Oroville Dam Spillway Failure Leads to Short-Notice Evacuation for Thousands

The Wired Word for the Week of February 19, 2017

In the News

Following days of heavy rain, a failure in the auxiliary spillway of northern California's Lake Oroville Dam led last week to an emergency evacuation of as many as 188,000 people from three counties downstream from the dam. The evacuation order came on short notice and resulted in traffic gridlock as residents sought higher ground. The state ordered about 23,000 National Guardsmen to be ready for "immediate deployment if the dam spillway should fail" to help with evacuation and relief efforts.

The fear was that the breakdown of the auxiliary spillway bed could cause erosion farther up the spillway, causing its concrete top to give way and release an uncontrolled 30-foot tall wall of water racing down the valley. There was also some concern that the erosion could spread and undermine the dam itself.

Hours after the evacuation was ordered, the Department of Water Resources said the erosion on the emergency spillway was not advancing as fast as they initially thought.On Tuesday, with the rain subsided and the water level behind the dam sufficiently lowered, the evacuation order was ended and residents were allowed to return home.

The Lake Oroville Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam on the Feather River east of the city of Oroville, California. At 770 feet high, it is the tallest dam in the United States, providing for water supply, hydroelectricity generation and flood control. Due to the rains earlier this month, dam operators began an ongoing flood control release of about 50,000 cubic feet per second down the primary spillway, which is a concrete structure. During this release, a crater, eventually becoming 300 feet wide, 500 feet long and 45 feet deep, opened in the primary spillway.  High inflows to Lake Oroville forced dam operators to continue using the damaged spillway, causing additional damage.

To prevent even further damage, operators decided to allow the water to rise to the point where it would flow over the top of the auxiliary spillway, which has a concrete top but is soil on its slope. Although the dam was completed in 1968, this was the first occasion the auxiliary spillway was used.

Once the lake rose to the level of the auxiliary spillway top, which was built several feet below the height of the main dam, and a massive volume of water flowed down it, its slope began eroding. Sunday's evacuation order came after engineers spotted a hole on the concrete lip of the auxiliary spillway and told authorities that it could fail within the hour.

Although the auxiliary spillway had been designed for this purpose, some observers say that it has been insufficiently maintained, as, apparently, was the primary spillway. In fact, critics say the United States has many poorly maintained dams.

In 2005, three environmental groups filed a motion with the federal government as part of Oroville Dam's relicensing process, urging officials to require that the dam's emergency spillway be armored with concrete, rather than remain as an earthen hillside. The groups said the dam did not meet modern safety standards because extreme rain and fast-rising water would overwhelm the main concrete spillway, then flow down the emergency spillway, and that could cause heavy erosion that would create flooding for communities downstream and threaten the lives of those living there.

Emergency repairs continue on the spillways at the Oroville Dam.   

More on this story can be found at these links:

After Chaotic Exodus, Threat From Troubled Northern California Dam Eases. CBS News
Evacuations Below Oroville Dam Remain in Effect As Officials Try to Make Repairs Before New Storm. Los Angeles TimesHere's the Nightmare Scenario at Oroville Dam That Officials Are Fighting to Prevent.Los Angeles Times
Oroville Dam: Feds and State Officials Ignored Warnings 12 Years Ago. The Mercury News
Oroville Dam, A Failure to Communicate. Scott CahillOroville Dam. Wikipedia

The Big Questions

1. To what degree is the decision to follow Jesus a once-for-all event? To what degree is it something that needs ongoing maintenance?

2. What is the difference between spiritual growth and spiritual maintenance? Why are both important? Where do they intersect?

3. What methods, if any, do you use to maintain your spiritual well-being? When has careless maintenance resulted in a spiritual failure?

4. What have you learned from times you have paid attention to what was happening in your inner spirit? What have you learned from times you have not paid such attention?

5. If you have ever experienced a sudden interruption in your life -- such as having to leave your home on short notice with no assurance it would be there when you returned -- how, if at all, did that change your perspective on what's valuable?  What changes, if any, did you make in where or how you resided thereafter? Did your spiritual preparations and disciplines change once you'd faced calamity? Did it get your spiritual attention?

Confronting the News With Scripture and HopeHere are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:

Matthew 25:1-4
Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids[a]took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. (For context, read 25:1-13.)

These are the opening lines of Jesus' parable of the 10 bridesmaids, where the five who brought extra oil so as to keep their lamps lit were ready when the groom came, whereas the five who didn't bring extra oil could not keep their lamps lit and thus missed the wedding party.

The parable is usually understood as calling for readiness for the return of Christ, but it can also teach about spiritual maintenance in general -- or, to use the metaphor from the parable, keeping our "lamps" lit.

Notice that the problem for the five bridesmaids who missed the party was not that the oil was hard to get. Actually, it was readily available, just not at the last moment in the middle of a crisis. If only those five had taken care of maintaining their oil supply ahead of time, as the other five had, they'd have had no problem.

