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Lake Berryessa Glory Hole

It's a hydroelectric plant I think they have the option of running out more water through the generation gates?
I know this is what they've been doing up at Oroville.
 
As a local, full pool meant that jumping off the bridge/rock was survivable for that summer. Epic parties out there.
Still means that for me now.

Enjoy, the desert is extra green out here, more than I've ever seen in the last 12 years.
 
ThumperX said:
It's a hydroelectric plant I think they have the option of running out more water through the generation gates?
I know this is what they've been doing up at Oroville.
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Wasn't the problem at Oroville that they couldn't let water through the turbines quickly enough to prevent the spillway being inundated?
 
I believe the problem at Oroville was largely because once they found damage, there was enough debris in the channel downstream that they couldn't release as much water as they wanted through the power plant section without flooding the power house.
 
The Oroville problem wasn't that simple. I spent way too much time reading about it during the crisis. It's actually really interesting.

Basically, they tried to reduce the damage happening to the main spillway by reducing its outflow. When the alternate water pathways proved unsafe, they then had to match outflow to the incoming water, PLUS more to get the water levels back down.

The problem was not that the damaged spillway couldn't do it. It was that the levee system around Sacramento couldn't handle the max flow of the dam.

At a designed max flow of 290,000 gallons per second, Oroville's main spillway alone is capable of maxing out the Sacramento levee systems flow capacity. But the levees are fed by a number of sources that were all experiencing high flow rates at the time. In fact, the water controllers of Oroville were sued once for causing levee failures and Sacramento flooding a decade or so ago when they released a high flow rate that did not seem warranted at the time.

So back on topic with Berryessa. Part of designing a spillway is determining the total watershed area that feeds the lake and thus max inflow possible. If properly designed, the spillway and other systems in the dam can pass max inflow right on through. They don't want that, of course, because that basically means flooding below the dam. (As would have happened before the dam existed)
 
So, I really want to see someone strap some gopros to a basketball and toss it in...
 
Junkie said:
not all dams have emergency spillways and I'm not seeing one looking at a map
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That would be unusually risky. You can't rely only on generators for overflow release since they could be down for maintenance just when you need them.
 
We put our Support hold music as that song one time. For about a week we Rick Rolled people on hold.
 
Blankpage said:
That would be unusually risky. You can't rely only on generators for overflow release since they could be down for maintenance just when you need them.
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The normal release is the generators, the spillway is rarely used.

I don't imagine most dams have a spillway *and* an emergency spillway
 
Junkie said:
The normal release is the generators, the spillway is rarely used.

I don't imagine most dams have a spillway *and* an emergency spillway
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Hydro dams generally have and emergency spillway plus the structures which feeds water to the generators which are called the intake & penstock (not refered to as a spillway).
 
Blankpage said:
Hydro dams generally have and emergency spillway plus the structures which feeds water to the generators which are called the intake & penstock (not refered to as a spillway).
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yes, and that's exactly what the glory hole at Berryessa is

Oroville has the power generation facility, and a spillway, AND a backup emergency spillway.

Beryessa has the power generation facility and a spillway

How many dams have multiple spillways?
 
Junkie said:
yes, and that's exactly what the glory hole at Berryessa is

Oroville has the power generation facility, and a spillway, AND a backup emergency spillway.

Beryessa has the power generation facility and a spillway

How many dams have multiple spillways?
Click to expand...

They're all different, what we need is a coffee table book of dams.
Not too far from Oroville you have Folsom Dam which also has two spillways. Take your pick as to which one is the official emergency spillway.
 
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