Oroville Dam Spillway Incident: Putting Community Safety First While Investigating the Cause

Abstract

The Oroville Dam, and its associated reservoir and hydropower plant facility, is located on the Feather River in Northern California and is owned and operated by the State of California, Department of Water Resources (DWR). At 770 ft high, this earth embankment is the tallest dam in the United States. With its 3.5 million acre-ft of storage, Lake Oroville is the second largest reservoir in California, supplying water as far south as Los Angeles.