Questions: What spiritual work do you need to do ahead of time so that sudden turns of events don't find you unready? How do you do that? Have you ever felt caught off guard spiritually? Were others willing to share from their wells of spirituality? Who was there for you at those times?

1 Corinthians 10:12So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. (For context, read 10:1-13.)

This admonition from Paul comes in the midst of his remarks about the spiritual failings of the ancient Israelites while in the wilderness en route from Egypt to Canaan. Paul recites these failings, not to pass on historical information, but as a cautionary tale to call his contemporaries to pay attention to their spiritual lives and not assume that everything's fine without diligent maintenance.

Questions: How does God demonstrate his faithfulness when you are being tempted to do wrong? What spiritual lessons have you learned from your personal history? Is it easier to withstand the spiritual storms that assail us by standing up to them, by kneeling, or by leaning on a fellow believer?

1 Peter 2:1-2Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation … (For context, read 2:1-10.)

It seems to us that in these two verses Peter talks about both spiritual maintenance and spiritual growth.

Ridding ourselves of our malice, etc., sounds like "taking out the trash," which in any household is a routine matter for sustaining a decent environment. While getting rid of such vices permanently can be a goal of spiritual growth, for most of us, the permanentexpulsion of the trashy attitudes is somewhat elusive. But we can work at it daily, taking out that day's trash. That's spiritual maintenance.

At the same time, we can be consuming spiritual milk, the primary elements of faith and the gospel. Restocking the refrigerator is a maintenance item as well, but the consumption of what's there helps us grow.

Question: How would you explain these two verses to someone who was a new convert to the Christian faith?

1 Peter 5:8Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. (For context, read 5:6-11.)
Colossians 4:2
Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. (For context, read 4:2-6.)

Peter uses the word "discipline" in his warning above about not being "devoured" by Satan. In the sense Peter uses the word, it doesn't mean beating yourself up but "training yourself for the development of your inner being." Significantly, "discipline" is from the same root word as is "disciple," which refers to being a learner.

There are several practices that are collectively referred to as spiritual disciplines. They include but are not limited to prayer, Bible reading, attending worship, tithing, good works, fasting, journaling, giving thanks and meditation. In the Colossians verse above, Paul mentions two of these. (Because of personality and temperament differences, not everyone finds all of these equally helpful, but all have proven helpful for many.)

The spiritual disciplines are good for both spiritual growth and spiritual maintenance, and they can help us withstand that roaring adversary Peter mentions.

Questions: Which of the disciplines do you find most helpful? Why? Which ones do you find not helpful? Why?

For Further Discussion

1. Respond to this, from TWW team member Stan Purdum's sermon, "Turning Bread Into Stones": "You probably recognize that the sermon title is a reversal of the statement of Jesus' first temptation in the wilderness. According to Matthew 4, after Jesus had fasted for 40 days and nights in the wilderness, he was 'famished' (which has got to be something of an understatement!). Then the tempter comes to him and says, 'If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.' That apparently is within Jesus' ability, but he does not yield to that temptation. Instead he answers the tempter by quoting a verse from Deuteronomy: 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'
            "Since, unlike Jesus, none of us can change stones into bread, that specific notion would not tempt us. It occurs to me however, that the reverse is true; we sometimes turn bread into stones. That happens in our spiritual lives, when we fail to take nourishment from the means of grace God offers. Those means of grace include such things as prayer, Bible study, good works, giving, Communion, fasting and other religious activities. One way to think about this Bible story is as a reminder not to turn the bread of heaven into something as non-nourishing as stones by letting it sit unused."
            When and how have you turned divine bread into stones? How can avoid do so now?

2. Discuss together the following parable from Jesus, focusing on how it applies to the matter of spiritual maintenance: "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. ..." (Matthew 12:43-45)

3. Would you willingly move into an area downstream of a massive dam? How remote would the chance of a dam failure upstream have to be to put you at ease? Does trust factor into it?

4. Respond to this, from a TWW team member: "Dam repair tends to be low on politicians' spending priorities. It is not glamorous, nor does it offer major opportunities for political favoritism and cronyism. Nor do they often suffer consequences when emergencies occur. Maintenance spending always involves trade-offs, and [officials] often choose glamor (prestige) and quick comfort -- and are especially remiss when it's not their money and they are well insulated from consequences. (Economists call this socializing costs while privatizing benefits and losses.)"

5. To the extent you feel comfortable doing so, describe times when you needed or benefited from spiritual revival and renewal in your long-term relationship with God. What were the signs that the relationship was not what it used to be? Did you find the renewal within your own church? Another? Within your small group? Has this become a regular occurrence or a one-time event?

Responding to the News

This is a good time to learn more about the spiritual disciplines and decide how you might employ them in your spiritual life. Here is one place to start.

Prayer

Make me aware, O Lord, of the threats to my soul when I ignore the means of spiritual maintenance you have provided. Help me to be a diligent disciple. In Jesus' name. Amen.