California late last year had made the concrete set too fast. </s> SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The cost of last year’s Oroville spillway emergency continues to grow. The new numbers from the Department of Water Resources show an increase of nearly 25 percent from earlier estimates.

In October the total cost of the project was estimated at $660 million. Through January 2019, DWR now says the project will tally $870 million.

“It’s possible that the number could change it could increase, it could decrease,” said Erin Mellon with the Department of Water Resources.

She says the additional costs include debris removal, power line replacement, staff time, and permit fees.

“It always existed. We just didn’t have an estimate,” said Mellon.

“Stay tuned. There will be millions more come down the pike before this is done,” said state Sen. Jim Nielsen.

Nielsen says DWR hasn’t yet priced ancillary work. He says levees must be fixed and river banks restored after they were destroyed by the massive release of water in February.

“In terms of getting it right, there is no history of the state ever coming close,” said Nielsen.

The Federal government reimburses 75 percent of the costs related to the emergency, but the former acting head of DWR told an oversight committee last May that FEMA won’t cover some costs.

“Is there a maintenance issue here? Because they’re not going to cover that,” said Bill Croyle to the committee of legislators in May. “But if it’s emergency response, they’re going to cover. So then it’s all about the documentation.”

A team of independent forensic investigators announced last month that the spillway disaster happened in part because of a lack of maintenance.

“We are going to keep submitting costs to FEMA, emergency costs until they tell us otherwise,” explained Mellon.

To date, $86 million has been refunded out of $115 million in requests. Work on the spillway and emergency spillway will continue for at least another 11 months. </s> Damage to a spillway on California's Oroville Dam -- which prompted an urgent call for residents downstream to evacuate to higher ground -- may not be as bad as previously thought, the Butte County sheriff said Sunday. "I would rather be safe than sorry.

Start the conversation, or Read more at WICU12 Erie. </s> This post is up-to-date as of 11:50CT

While the potential of the Oroville Dam collapsing has slightly diminished, if the dam fails as expected it could send an uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake Oroville to nearby cities. Evacuations began Sunday night as Oroville officials warned of the potential collapse and flooding of the entire city within an hour. Among the counties listed for evacuations are Butte, Sutter and Yuba. Most residents were only given minutes to gather their belongings and evacuate. The area had been in drought for a long time until this year when heavy rain and snow bombarded the state. In Oroville, the average annual rainfall is about 31 inches, but has already seen 25 inches of rain as of Saturday, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

According to California’s Department of Water Resources, the Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway that’s eroding had never been used in the 48 years that the dam has existed. The DWR instructed Oroville residents to head north, toward Chico. Crews have been working tirelessly loading up dozens of bags of rocks for helicopters to drop on dam’s auxiliary spillway. The DWR is hoping to bring the water level down before another expected storm on Wednesday hits. </s> Roughly 188,000 people living downstream from Northern California’s Lake Oroville were ordered to immediately evacuate on Sunday afternoon after an emergency spillway releasing millions of gallons of water from the lake threatened to fail due to erosion. By late on Sunday night the situation had improved, but the evacuation order has yet to be lifted.

The lake, which is about 150 miles northeast of San Francisco, is held back by the 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam, the tallest in the country. Record storms took Lake Oroville from 80 percent full to overflowing in less than a week, as the L.A. Times explains. While the dam itself is structurally sound, last week a hole caused by erosion was discovered on the main spillway. It spread across the concrete-lined channel, and on Saturday the emergency spillway was used for the first time since the dam was completed in 1968.

Initially the system appeared to be working, but on Sunday engineers spotted a hole in the emergency spillway. At 4:20 p.m local time, an evacuation order was issued for everyone living downstream of Lake Oroville’s dam.

“They have what they expect to be an imminent failure of the axillary spillway,” said Mike Smith, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “What they’re expecting is as much as 30 vertical feet of the top of the spillway could fail and could fail within one to two hours. We don’t know how much water that means, but we do know that’s potentially 30 feet of depth of Lake Oroville.”

Residents of Butte, Sutter and Yuba rushed out of the area, creating gridlock for miles. An evacuation shelter was set up in Chico, which is north of the lake, at the Silver Dollar fairgrounds. Belen Castaneda, 23, told the Times she was headed there with her family and an elderly neighbor who doesn’t speak English. “We just grabbed everything we could,” she said. “Everyone was freaking out.”

Late on Sunday night the threat decreased when water stopped flowing into the emergency spillway. Officials said they plan to use bags of rocks to plug the hole in the emergency spillway, but the situation is still precarious. Storms are forecast for later this week, and officials said they need to keep draining water from the lake for as long as possible.

California Governor Jerry Brown issued an emergency order on Sunday night. “I’ve been in close contact with emergency personnel managing the situation in Oroville throughout the weekend and it’s clear the circumstances are complex and rapidly changing,” Brown said in a statement. “The state is directing all necessary personnel and resources to deal with this very serious situation.”

Eight California National Guard helicopters will assist with the attempt to reconstruct the emergency spillway. All 23,000 soldiers in the California National Guard have been notified that they should be ready to deploy if needed. According to the AP, the entire California National Guard hasn’t been put on alert since the 1992 L.A. riots.
The cost of the Oroville Dam spill rises to US$870 million. The U.S. state of California continues to hope for federal aid for the project.