Yeti GOBOX Collection

What about this dam?

Ithaca 37

New member
Joined
Mar 4, 2001
Messages
5,427
Location
Home of the free, Land of the brave
This is just one of thousands of dams that will have to be dealt with in the next thirty years. Read this article and you'll understand why. Every dam in the country will eventually be full of mud.

"OJAI, Calif. - The Matilija Dam isn't much of a dam anymore — on rainy days, it looks more like a waterfall. A pile of sediment has built up so high behind the dam that when just an inch of rain falls, water spills over in glistening cascades.


The dam's aging concrete also chokes off sediment and nutrients that could nurture the riverbanks and restore Ventura County beaches downstream. So, it's got to go.


But, tearing down the Southern California structure presents a costly challenge.


The sheer size of its removal will make it one of the most complicated in the country, and the project will carry an expected price tag of $130 million.


"It's not just something that you can go in there and remove in a day," said Steve Evans, conservation director of the Friends of the River, which monitors dam removals across California.


Environmentalists and engineers agree the Matilija Dam has outlived its intended purpose. Officials add that demolishing the 198-foot-high dam would ultimately improve the area's ecosystem — helping restore endangered steelhead trout by allowing them to swim upstream and spawn, and allowing sand to flow downstream and restore eroded beaches.


Jeff Pratt, director of the Ventura County Watershed Protection District, said the sediment makes the reservoir all but useless. The protection district is leading the removal effort.


Plans to remove the Matilija meet state coastal protection requirements. The dam, built in 1947, was created as a means of providing flood control to a handful of small downstream communities and recharging groundwater supplies used by farmers in the sparsely populated Ojai Valley.


Now, the dam cradles mostly rocks and pebbles, and is clogged with 6 million cubic yards of sediment.


"For a long time we looked at the benefits of water development — dams, levees and such — and ignored the costs," said Daniel McCool, a University of Utah political science professor who studies environmental issues. "Now the things that were damaged by the levees and dams are the things that we value."


Part of the Matilija is already gone. Workers took out slabs built with substandard materials, reducing the dam's height to 165 feet in the middle. As the rest is removed, the watershed district will take steps to avoid flooding along the 16 miles of the Ventura River that leads to the Pacific Ocean.


Nationally, at least 145 aging dams have been torn down in the last five years for a host of reasons, including safety.


Among other restoration projects:


Environmentalists want to restore the Louisiana coastline, harmed by dams and channels on the Mississippi. In central Florida, ecologists are removing manmade channels from the Kissimmee River that destroyed wetlands and wildlife.


And on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, planning is under way to dismantle the 108-foot-tall Elwha Dam and the 210-foot-tall Glines Canyon Dam as part of a $182 million plan to restore the Elwha River, reopening 70 miles of salmon and steelhead habitat.


The Matilija's removal won't begin until at least 2007. A proposed plan has been presented for public comment, and funding will need to come mostly from Congress.


The riverbank ranges from lushly shaded to dry and craggy where the river goes underground.




To help what fish remain, engineers designed a series of small pools leading to a holding pond where the trout would be picked up and driven upstream by truck. But rocks carried over the dam by water broke the fish ladder.

The leading proposal for removing the dam calls for gradually pumping 2 million cubic yards of mud to the flood plain downstream. After temporarily stabilizing the rest of the sediment, crews would break the dam down a section at a time, said Pam Lindsey, a watershed district ecologist.

Among the land that could be partially flooded is the riverside estate of Brooks Greene-Barton, a former real estate broker. Greene-Barton supports the dam's removal, even though he and his wife were in escrow to sell the 10-acre property when the prospective buyer backed out because of flooding concerns.

Instead of filing suit, Greene-Barton hopes to lease his land to the district. As an added benefit, he would retain the lush riverbank where his two Labrador retrievers can still play.

