Watch Here: https://youtu.be/vRUijRPcs54

OFFICIAL DWR PRESS RELEASE:  April 26, 2019

Oroville’s current reservoir elevation is 877 feet, an increase of 10 feet from last week. Total releases to the Feather River have also increased slightly to 10,500 cubic feet per second (cfs). Oroville’s operations plan is designed to safely accommodate inflows from the above average snowpack, and DWR is aiming to keep lake levels high through spring and summer. Currently, releases from the Hyatt Powerplant are adequate to meet operational requirements of the reservoir and there is no need to use the main spillway at this time. However, we may need to use the main spillway again this year to manage inflows from increased snow melt. DWR will notify the public and media of any planned use of the main spillway.

The main spillway performed as designed when it was used April 2 through April 10, with releases topping out at 25,000 cfs. DWR engineers will continue to perform a thorough inspection of the main spillway to further evaluate its performance and will continue to be visible on the spillway structure. Water currently seen on the spillway results from normal seepage through the spillway radial gates, which are designed to not be watertight. Sandbags are used to direct the flow of water to one side of the spillway or the other to allow for safe access by DWR engineers.

DWR contractors have begun repaving operations on the Oroville Dam Crest Road, the Spillway Boat Launch facility and other area roadways. Paving construction vehicles will continue to use Hyatt Access Road through May 29. Motorists and residents should anticipate additional construction traffic on Canyon Drive and on Oro Dam Blvd. East to the Hyatt Access Road Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. We apologize for any inconvenience and will notify you if there are any changes. Thank you for your continued patience.

Additional PSA: "Dearest unwitting citizens living in the path of an inland tsunami/damn catastrophe: we don't need to use the main spillway because we only built it to look at it...ain't it pretty? We think it's so pretty that we run around all night long looking at it with flashlights...pay no attention to the Saran wrap, caulking guns and corks we might be carrying around...it's this fun game we like to play called 'Shoots and Ladders'; Engineer's edition.

Anywho, even though twice the amount of water is flowing in than is being released, everything is great! We see no problem with that! Lordy, we dont even NEED to use the main spillway which we have recently renamed the 'Ornamental Spillway' in honor of our genius politicians & KP. 

Just for fun, we might use the Ornamental Spillway for no reason at all and we promise to tell you when we do so you can avoid flying boulders.

When we built the Ornamental Spillway, as a great American work of Folk Art, we may have mentioned something about 100k cfps release capacity but that was just a silly joke. Works of art only run at at 25k cfps, silly, and then, only for 10 minutes. We thought you knew that!

Therefore, we conclude this PSA with a reminder that the Great American Ornamental Spillway is sorta like the beautiful spectacle of the fountains at the Bellagio in Vegas where we already bet the rest of the Folk Art slush fund on the formerly known 'emergency spillway' which has been renamed to the 'We-sure-hope-that-concrete-slapped-on-top-of-some-dirt-holds spillway' or the 'ELE Spillway' for short.

How could you EVER hate our damn cute, sad-eyed yellow cousin of Nemo who promises everything is going to be peachy? Our cute, little, stun-gun-friendly, fake-news fish will be spouting new and even more creative lies to you here in the VERY near future AFTER we have taken more mind-altering drugs and figured out how to come up with the crazy sh*t we have told you so far. Thank you, citizens of the great lake valley! Big Brother loves you, our cute little yellow damn fish loves you