Did You Know...

...that California's Oroville Project during the last 12 years has saved more than $1.3 billion in flood damages? Oroville Dam was built in the mid-1960s at a cost of about $187.8 million, as a multi-purpose project to provide water supply, flood control, power generation, and fish and wildlife enhancement. The total cost of the dam, powerplants and other related facilities was $563.8 million. Oroville is the key facility of the State Water Project. Two-thirds of the State s 32 million inhabitants, about 21 million people, and 600,000 acres of farmland depend on the State Water Project for their water supply. The Oroville Project s Edward Hyatt powerplant, combined with the downstream Thermalito facilities, has a licensed hydropower capacity of 760 MW and produces about 2.2 billion kilowatt hours of energy annually. Oroville Reservoir, with its storage capacity of more than 3.5 million acre-feet, is also a popular recreation area.

During the 30 years prior to the construction of Oroville, the Feather and Sacramento Rivers experienced more than $400 million in actual flood damages. During the flood of January 1997 alone, Oroville reduced peak flood flows at the dam from more than 300,000 cfs to 160,000 cfs. Flooding below the confluence of the Yuba River was reduced from 530,000 cfs to 315,000 cfs. The 1997 flood set flood records on most rivers it affected. The savings in damages during this single flood event were more than $1 billion.

(reprinted from the USCOLD Newsletter, March 1999, page 3)