Yuba Water Agency has awarded an engineering contract worth up to $8 million as it begins planning to rebuild the penstock pipe that ruptured above New Colgate Powerhouse in February. The agency selected GFT Inc. to conduct engineering and design services related to the damaged penstock. A penstock is a large, pressurized pipe that carries water from a reservoir into a hydropower plant and then back into the river. The penstock rupture occurred Feb. 13, when a 15-foot-diameter section of pipe failed above New Colgate Powerhouse, releasing an estimated 400 acre-feet of water down the hillside. … It also led to the deaths of hundreds, possibly thousands, of juvenile salmon after lower Yuba’s river flows dropped by more than half.

Other infrastructure rupture news:

• San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Never going to feel safe’: California neighborhood flooded with over 1 million gallons of sewage​