"If you love trees and you love the forest — they come back," he said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=43&u=/ap/20041025/ap_on_re_us/dam_removal
 
We have one of those dams out here...Gillespie Dam ...on the Gila river southwest of Buckeye it filled up in less than 10 years....its been worthless since the late 60`s
 
$130 Million isn't too bad a price tag, just 3 or 4 less fighter jets that we send to Iraq. ;)

I'm thinking this will be all the more common in the future.
 
1PT,
I think you a passionate about the environment and your job. I also think you may have an oversimplistic view of what is being done in Iraq.

There are dams that have to come down and most likely they will but to compare the costs to fighter jets is an incorrect comparison.

There are bigger more important things then tearing down aging dams.

Originally posted by 1 Pointer: $130 Million isn't too bad a price tag, just 3 or 4 less fighter jets that we send to Iraq
On Leave from Iraq: Soldier’s time at home offers chance to grieve, decompress
By BECKY SHAY
Of The Gazette Staff

LAUREL - When Spc. Kevin Rogge came home on leave from Iraq, he expected to go off "high alert" and relax with his family.

Then he drove to Miles City and Jordan and it was a little too much like being on patrol.

"I'd swerve way around things in the road," said the 20-year-old soldier, who is trained to watch for roadside explosives. "I wanted to stop the car and set up a checkpoint.



"Being outside, with cars driving by," he said, "I feel like I should've had a weapon in my hand and I shouldn't be standing by the road, I should be standing behind my car."

Rogge has been stationed with the 4th Cavalry of the 1st Infantry Division since February.

On May 24, Rogge's best buddy - the guy he enlisted with in the Army - showed up at his doorstep in Iraq.

Owen Witt, also an Army specialist, was passing through Rogge's camp and stopped to visit his childhood friend.

"He always brightened my day," Rogge said. "Whenever he was around, it was home."

The young men took some pictures - "to send back home," Rogge said - then Rogge walked Witt back to his Humvee. It was the last time the soldiers from rural Eastern Montana saw each other.

Witt was tired, "they'd been going for awhile," Rogge said. Apparently, partway through the trip, Witt moved from driving to manning a .50-caliber weapon on the hatch of a Humvee. A lieutenant took over driving, Rogge said, a man he believes was not only unlicensed but untrained to drive in the blackout conditions of the nighttime convoy. The driver hit a guardrail, the Humvee flipped and Witt was killed.

"It was poor judgment, poor leadership," Rogge said.

The soldiers who Rogge serves with were supportive after his friend died.

"I talked about him a lot, so everybody knew who he was," Rogge said.

His commander gave Rogge extra days off and allowed him to attend a memorial service at the camp where Witt was stationed, but it wasn't enough.

"The hardest part was not being able to come home for the funeral," Rogge said. "I requested to come back with him.

"You do what you have to do and when it's all over, that's when you deal with it."

Coming home this month, he said, was almost overwhelming. There were nervous moments on the plane as he anticipated reuniting with his family and girlfriend at the airport.

"Wow, there were a lot of people," Rogge said. "My mom and little brother and sisters mobbed me as soon as I got down the stairs."

Rogge said he believes in the job that soldiers are doing in Iraq.

"I really think if we weren't over there taking care of it, they'd be over here," he said. "Eventually, hopefully, things won't be like they are. We figure we're going to be there until we stop getting attacked."


Rogge has enjoyed the benefits of being home - spending time with loved ones, including a baby niece and his girlfriend, Macaela, and the indulgence of a daily shower.

"I'm so tired of using Port-A-Johns," Rogge said. "And not having a shower every day. You're always getting dirty and dusty, but most of the time you just get a good wipe off with baby wipes."

Rogge's days at work in Iraq included five-hour patrols, sometimes two a day, with much of the time spent sitting in the heat manning a gun atop a tank.

"We're always trying to find new ways to stay cool," Rogge said.

Locals are "all over" when the soldiers are on patrol, he said. The younger Iraqis ask for food and water. While some Iraqis will bring refreshments to the soldiers, they may also send in rocket-propelled grenades.

