for carryover storage into next year she added a section of lake oroville is seen nearly dry aug 19 2014 in oroville calif justin sullivangetty images file officials began ordering the strategic release of water as soon as the melting began fearing the devastating flooding that would occur from the rapid warmup in temperatures those releases could temporarily increase to keep up with increasing water flows and maintain safe water levels earlier this month total releases to the feather river amounted to 8000 cubic feet per second cfs an additional 4000 cfs was released from the thermalito afterbay river outlet located 5 miles downstream from oroville according to the dws the department is closely monitoring the inflow of water runoff into the lake as well as evaluating the lake levels and downstream needs to determine how much water to release at any given time nemeth said more are rising water prices amid the western megadrought inevitable yes but its complicated experts say oroville lake sits behind the tallest dam in the country the oroville dam at 7705 feet and provides hydroelectric power to the edward hyatt power plant the fourthlargest in the country in an aerial view houseboats sit anchored at bidwell canyon marina on lake oroville june 15 2023 in oroville calif justin sullivangetty images the plant was forced to close in 2021 when the recordlow water levels were too low to flow downstream in 2017 nearly 200000 residents living near lake oroville located about 75 miles north of sacramento were forced to evacuate after heavy rainfall damaged the dams spillways which could have allowed for uncontrolled floodwaters to release downstream those spillways were rebuilt to the highest engineering design and safety standards and continue to operate as intended and designed nemeth said