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CapitalPress.com
May 12, 2017
California
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Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press
In this Feb. 28 photo, a small flow of water goes down Oroville
Dam’s crippled spillway near Oroville, Calif. California is asking the
federal government to pay for 75 percent of the cost of repairing
the badly damaged spillways at the nation’s tallest dam, a state
water agency spokeswoman said Monday. The repairs will cost
hundreds of millions of dollars, she said.
State asks federal taxpayers
to fund Oroville Dam repairs
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO —
California is asking the feder-
al government to pay 75 per-
cent of the cost of repairing
the badly damaged spillways
at the nation’s tallest dam, a
state water agency spokes-
woman said Monday.
The total bill could be hun-
dreds of millions of dollars,
she said.
The question of whether
taxpayers or the water con-
tractors that get water via the
Oroville Dam would foot the
biggest share of the bill has
been one of many contentious
ones in the aftermath of this
winter’s damage at the dam,
which is an anchor of the
state’s water supply system.
Heavy flows of water in
and out of the half-centu-
ry-old structure in February
gouged massive holes in
both of the dam’s water-re-
lease spillways, forcing the
evacuation of 188,000 people
downstream for two days. The
state Department of Water Re-
sources is rushing to strength-
en the damaged main spillway
before the next rainy season.
The state has begun apply-
ing to the Federal Emergency
Management Agency to ask
for federal funds to cover 75
percent of all construction
work there, water department
spokeswoman Erin Mellon
said.
President Donald Trump
agreed to designate the dam
crisis a federal disaster earli-
er this year, making it eligible
for federal financial assistance.
As far as state officials are
concerned, the “construction
work is all considered emergen-
cy work because of the public
safety concerns,” Mellon said.
State water contractors
who get water via the dam’s
Lake Oroville, the state’s sec-
ond-largest reservoir, would
pay for whatever remaining
costs that “FEMA and other
sources like FEMA” don’t,
Mellon said.
FEMA has not yet told
California whether it agrees
that all of the repairs planned
at the Oroville Dam site are an
emergency that qualifies for
the federal disaster funding
Last week, the Department
of Water Resources obtained
a $500 million letter of credit
to finance the repairs ahead of
any reimbursement.
Repair costs so far come
to about that same amount,
including a $275 million con-
tract awarded last month.
Trump announced $274
million in funding for the dam
repairs last month.
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Hot saw operator Loren German talks to fifth-graders from Cottonwood Creek Charter School in Cottonwood, Calif., during a logging
education day May 3 near Viola, Calif. The Sierra Cascade Logging Conference hosted the field trip.
Logging education day touts
technology, vocational training
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
VIOLA, Calif. — High
school junior Jose Soto
was amazed to see how
advanced technology has
revolutionized the logging
industry.
His father and uncle were
loggers, and they “used to
do it the old-fashioned way
with chainsaws,” the stu-
dent from Corning, Calif.,
said as he watched a tree
delimber and a track skidder
work together during a field
trip to a logging site.
“It’s interesting to see
how far it’s gone since the
early days,” Soto said.
His friend, junior Jose
Cruz, noted that timber har-
vesters are paid well.
“It’s a good job,” he said.
“It pays good and it’s out in
the woods.
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
High school students from Corning, Calif., watch as a worker from
Creekside Lumber Co. uses a delimber to take bark and small
limbs off a log. Some 600 elementary through high school
students were given a tour of an active logging site.
The intersection of sci-
ence, technology and voca-
tional training was a key fo-
cus of the annual education
day in the woods May 2-3,
hosted by the Sierra Cas-
John Deere Dealers
See one of these dealers for a demonstration
cade Logging Conference.
Some 600 Northern Cal-
ifornia elementary through
high school students were
given a tour of an active
logging site near Viola,
about 40 miles east of Red-
ding, to engage them about
the industry.
The students stopped at
about 15 stations as pre-
senters taught them about
such topics as water quality
control, fire prevention and
forest replanting.
In recent years, present-
ers have stressed the indus-
try’s technological advance-
ments as a way to attract
tech-savvy youngsters seek-
ing careers in computers.
Loggers talked about how
vocational education in the
industry can lead to reward-
ing careers.
Timber jobs are a way
Northern California young-
sters can stay in the re-
gion and do something
they’ll enjoy, said Chris
Pope, an instructor for
the heavy equipment pro-
gram at Shasta College in
Redding.
Salaries can start at
about $17 an hour and
work up to as much as $50
an hour plus benefits, he
said.
“Operators have become
a lot more skilled at what
they do,” Pope said. “It’s
not just pulling levers with
hairy knuckles anymore.”
Patty Franks was among
a team of Shasta College
students showcasing a front-
line fire bulldozer. She said
she was drawn to consider a
career in heavy equipment
operation by the money that
can be made.
“Everything’s
hands-
on,” she said of the col-
lege’s vocational program.
“It’s great.”
Like many of his class-
mates, Soto found the idea
of working in logging ap-
pealing.
“It’s really interesting,
and you get really captivat-
ed by all they’re doing,” he
said.
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
19-1/#4N
Students Patty Franks, above,
and Heather Boswell, who
are in the heavy equipment
program at Shasta College in
Redding, Calif., showcase a
frontline fire dozer at a logging
education day May 3 near
Viola, Calif. The students say
advances in computer technol-
ogy in equipment helped draw
them to the program.