At the Rancho Cordova March Luncheon on March 17 Diann Rogers, president and CEO of the Rancho Chamber, introduced Chris Orrock. “Chris and I and his lovely wife Michelle go way back,” said Rogers. “He had a front row seat for the big show up in Oroville a few weeks back.”

On February 12 Orrock, who is public information officer for the California Water Commission and Department of Water Resources, was in Oroville on the Sunday shift and was getting ready to go home when a member of the staff ran up to say something was wrong. “In five minutes a massive amount of people on their cell phones were running toward me,” Orrock said.

Orrock was trying to decide who he needed to talk to and what he needed to do, when an official told him that they had two minutes to leave. “So we take off,” Orrock said. “Meanwhile, as we pull out on the road, the Sheriff issued the evacuation order. All of a sudden the roads are jammed.” Without even a change of clothing, Orrock began his 12-day stint working 19-hour days in Oroville, collecting information and keeping the media and public informed.

The heavy rains had raised the level of Oroville Dam to such a degree that the water was flowing over the emergency spillway. Though the spillway was created for that purpose, it had not ever had to be used since being built in 1968. The problem started as a small hole that began to erode and enlarge. “The worry we had,” Orrock said, “is that erosion was working so fast, if it would have come up... it could have caused its collapse, which would start a domino effect down the line, and have an uncontrolled release of a 30-foot to an 85-foot wall of water coming down the stream into the neighborhood.”

With the help of Cal Fire and many others, the situation came under control, and the evacuation ended. Nevertheless, the reconstruction and repair will continue for months. “Nothing like this has ever happened at any dam in the world,” Orrock said. “We’re learning as we go.” The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Energy Regulation Commission, and numerous other government and nongovernment entities are helping on the project.

Orrock had something to say about the status of the drought, as well. “Just because we get a lot of rain now, doesn’t mean the drought is over,” Orrock said. A big factor still contributing to drought in California is the shortage of groundwater. This has caused the ground to sink, illustrated by the Big Sur bridge and other bridges in the San Joaquin Valley. “The pillars actually no longer touch the bridge, and that’s because of what’s called subsidence,” Orrock said. “... Groundwater is so depleted that it will take years to renew, even if rains continue at the same high rates.” The good news is that there are near record levels of snowpack. “Snowpack is 30% of our total water usage in California.”

Proposition 1, a water bond, was passed in 2014 and provides 2.7 billion dollars for public benefits associated with water storage projects. “It’s not a grant program... it’s an investment program,” Orrock said. “We want to make sure that the residents of California get something back for giving this money to us.”

A vital part of Proposition 1 is above-ground storage. “The majority party didn’t want it,” Orrock said. “The minority party, the Republicans, wanted to continue to try to get some more above-ground storage. So we’re hoping that we’ll get a wide variety of people applying and be able to get most of the groundwater recharged and some above-ground storage.”

American River Brewing Company was the Magic Maker sponsor for this month’s luncheon, appropriately since water is very important to their business. Owner David Mathis provided table decorations of two types of beer, their newest cans, which guests could take home. “Our water comes from Golden State Water, local to Rancho Cordova, and is actually Sierra runoff, so the water is very, very pure,” Mathis said.