Hydropower sector participants usually at odds—industry firms, dam safety groups and environmental advocates—now are finding common ground in project funding and new legislation.
The historic Derby Dam diverts water into the Truckee River that would otherwise flow into Pyramid Lake. However, that diversion led to the near extinction of the endangered native Lahontan cutthroat trout in the lake.
To remediate seismic safety issues and enhance flood-handling capacity at the concrete thin-arch dam, the $32-million project called for cutting a notch in the existing structure, placing a new ogee-shaped spillway and installing reinforced armor at the dam’s base.
While the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved $205 million in federal funds to reimburse California for costs to reconstruct the Oroville Dam spillways damaged by 2017 flooding, it declined to pay the remaining $306 million that the state’s Dept. of Water Resources (DWR) had requested.
When Texas A&M had the chance to snag a “superstar” to join an academic team for the first national study of urban flooding scope and consequences, it knew just who to ask: Gerry Galloway.
The contractor will construct a 134-m-high RCC dam and four saddle dams, with a combined capacity to impound approximately 34 billion cubic meters of water.