by Bob Walsh
Interesting things are still coming out about the failure of the main spillway at the Orovilla Dam last year. It seems that DWR was well aware of the problems with the substrata under the spillway, but simply chose to ignore it.
Fortunately a fair number of complaints about this issue were made in writing and survive. In fact at one time the grunts who were actually doing the work refused to continue until one of the bosses came down to actually inspect the work site.
In 1965 the contractor wanted to do an additional $1.2 million worth of excavation. That's about $9 million in 2017 dollars, which is a lot less than the $560 million this debacle cost. But DWR decided to cheapjack it and said NO.
Additionally, in 2005 the DWR completely ignored clear indications that the spillway had issues. Again, the driving factor appeared to be cost.
It is obvious from the paperwork trail that DWR continued to assert that the area on which the main spillway was being constructed was sound, solid rock when they KNEW it was in fact comprised largely of loose clay and loose rock. They suffered from a major case of cranial rectosis, a condition which plagued them right up until about 11 months ago when everything turned to shit.
DWR has gone thru three directors in the last year, so maybe they are having trouble hiring a captain for the Titanic after it hit the iceberg.
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