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ByAndreByik abyik@chicoer.com @andrebyik on Twitter OROVILLE The state De- partment of Water Re- sources Friday said the cost associated with the ongo- ing crisis at Oroville Dam totaled about $100 million through the end of Febru- ary. Estimates for March weren't immediately avail- able, but Bill Croyle, act- ing director of the Depart- ment of Water Resources, said the daily average cost at the dam in February was about $4.7 million, a num- ber previously reported by this newspaper. Croyle noted the costs of repairing or replacing the dam's damaged main spill- way are likely to be "much higher" than early esti- mates of $100 million-$200 million, when other ex- penses are taken into ac- count, such as work done to remove the pile of debris from the Diversion Pool at the base of the spillway. "We're going to know a lot more about some of the costs to repair this site here in the next couple weeks," Croyle said at a press con- ference Friday in Oroville. Teams, he said, have been zeroing in on reconstruc- tion designs of the dam's concrete spillway, which be- gan to crumble Feb. 7. The process was expected to take about two more weeks before officials determine what a reconstructed spill- way could look like. The possible designs have ranged from "inter- esting" to something sim- ilar to what was there be- fore, Croyle said. And de- cisions still must be made regarding whether repairs ahead of the next flood sea- son will be temporary or permanent. Officials expect to whittle their options to two designs, "then we'll go through an assessment of construc- tability, schedule and re- sources," he said. Prepara- tion work at the spillway site already has begun. Meanwhile, dam oper- ators Friday began releas- ing water down the dam- aged main spillway for the first time since flows were halted there Feb. 27. Water officials said re- leases through the spillway would remain steady at a rate of about 50,000 cubic- feet per second for about five or six days, at which point flows would again be reduced. Further, flows through the Hyatt Powerplant were expected to be stopped Fri- day. Officials intend to mon- itor the powerhouse under the dam while the main spillway is in use. The goal, Croyle said, is to be able to safely use both the main spillway and the hydroelectric plant at the same time to manage the reservoir. About 13,000 cfs of water can flow through the powerhouse through the five of its six turbines that are operational. By 3 p.m. Friday, the wa- ter surface elevation at Lake Oroville was about 864 feet, about 37 feet from the lip of the emergency spillway. Releases from the lake were measured at about 50,000 cfs, while inflows were fluc- tuating around 10,000 cfs. Looking forward, the Department of Water Re- sources expects to use the main spillway one or two more times before June 1, depending on weather con- ditions during the runoff season, Croyle said. While flows down the main spillway were halted, crews worked to repair and reinforce the damaged chute, he said. Cracks were cleaned out and caulked, concrete was reconnected to the earth and walls were stabilized. Below the spillway, about 1.25 million cubic- yards of debris has been removed from the Diver- sion Pool to date. About 1.7 million cubic-yards of debris had initially been mapped out. Croyle said work shoring up the hillside below the emergency spillway was expected to be completed in the next few days. Ero- sion threatened the collapse of the emergency spillway's weir Feb. 12, which had caused a mandatory evacu- ation of more than 180,000 people below the dam. An evacuation warning remained in place for ar- eas of Thermalito and Oro- ville, as well as low-lying ar- eas of Butte County along the Feather River. Commu- nity meetings have been scheduled to discuss newly- created evacuation plans in the event of another emer- gency at the dam. Investigators were still collecting information in an effort to determine why the main spillway began to collapse Feb. 7, Croyle said, adding that pertinent in- formation is being passed to designers of the recon- struction effort. OROVILLE DAM Costs top $100 million; spillway reopened DANREIDEL—MERCURY-REGISTER Water begins to pour over the broken lip of the main Oroville Dam spillway as flows are increased Friday to 50,000cubic feet per second. By Sophia Bollag The Associated Press SACRAMENTO Cuts to af- fordable housing funding in President Donald Trump's proposed budget would be devastating to Califor- nia, Democratic state law- makers said Friday, stress- ing that the White House's plans increase pressure on them to address the state's housing crisis. Trump's budget blueprint calls for more than $6 bil- lion in cuts to the federal Housing and Urban Devel- opment Department, in- cluding eliminating Com- munity Development Block Grants and reducing money for public housing. The blueprint likely faces weeks of negotiations and has already drawn opposi- tion from some Republicans and Democrats in Congress, which must approve the budget. But it still has Cal- ifornia lawmakers worried. The average California home costs about two and a half times as much as the average U.S. home, and av- erage monthly rent in the state is 50 percent higher than the rest of the coun- try, according to a Legisla- tive Analyst's Office report from 2015. An estimated 1.5 million California fam- ilies lack access to afford- able housing, lawmakers said Friday, and the state has disproportionately high rates of homelessness. "This is a housing cri- sis that preceded Donald Trump, but it is about to be exacerbated by our presi- dent," Assemblyman Da- vid Chiu, D-San Francisco, said at a news conference. "More homeless will die on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco — the streets of California — if he gets his way. This is why it is impor- tant for us to act." California lawmakers for years have failed to pass major legislation to address the housing crisis. This year, legislative lead- ers identified housing as a priority, but the issue is pe- rennially challenging be- cause it draws many com- peting interests with dif- ferent ideas about how to address the problem. Trump's promised reduc- tions to domestic spend- ing and cuts to the corpo- rate tax rate would reduce available money for individ- ual affordable housing proj- ects by millions of dollars, said Holly Benson of Abode Communities, a Los Ange- les group that builds hous- ing for low-income people. If the Legislature doesn't act, the proposed federal cuts would severely hamper affordable housing creation. "We would do a lot less new construction," if state lawmakers fail to address the problem this session, Benson said. "If we don't have assurance that there are funding sources there at the end of the day to fund these projects, we are not going to take those risks. We are not going to create new housing." Chiu, who chairs the As- sembly's housing commit- tee, has said the Assembly is considering roughly twice as many housing bills this session as it did at the be- ginning of the previous ses- sion. More than 130 housing bills have been introduced in both houses of the Legis- lature. They include propos- als to fund affordable hous- ing through fees on real es- tate transaction documents and cutting mortgage inter- est deductions on vacation homes. Over the past few years, the Legislature has tried to subsidize units for low- income Californians using General Fund revenue. Gov. Jerry Brown has generally opposed those plans, in- stead favoring approaches to streamline housing con- struction by curbing local regulations that slow build- ing and increase costs. 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