REVISITING THE OROVILLE DAM STORY
In spite of the fact that many readers of this website reside in California, I was quite surprised at the amount of feedback I had after my blog about the Oroville dam in northern California. In fact, so many people sent so many articles that I decided today's blog would largely consist of the various articles people sent me, with as minimum commentary as possible. As the reader might recall, I indulged my usual high octane speculation on that story, pointing out that the spillway damage when viewed in the context of other strange, very deliberate attacks in and around the Bay area in recent years, takes on a rather different look. In short, I was arguing that perhaps the dam difficulties were in part deliberate and intended. Some people bombarded me for even suggesting such a possibility. How dare I? The dam was in disrepair. There was subsidence under the spillway due to years of drought; when the rains came that only exacerbated the situation. Well and good, but my point was not to advance a sole theory to the exclusion of others. If one deliberately wants to damage a dam, then prior subsidence will certainly aid the effort.
But as soon as those articles and theories were advanced, I began to get a flood - no pun intended - of other articles raising some prickly questions about Governor Moon Beam, and his cohort of crazies from Bersekley and San Franfreakshow, and most of them from Californians themselves who were asking "questions." So, as I said, I decided to marshal all of these together - or at least significant representatives of these articles - and let the reader himself decide what the heck is going on. (Please note, some of the links would not link properly so you will have to copy and paste the address into your browser).
The first category of theory concerns the maintenance of the Oroville dam, which does indeed appear not to have been maintained at the highest level. Here's one such version, shared by Mr. V.T.:
Who Will be Blamed if the Oroville Dam Fails?
Then there's another version, which implicates the state governor in some activity displacing local sheriffs and their responses to the situation, again shared by Mr. V.T.:
http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2017/02/16/worsening-oroville-dam-crisis-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/
Ms. D.S. spotted this article, where Governor Moon Beam is - you guessed it - blaming the potential failure of the dam on "global warming," not poor maintenance and certainly not on "deliberate action" of other types:
This article, from the Sacramento Bee, another find by Mr. V.T., points out that the dam's maintenance manual is outdated, and based on weather patterns from fifty years ago:
Oroville Dam’s flood-control manual hasn’t been updated for half a century
Now things start to turn a bit murkier. The following two articles were shared by Ms. K.F. The first, an LA Times article, points out the governor allegedly had state officials investigate the oil drilling potential on some of his personal property in northern California, which the second link, a private post, alleges is near the dam:
Gov. Jerry Brown had state workers research oil on family ranch
Mr. V.T. then sent this article, which questions Governor Brown's sense of urgency over the issue:
http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2017/02/15/the-oroville-dam-crisis-is-not-over-lack-of-concern-for-citizen-welfare/
Mr. V.T. also discovered this article stating that the dam has been operating under temporary licenses for twelve years, implying that there were structural problems known to authorities for quite some time:
Oroville Dam running on temporary licenses; mandatory evacuations still in place
Mr. A. found this article, which is a "conspiracy theory" view of the disaster, complete with fifty-dollar bill folding exercise to "prove" its "case":
Oroville Dam Update! Down the Rabbit Hole & Who Is Orchestrating This Event and 50 Dollar Bill
And Ms. B.Z. found yet another "conspiracy theory" article here from the same source that spurred my own high octane speculations:
http://tapnewswire.com/2017/02/oroville-dam-sabotage-aimed-at-destroying-californian-economy/
This video link provided by Mr. G.L.R. suggests that the damaged area of the main spillway was known to state officials back in 2013:
So, what does all this add up to? Well, clearly, many people have detected something vaguely malodorous about the whole affair: the governor allegedly directing state employees to conduct mineral deposit investigations on his private property which happens to be close to the dam. Add to this the apparent known subsidence beneath the spillways, and damage apparently known for some time, outdated operation manuals, and so on, and one does have to wonder just what the heck is going on here. I have no doubt that subsidence was and is a contributory factor here, for with the drought the state has experienced in recent years, it would be irrational not to suspect this. But this does not rule out my prior speculations: subsidence could be exacerbated by carefully chosen and placed sabotage. One doesn't need a bomb. A pick axe and some elbow grease at a properly chosen location will do: create a hole, and let the water do the rest. Again, I find the previous stories of sabotage - clearly deliberate - in northern California a peculiar context from which potentially to view this disaster. I am not saying that this is what happened, but merely that I view it as a possibility, simply because many Californians, caught in the drought and watching the once lush agriculture of the southern San Joaquin valley disappear, have been alleged that this, too, is a deliberately policy and ploy to pick up rich land on the cheap.