"Everyone is always waving," Rogge said. "Most of them are pretty nice, but you never know. That person who came up and talked to you one day may have (a rocket-propelled grenade) the next day."

He purchased two big ice chests to ship to Iraq because the Army-issued coolers the soldiers stow in their tanks are small, he said. Prayers, care packages and support from home are always welcome, Rogge said.

"It motivates us," he said. "It gets rough over there, just being away from everybody. The more support we get and the more we hear about support, the better it is."

Rogge's platoon has been working with the Iraqi National Guard troops, helping train them and watching as they run checkpoints.

"About 10 percent really care about what they are doing, the rest are just doing it for the money because they get paid really well," Rogge said. "At the checkpoints, if you're there, they'll do it how they need to be doing it. As soon as we leave, they just sit down.

"If we want them to do things how we do want them to do it, we're going to have to be there baby-sitting them. Eventually, a few will motivate them to do it," he said. "They really want to get that place changed."

Rogge will begin his return journey to Iraq on Thursday
 
Nemont- I'll never say things involved in war are simple, I've never been there so don't know. I do know that I would like to see Mr. Rogge at home and the $$ being spent in Iraq being spent in Montana or any other state. I fully support the troops and hope not another one is hurt or killed, but not the decision to be there.

Also, did you see the ;) at the end of the sentence? ;) I know my face is fat, but my tongue still shows through my cheek if I push it hard enough! :D
 
1-Pointer,

I did see the ;) at the end of the sentence. SI has been so dead that I trying to lob one in there to get some kind of a debate going.

Anyway wasn't thinking you didn't support the troops or anything like that. Just bored with the SI banter. Hope you weren't offended.

Nemont
 
Nemont- Growing up (and still) being fat causes me to have pretty thick skin. :D I'll see if I can start a topic or two to get some debate going. ;)

'Gunner find you in West Dakota???? :D
 
Man that West Dakota comment again!!! :D Yeah he did get here and he has made it back home. He had to return Via Salt Lake City. :(

It was freezing cold and windy when he was here. Showed him the better part of Northern Phillips County and some of Valley county.

Had a great time and hope to meet up with him again.

Nemont
 
Yeah and you stuck up bastage were duck hunting 10 miles from me and didn't even give me a hollar. I could have shown you some hunting that didn't involve shooting "smilin' mallards" :D :D ;)
 
mtmiller,

Guilty as charged, well except the stuck up part. :D :D It really was my own fault not his. So next time let's get together and shoot some ducks and geese.

That is if they ever arrive down here. We need some good cold weather up north to get them moving down here.

I bet Gunner would have appreciated a better duck hunting guide then having to put up with me. It was like the keystone cops. Even dunked myself under water once.


Won't ignore you again!!!


Nemont

[ 10-27-2004, 16:40: Message edited by: Nemont ]
 
Nemont this is where I should ask you why the dam silting/breaching topic turned into the war in Iraq?? ;) Just messing with you after the
"I some times wonder how far topics can wander?"
question you posed!

You two take any pictures of your hunting exploits or didn't have the underwater camera with ya? If for nothing else that why you guys shuld have hooked up with mtmiller- he takes the best pics on the boards!!
 
Marv,
Pics were taken but nobody will get to see the evidence on a public forum. :D At least I can't load them up because Gunner took all the pics and they are in his camera.

The deal with not meeting mtmiller was stupidity on my part as I didn't even think that he would be hunting that close to us on the same day. Totally my own fault, won't happen again.

Nemont

[ 10-29-2004, 09:16: Message edited by: Nemont ]
 
Given the dam is plugged. Now what was the purpose of the dam in the first place, irrigation, electricity, flood control??????

Gentlemen, back to the usual banter please. ;) ;)

Really, I do see the correlation between plugged up dams creating wetlands, and thusly improving waterfoul hunting...... :rolleyes: :D :D
 
PEAX Trekking Poles

Forum statistics

Threads
110,808
Messages
1,935,208
Members
34,887
Latest member
Uncle_Danno
Back
Top