Portfolio

Slate developed a remedial solution to mitigate potential significant seismic deformations of Magalia Dam, which provides supplemental drinking water to the town of Paradise. Magalia Dam is a hydraulic fill earth embankment dam in Butte County, constructed between 1917 and 1918. Considered a High Hazard facility with a Poor condition status by the Division of Safety of Dams, Magalia’s retrofit is a priority to prevent loss of life in the case of dam failure. As a result of its risk, a restriction was placed on the maximum allowable reservoir surface elevation, decreasing the dam's storage capacity by nearly 60 percent.

Slate is working with the Paradise Irrigation District and a team of engineers to reduce the seismic deformation potential to an acceptable level for life safety, and so the reservoir can resume operating at its normal capacity. Slate performed an alternatives analysis to determine a practical and cost-effective solution to mitigate the dam’s risk of seismic deformation and developed conceptual drawings and cost estimates for construction. Slate is now developing plans and specifications for overwater drilling and constructing the chosen alternative.