And while normally I do not report private stories on this website, again, this one is significant enough to pass along merely to see if anyone else noticed the same thing: one reader of this website emailed me to state that she had watched various videos and examined various pictures of the spillway damage, and could detect no rebar in the spillway concrete, an allegation that left me dumbfounded, for the imagination boggles at the idea of constructing a dam spillway without such rebar, given the enormous pressures and strains such spillways undergo when water is cascading down them. Indeed, she pointed out in her email that rebar was considered essential in all dam spillway construction; one simply would not construct a spillway without it. So then the question becomes, what happened to the rebar? If her allegations are true, the mind boggles.
By the way... she closed her email with an answer to that last question. Perhaps, she said, the rebar was simply "dustified," borrowing the term from Dr. Judy Wood.
Whatever one makes of these stories, for my part, there's enough smoke here to suggest a fire. But this is also a case of "you tell me".
See you on the flip side...
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Imagine the good that could be done if only THEY had Weather Control Technology! OH! That’s right, THEY DO!! Which, BTW is NOT the same as climate; warming or cooling. Weather control, through electromagnetics, is already pretty old. So, for that matter, is earthquake creation and control, well before Fukushima. OH MY !!! What am I saying (?)
The Oroville dam with the ‘flaw’ in the spillway reminds one more of Crowley’s 4 of Disks Tarot card than the folded 50 dollar bill.
82.221.129.208 A small Oroville Dam update, 2/21/2017:
Anonymous sent: “Jim: It appears that there may be a bit of slight-of-hand regarding Oroville Dam…. according to articles. Although the California Department of Water Resources is claiming Oroville Dam is safer because the water level has fallen by 52 feet, that feat was largely accomplished by over-filling 9 upstream reservoirs. These reservoirs are all expected to flood as another Pineapple Express storm-train brings 48 hours of heavy rain through Wednesday.”
JS: “You are right. I have paid attention to this and am paying attention to it. Now, the game will be to try to drain the upstream reservoirs through Oroville Dam while praying there is not a lot more rain. But they did get Oroville down quite a bit, regardless of the method, and that bought time. It is on its way back up now, though.”
Hey Goshawks. You’re forgetting that MArch is coming up. Spring Melt. They’re loading up the upper river dams so that they cant hold the melt off from the mountains. Rainy weather has nothing to do with it. too unpredictable.
If you want to destory the arable lands around California, you wouldnt want to base your ‘play’ on hoping the weather is stormy.
If you were an evil manipulating mass murderer without a soul who has nothing to care if people die, countryside’s destroyed, local wildlife massacred.. Then you want to make sure that the Dam you are breaking, will break when its most needed. (so how is George doing these days? looking healthier and younger than ever before..)
A lot of people forget that March/April is planting season.
Its hard to plant seeds in flood destroyed arable land.
If you thought Americans could riot hard for race hate and riot half heartedly when they’re paid to do so… wait until they’re going through suger withdrawel because they can’t get no modified corn starch no more. Hungary People makes Angry People. (as the great Prophet Marley once said)
I’m sure that if we dig long and hard we’ll see Purple Rebars in that Dam’s Slipway.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrz-U1yxOWM&feature=em-uploademail
Blancolirio’s oroville dam update. Most sensible perspective seen so far. It is a mad scramble. Not a safe vet in either direction yet. Fir sure a land grab. Not a good day to be a seller in sacremento valley.
Chinatown is an exceptional reference here. Its all too clusterfudged to not be intentional failure by at least a good portion of power brokers. Weatherwars101 will give us an overview of qhat it takes to keep atmospheric rivers dumping 4″ rain in a week where it usually rains 17″per year.
Not a safe bet in either direction yet.
Also. In another yt vid blancolirio googlemapped the quarry a few miles nw that was probable source of unerground blast that cause a 2.1 eq felt at dam just b4 spill shred started.
Remind anyone of financial gutting ussr took right b4 the infrastructure gutting right b4 chernobyl?
ZDB, I heard nothing about the Chernobyl event. An EQ of sufficient strength localized to a small area could case stress to a structure that is already on the brink of compromise–and the news remaining local to the area. (Shades of 9/11, where you hear local stories not heard on the mainstream media nationwide. That was a huge clue to me that something was fishy–especially stories that seemed related while not fitting the official narrative. That is why I stated my position below and cautioned my friends. In my mind I saw on 9/11 shades of JFK’s assassination.) All data must be correlated, corroborated, considered and evaluated without any philosophical or scientific bias before any hypothesis can be discarded or substantiated. In investigations like this all local data is key to fully interpreting the source of the problem. (Yes, even science is not immune from learning something new when presented a new, but different, data set. Shades of Richter and A-bomb tests?)
