#586 Folsom Dam Spillway #586
by William Lum
Title
#586 Folsom Dam Spillway #586
Artist
William Lum
Medium
Painting - Watercolor
Description
On the morning of July 17, 1995, the Folsom Dam power plant was shut down and Spillway Gate 3 was opened to maintain flows in the American River. As the gate was operated, a diagonal brace between the lowest and second lowest struts failed. The failure resulted in the uncontrolled release of nearly 40% of Folsom Lake and a flood of 40,000 cubic feet per second (1,100 m3/s) moving down the American River. The freshwater reaching San Francisco Bay was atypical for the summer season. This confused Pacific salmon and striped bass, whose instincts told them that fall rains had arrived, thus they began their annual fall migrations months ahead of schedule. After a year’s investigation they found and fixed the engineering design flaw, spent $20,000,000 in repair, and the dam industry improved maintenance and monitoring of radial gates.
On September 1st in 2019 the Folsom Lake level was at 444 feet. This year on September 1st, because of the severe drought it’s only at 375 feet at 24% capacity. On an average year, it would normally be at 38% capacity. This not a good year for stored water. Rainy season kicks in around January and we can only hope that we get a wet year to turn things around. If we’re really lucky, we will have heavy rain and lots of excess water coming out of the spillway in the winter.
This 11” X 15” watercolor was done on Arches, 140 lb, rough paper.
Uploaded
September 3rd, 2021
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