Page - 49 - in Book of Full Papers - Symposium Hydro Engineering

DWR’s Oroville Field Division activated the Oroville Incident Command Team (OICT) in Oroville. The team began field-level emergency response activities, regular communications and coordination with the Project Operations Center (POC), and the DOC. The OICT first organized and developed staffing to assess the FCO Spillway and adjacent facilities, develop risk assessments, develop and implemented immediate mitigation measures, and communicate with partners, local agencies and officials, regulatory agencies, and other State and Federal agencies. The OICT was charged with managing all on-site emergency response activities with support from the DOC and the POC. All DWR resources were made available under a Department declared State Water Project Emergency. The DOC management team was immediately set up and quickly addressed staffing and operational location questions/concerns. Full activation of the DOC was critical to coordinate, monitor, assess, plan, and respond to the very dynamic conditions at the Oroville Dam facility and the high-water conditions throughout the State. This was important to ensure that all DWR resources were tasked effectively and to ensure the public’s safety. DWR’s Acting Director declared a Department Emergency on February 8, 2017, based on internal briefings and field verifications. These briefings provided extensive information regarding the status of the FCO Spillway chute damage, current and anticipated reservoir inflows, forecast reservoir elevations, and downstream infrastructure and potential threats to public safety. This declaration was done to ensure that all DWR resources were made available to respond to and recover from the incident. This declaration was critical to initiating the largest emergency response in DWR’s history, and allowed re-tasking of DWR management and staff, consultants and contractors, and the use of emergency contracting for emergency services and resources not currently available. The POC was also immediately activated in Sacramento to support the Oroville Dam Spillway Incident. The POC, in close coordination with the State Water Project Deputy Director and the DOC, was charged with providing State Water Project system- wide assessments, hydrology forecasts, reservoir routing, assessments of threats and response alternatives, cost forecasting, and executive briefings to DWR directorate and the State Operations Center (SOC). The POC was critical in managing the dynamic environment at the Oroville Dam facilities with close coordination with the Oroville Incident Command Team (OICT). 49