The Mercury News » While it has been assumed the federal government will pay 75 percent of the now-$870 million cost for repairing the Oroville Dam spillways, the agency that actually would allocate the money has been hedging on whether that is the case. FEMA has stated it can’t fund a project where the agency determines there was a “lack of maintenance,” and can only provide reimbursements to bring facilities back to their “pre-disaster design,” according to the release.