It should be noted that the dam itself is not at risk of collapse (as far as anyone knows), the main spillway which controls overflowing failed and now the auxiliary spillway is just dumping water into regular forest which causes a bunch of crap to accumulate.
My company operates the drinking water in the area and as you can imagine, the flooding of treatment stations/muddy water in your surface water is not good but the groundwater wells are fine. I work in the Water Quality department and when I called the PM for Oroville on Friday, he went on about how the State doesn't realistically expect to be able to control this and start repairs until Spring maybe. If the snowpack starts melting rapidly, it could get really ugly.
People should be fine but property and wildlife are going to impacted.
