OROVILLE — Butte County has settled the lawsuit against the state’s Department of Water Resources, stemming from roadway damage caused by the Oroville Dam spillway incident in February 2017.
Repair efforts by DWR resulted in heavy truck traffic on roads maintained by Butte County. The DWR has agreed to provide the county with $12 million for repairs to many of the impacted roads and emergency services.
“The county didn’t have a particular number (in mind),” said Butte County Counsel Bruce Alpert. “There were a lot of different ways to value the roads that were damaged.”
Alpert said the county relied on cost estimates from the Butte County Department of Public Works.
Primary roads damaged during the incident included Royal Oaks Drive, Kelly Ridge Road, Miners Ranch Road, Oro-Bangor Highway, La Porte Road, Los Verjeles Road, Oro-Quincy Highway, Table Mountain Boulevard and Cherokee Road.
The county’s government has full discretion as to the use of the funds, and Alpert said it was “satisfied” with the result of the settlement.
“Remember, the spillway incident was very unique,” Alpert said. “It affected people in Oroville and downstream, but the effect on the county was in responding to the emergency itself and to our roads — the only property damage we sustained was to our roads.”
For nearly all of the remaining civil cases connected to the spillway incident, a court date has been scheduled for June 1, 2020 in the Sacramento County Superior Court; those cases are in consideration together through what is called a coordinated proceeding.
Plaintiffs include the city of Oroville, Bains Properties, LP and Bains Farming, LP; Goose Club Farms, LLC; the South Feather Water and Power Agency and the Association of California Water Agencies Joint Powers Insurance Authority; JEM Farms, LP, et al; and several proposed classes, once of which is for all residents below the Oroville Dam who were forced to evacuate as a result of the failing spillway.
The other three proposed classes would include all owners of real property below the dam who saw their property values decline, those who suffered business losses and anyone who suffered $100,000 or less in damage to real or personal property as a result.
In a joint statement on the settlement, Butte County District 4 Supervisor Steve Lambert and Ted Craddock, DWR’s deputy director of the State Water Project said: “Butte County and DWR are pleased to have come to an agreement that will help Butte County recover from the Spillway Incident and hope to continue to work together to ensure public safety and have a positive impact on the community.”
“It’s a long story, in terms of our unfortunately difficult relationship with DWR over the years,” said Alpert. “We’ll see where it goes from here.”
