Trump administration reverses itself, will pay California for Oroville Dam fixes

In a rare reversal, the Trump administration has agreed to reimburse California for hundreds of millions of dollars in repair costs stemming from the 2017 emergency at Oroville Dam.

UPDATE: FEMA reverses itself on Oroville Dam funds, but still denies millions to California

The state Department of Water Resources said Thursday the Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed to cover approximately $300 million in repair costs the agency had previously denied.

All told, the state now expects to be reimbursed for approximately $750 million of the $1.1 billion cost of the crisis, said DWR spokeswoman Erin Mellon. By law, the federal agency can reimburse up to 75 percent of the costs.

“DWR is grateful to FEMA staff for their time, dedication (and) continued support over the past three years,” she said in an email.

Last March, FEMA said it wouldn’t pay for problems lurking at America’s tallest dam before the crisis erupted in 2017. Those included flaws in the upper end of the dam’s flood-control spillway, which didn’t cause the 2017 emergency but the state decided to repair anyway. The state appealed the decision.

Jerry Quinn, a Sacramento consultant who helps government agencies recover money from FEMA, said he was surprised by this week’s decision.

“This is pretty rare, and for California it’s huge money,” Quinn said.

FEMA officials couldn’t be reached for comment.

All costs not covered by FEMA are borne by the member agencies of the State Water Project, which runs Oroville Dam and delivers water to millions of Californians.

The crisis at Oroville began Feb. 7, 2017, when a giant crater appeared in the middle of the flood-control spillway during a massive rainstorm. DWR engineers curtailed water releases to limit the damage on the 3,000-foot-long concrete chute, but the lake level rose so high that water began pouring over the adjacent emergency spillway — a concrete lip sitting atop a natural hillside — for the first time since the dam opened in 1968. Within a day, the hillside eroded so badly officials feared much of it would crumble, sparking the evacuation of 188,000 downstream residents.

A team of forensic investigators later blamed “long-term systemic failure” by state and federal officials, citing defects in design, construction and maintenance going back to the 1960s.

This story was originally published February 20, 2020 at 5:11 PM.