: a passage for surplus water to run over or around an obstruction (such as a dam)
Examples of spillway in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the WebHad that not been done between 2018 and 2021, and regular excavations conducted since, last week’s storm would have forced officials to release a full-to-the-brim reservoir through the dam’s spillway, Pestrella said.—Rong-Gong Lin Ii, Los Angeles Times, 11 Feb. 2024 In 1914, it was reinforced with concrete poured over its stone work, including the spillway.—Mark Pazniokas, Hartford Courant, 11 Jan. 2024 The California Department of Water Resources on Wednesday began releasing water from Oroville Dam’s main spillway.—David Caraccio, Sacramento Bee, 1 Feb. 2024 Unusually heavy rains could trigger a premature opening of 67-year-old Whittier Narrows Dam’s massive spillway, according to the report, posing a potentially catastrophic risk to the more than 1 million people who live and work in the San Gabriel River flood plain east of downtown Los Angeles.—Louis Sahagún, Los Angeles Times, 6 Feb. 2024 The earlier lawsuit said the corps was required to consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service before opening the spillway.—Emily Wagster Pettus, The Christian Science Monitor, 25 Jan. 2024 The spillway was opened twice, for a record-high total of 123 days, because of severe Mississippi River flooding caused by heavy rainfall.—Anita Lee, ProPublica, 22 Mar. 2023 Sikkim Urja Limited, which handles the operation of the dam, has confirmed that the dam’s spillway gates couldn’t be opened in time to try to accommodate the flood.—WIRED, 24 Oct. 2023 But if the spillway is not built to a sufficient size or the pipes are too narrow for the strength of the storm, the water continues to rise.—James Glanz, New York Times, 16 Sep. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'spillway.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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