A comprehensive panel discussion covering lessons learned during last spring’s spillway failure at Oroville Dam was a highlight of the annual Dam Safety conference, hosted by the Association of State Dam Safety Officials in San Antonio, Sept. 10-14.
“There were a number of competing threats and challenges at Oroville,” said William Croyle, who was acting director of the California Dept. of Water Resources, the dam owner, at the time of the incident (he has since retired). “We realized that sometimes mitigation of one threat would increase risk elsewhere.”