Nothing about EQs at the time of Chernobyl that is.
Oc. The reference to chernobyl was about the lack of funding prior to the event. And consequently neglect,mismanagement and ineptitude that caused the event. That has been attested to repeatedly from folk inside n outside that system before during n after that event. Same ashridges in minnesota, pwerplants in japan, army corps in southern illinois and louisiana…
Pick a place or rather some chaos to wring a new order from.
Should have written – same as bridges in minnesota
Going BEYOND the limb, the branch, out to the leaf (check out the last 1/2 hour chat between Doug Hagmann Sr. and Mike Adams (the Health Ranger) BOTH long-time watchers on stuff of this ilk. This one kept me waking up last night, I have to admit because, “Out There ” as it may seem, it “resonates” with me. ”
Basically, a created crisis to pull down chaos, infiltrated Gov. Brown meetings with “cartel members, La Raza, Chinese reps, Russian Reps, Obama reps” and, nay I say it, UN members waiting in the wings.
I would like to “wish this all away” (and praying it doesn’t happen and Webbots not picking this up as a future “Meme”) but, that said, THESE PEOPLE ARE SERIOUS! NOT just a bunch of snowflakes, but NWO people (to say nothing of pedophile/control file people) fighting for their lives. Do you think ANYTHING is past them????? I don’t!
https://revengeoftheherd.com/2017/02/20/mike-adams-the-civil-war-will-start-in-california/
Ramura, yesterday I almost went down an similar path: running a similar thought experiment to infer some potential outcomes. Hagmann and Adams are interesting voices–voices that I do listen to on occasion. The only problem there is their world view is limited. One scenario I considered was precisely theirs, a trigger for a civil war. The other is to force a Con-con–which is ludicrous because we are NOT following the existing one. A third is a forced secession to begin implementing the NAU piece-meal. A fourth is a method to prevent the Trump administration from withholding federal funds for a sanctuary state framework using the disaster-relief scenario as leverage. The symbolism of a dam-break weighs heavy if this was a contrived event.
TPTB always plan years and decades ahead, and chaos is their favorite weapon. “Will Trump have to send in troupes”. A few days ago he talked about hiring 10,000 new ICE agents for immigration roundups and that makes me a bit nervous, when it’s more control over all of us.
I heard one person on talk radio say that there is an experimental GMO fish facility that would wash those fish into the wild if flooded. They also said that there is an atomic power plant downstream if they dam fails, shades of Fukisima. Does anyone have info on what is at risk downstream, besides the obvious?
As we have a corporate fascist government whose representatives represent only the owners. These Senators/Congresspersons/Presidents are busily destroying/selling-out everything that still remains public[like the post office and waterways( – EVERYTHING!)]
No Accountability to the public, what so ever.
The public; however, will remain the cash cow
upon which slaves labor[dirt cheap]reaps the owners huge rewards.
If you watch the below video you’ll get a bat taste of what’s really cooking.
The dam fits the overall picture being framed, perfectly.
http://usawatchdog.com/drought-number-one-emergency-in-california-ellen-brown/
Oops!
…bad taste.
[Bat is an acquired taste[chicken of the cave]
Chuckle! 😀
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swhEa8vuP6U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbrjRKB586S
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbrjRKB5586s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbrjRKB586s
Unfortunately in some of these articles the world illegal immigrant is code for the descendants of the native people of this hemisphere. This ongoing story of these dams remind of the film Chinatown which dealt with water and land agriculture control greed the usual nefarious goings on that have plague this nation.
With respect to the sabotage hypothesis I have no commitment yet. On 9/12/2001 I was sitting at a pizza palor in Brooklyn NY talking to some friends, and they asked me what I thought happened. Their question was: did I think Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks? I replied to them that based on what I learned about the JFK assassination I will reserve judgment to see what comes up during the “official” and the “alternative” explanations. “I don’t see how Osama bin Laden could have pulled this off from a cave in Afghanistan so I think there is a bigger story here. The truth may be somewhere in the middle.” That advice served me well and those same friends respected me for sharing it then as they watched the alternative narrative unravel the official one. Prudence demands a similar view now.
There are aspects of the Oroville Dam event that remind me of the winter of 2001 already–where people are lining up on either side of the issue too quickly. Both sides were very passionate and neither were willing to listen to the other. With respect to the Oroville Dam both hypotheses require data to substantiate, so it’s imperative that we maintain humble criticism until everyone has a chance to build their models and argue their case.
