The UCLA Civil & Environmental Engineering Department, with co-sponsorship by the Los Angeles Geo-Institute Chapter, is pleased to announce that the second Leslie A. and Dennis J. Drag Distinguished Lecture in Civil Engineering will be delivered by David A. Gutierrez. The 2017 Oroville Dam Incident and subsequent recovery will be described.

Abstract
Oroville Dam is located on the Feather River in Northern California. At 770-feet tall, this earth embankment is the tallest dam in the United States. With its 3.5 million acre-feet of storage, it’s the second largest reservoir in California, supplying water to cities throughout the State, providing flood protection to downstream cities and towns, and supplying hydropower and recreation. The multipurpose dam and reservoir is part of the State Water Project, which is owned and operated by the State of California, Department of Water Resources (DWR).

On February 7, 2017 a very large precipitation event was occurring over the Feather River Basin – an event desperately needed after more than 5 years of extended drought. During the precipitation event, the Flood Control Spillway (Gated Spillway) was releasing water to control the reservoir level according to the prescribed operations plan. During this operation, the Gated Spillway suffered a failure of the lower chute area eventually resulting in the loss of approximately 1400 linear feet of the lower spillway chute, including the scour of more than 1.6 million cubic yards of earth. During the same event, the Emergency Spillway was used for the first time since the project was completed in 1969. During this operation, significant erosion and scour caused by the overflow led authorities to fear for the safety of the spillway structure, resulting in the activation of the Emergency Action Plan and evacuation of about 180,000 persons from downstream communities.

The presentation will describe a general overview of the incident and the immediate engineering recovery that took place simultaneously as the emergency was unfolding. It will provide detail to the spillways incident as it unfolded, the decisions made to protect the public, the incident command system, the situation that led to evacuations and actions taken in the days and weeks after damage to the chute spillway.

Speaker Bio
David Gutierrez is a Vice President and the Dams Practice Leader for GEI Consultants. He has worked on a variety of projects over his career including projects specific to dams, levees and groundwater. He previously worked for the Department of Water Resources for over 37 years in a variety of capacities including the Chief of the Division of Safety of Dams (DSOD), Executive Manager of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Program, Deputy Director for Public Safety working on Floodsafe and Deputy Director for Business Operations. He has Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Civil Engineering from California State University, Sacramento. He is a registered professional civil and geotechnical engineer in the State of California. David was previously the President of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials, member of the National Dam Safety Review Board, member of the Department of Homeland Security Government Coordinating Council and is currently a member of the Strong Motion Instrumentation Advisory Committee. One of his more recent assignments included assisting the Department of Water Resources during the emergency at Oroville Dam and the ultimate recovery of the spillway.