Oroville – Just how many people are out working at Oroville Dam in response to the spillway emergency and how much is it going to cost?

Both reporters and elected representatives have struggled to get an answer to that question.

The short answer is this: the Department of Water Resources has 160 employees and anywhere from 300-500 contractors responding to the spillway situation, the DWR told this newspaper Monday. The department has not officially released information about costs of repairs.

“Regarding estimated daily cost of labor, we’re focused on emergency response and recovery efforts. It would be premature to estimate costs at this time,” DWR public information officer Lauren Bisnett wrote in an email Monday.

Representatives from the California Office of Emergency Services and the state’s Finance Department previously told this newspaper DWR was accountable for keeping track of the costs for the project.

On Wednesday afternoon, Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, said he was expecting to hear about costs accrued, as the DWR met with the Federal Emergency Management Agency earlier Wednesday to discuss repair and maintenance costs related to damage of the spillways.

Curtis Grima, Gallagher’s chief of staff, later said in an email that according to conversations with DWR officials, the estimated daily average cost is $4.7 million.

It is estimated that between 75 percent-90 percent of the cost will be reimbursed by FEMA, Grima’s email said.

There are a number of work sites around the dam.

Contractors are removing debris below the damaged main spillway, with about 620,000 cubic yards of material out of a total 1.7 million cubic yards removed as of Wednesday, a DWR press release said.

Crews are also working to reinforce the area beneath the emergency spillway weir in case it needs to be used again. Tons of rock has been trucked in for that process.

Repairs are also underway on the main spillway to keep it from eroding further when it is brought back in use. DWR said Wednesday it expects that to happen about March 17.

The department is also monitoring flows and attempting to get the Hyatt Powerplant running at full speed. It currently has three or four out of six turbines running.

And roads torn up from the heavy traffic responding to the emergency are starting to be repaired.

The work is using vast numbers of heavy equipment that has to be hired, including excavators, dump trucks, gravel trucks, concrete pumpers, barges and helicopters.

The department gave a vast range for the number of contractors working at the dam.

Some contractors’ employees are Local 3 Operating Engineers union members, the majority of whom have been working 12-hour shifts seven days a week, said Ron Roman, district representative for the union. Roman estimated there are about 150-170 operating engineers working at the dam.

For that tiny slice of the pie, consider union operating engineers’ wages. On the low end of the spectrum, working 12-hour shifts every day would amount to $6,051 a week. On the high end, weekly wages could be $7,336 per week.

These figures come from wage determinations for heavy and highway work operating engineers on the Department of Industrial Relations website, taking into account the lowest and highest classifications for the area, adding “straight-time” wages at 40 hours, plus 22 overtime hours at 1.5 times the normal rate and 12 hours on Sunday at double the normal wage rate.

The heaviest work has been going on more than three weeks to the Feb. 12 emergency spillway crisis, but some crews arrived on scene after the main spillway broke on Feb. 7.

Gallagher said DWR, water contractors and the governor’s office have assured the State Water Contractors will shoulder the costs to repair the spillways and improve dam infrastructure, with some money coming from the federal government. Gallagher assured taxpayers won’t be paying for work at the dam and that no money for the project will come out of the Proposition 1 water bond.

Gallagher’s office is also looking into long-term costs “to improve the emergency spillway and build back the main spillway to a state-of-the-art standard,” he added.