Global warming is why Hillary lost the election. People in the North are tired of the cold up north and can no longer afford to move to Florida so want Florida weather to move North. Since President Trump wants more coal which will begin anew the global warming Obama stopped in recent years by cutting out coal there was only one candidate they could pick. The more they try and tax it the more Global warming foils the Dems at every turn. When will they learn that people don’t want to be taxed to enjoy better weather and the country could use the jobs and Federal money that will be necessary to update our infrastructure to handle the changing conditions brought on by better weather.
It was very common back in those days for contractors working on these big public projects to find ways to cut costs. Especially if the contractor’s last name ended in a vowel and he was fond of driving to Las Vegas on the weekends to to catch Frankie and Dino performing at the Sands. I’ve heard of padding the concrete with saw dust, but leaving out the rebar on a dam? No wonder Bobby Kennedy was hounding these guys. There are a few interstate overpasses in New Jersey I would never drive my car on (if I had one and didn’t have to rely on the courtesy bus to get me back and forth to Wal Mart and the dog track).
Loved it!
That rebar issue is interesting for me, as I used to work in a concrete factory 20 years ago. I checked few photos from 1960´s to see how they did rebars back then, and its exactly same technique as nowadays, so they can’t just suddenly disappear. Maybe the whole dam was just poorly built, not enough rebars installed in some sections of it.
Right, and not only dams but EVERYTHING built in CA requires rebar because of the threat of earthquakes. Seismic retrofitting of all unreinforced masonry buildings (without rebar) is required.
The Spillway DOES have rebars.
Really high res photos show it, but the low res in computer images that fit a screen (I.e. not zoomed in) don’t show it as it falls under one pixel width.
The spillway is a mile long and wide enough to play football. A 3/8 or exen 1/2 inch rebar wouldn’t even look like a hair. But in close up photos of the break, in hi res, if you zoom in, little bits can be seen.
Excellent…. thank you for the info LGL
sources? photo links?
I cannot see rebar here. maybe one or two 2ft loose strands (morgellons?) no crosslinking – I can see cable that would be (should be) about the same width .
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2969249.1486746627!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_1200/california-storms.jpg
even chicken wire isn’t all that expensive.
obviously global warming has made the waters so acidic that it melts steel that’s why there was no steel at the end of the Towering Inferno movie ( /joke)
I was a concrete contractor for over 20 years and i can tell you they did not and could not use anything smaller than 1″ rebar in a significant grid to uphold the weight and structural integrity of anything thicker than 12″ at that degree of angle without having massive cracking and separation from constant heat and thaw. Sorry, but just an 8″ wall 8′ high for a basement takes #4 bar (1/2″) in a 12″ grid of vert and horiz. members. Multiply that for anything in a high seismic area and for anything over 12″ thick. I also suspect there would be multiple layering. There should be much more evidence of steel reinforcement than just mere arbitrary strands sticking up here and there.
I have a personal stake in this, since an ex-relationship’s family is in the Marysville/Yuba City area, just down the Feather River from the Oroville Dam. They are currently evacuated to high ground, at last info…
I was an aero engineer with lots of experience in fluid flows (water and air), laminar and turbulent boundary layers, and general arcane-stuff of that nature. I have been watching this drama with an engineer’s eye. I also live in the NW, and have seen sizeable potholes bored-into solid lava-rock by trapped-pebbles and the force of the water in Spring runoffs. All it would take is a small ‘imperfection’ in the spillway surface, and the comparatively-soft concrete would be bored-away like butter. This matches the couple’s observations of concrete flying-into the air early in the failure. (The big question is how the ‘imperfection’ got there…)
Well, I noticed on the news last night that the Oroville Dam spillway (not the emergency spillway) has an additional problem. The damaged spillway-section has allowed/forced a massive ‘diversion’ of the waters to the right (in the dam direction). This has cut a sizeable ‘ravine’ into the base of the semi-mesa where the spillway was constructed. If this undercutting continues, a whole face of the semi-mesa might come-down all at once. Depending on the scale of this fall, it could effect the strength of the land ‘pinning’ that side of the dam. Just my structural-engineering analysis…
(In the larger picture, the massive cutting of taxes-received from the superrich and corporations inevitably results in a deficit situation. The superrich then complain about the deficit, and usually manage to get Congress to slash services. The easiest services to cut are in the maintenance/upkeep areas. In that sense, the superrich and the corporations are ‘responsible’ for the current Oroville Dam situation…)
Very well put.
Very well put–and very informative. Thank you for the analysis.
Excellent… thank you for this information!
Where is my “like” button for your comment? Thank you for your “structural”information on the situation.