"Oroville Dam Investigators Say Inspectors Missed Clues"

"There was no shortage of red flags at Oroville Dam. It was a matter of knowing where to look.

A team of independent experts charged Tuesday that the state and federal officials who inspected Oroville Dam relied too heavily on visual inspections, ignoring blueprints, construction records and other documented clues that could have warned them about the dam’s troubled flood-control spillway long before it fractured in February. The fracture led to near-catastrophe and the evacuation of thousands of residents.

The team of forensic investigators, commissioned by the state Department of Water Resources to study the cause of the February crisis, said similar problems could be lurking at other dams in California and around the country because of an over-reliance on visual inspections."

Dale Kasler and Ryan Sabalow report for the Sacramento Bee September 5, 2017.

SEE ALSO:

"Oroville Dam: Experts Fault Design, Construction Of Spillway" (AP)

"Officials Missed Big Picture Before Oroville Dam Spillway Failed, Experts Say" (San Francisco Chronicle)