That message was delivered to a commander for the federal agency overseeing dams in the southwestern United States as part of his visit to Lake Sonoma.

Col. Peter Helmlinger, who leads the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ South Pacific Division, came to Lake Sonoma to check the status of the reservoir and Warm Springs Dam, where the volume of impounded water this week reached the highest level since January 1995, topping out at 125 percent of seasonal capacity. 

“Col. Helmlinger oversees 60 to 70 dams and other projects, and we’re high on his list,” said Mike Dillabough, chief of the Operations and Readiness division for the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ San Francisco Division.

“Our dams are doing just fine. We haven’t identified any safety hazards,” Dillabough said. “Sonoma rates really well. On a scale of one to five, with five being ‘perfect’ and one meaning ‘run for your life,’ Lake Sonoma is a four.”

The visit comes in the aftermath of the failure of an emergency spillway at the Oroville Dam in Butte County that triggered the precautionary evacuation of nearly 188,000 people who live downstream of the reservoir and could have been affected by a collapse of the damaged spillway. Dams and reservoirs across the state have faced increased scrutiny in the wake of the emergency.

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