I spent the afternoon researching the files of what used to be the State Board of Water Engineers in connection with yet another lawsuit. You never know what will turn up and this afternoon provided one of the more amusing things I've read in a report upon an inspection of a concrete dam.
The dam was built in the 1920's by a city in North Texas with great expectations of needing more than the approximately 800 acre-feet of surface water they presently withdraw from a stream that otherwise would have flowed into the Brazos River. They got a permit to appropriate up to 45,000 acre-feet of water per annum from the reservoir that their dam might theoretically impound. That reservoir is still a critical part of the water supply system for the city, even if the booming metropolis that various optimists in residence there ninety years ago imagined never became a reality. If the dam fails, there is definitely going to be a problem.
The dam was in highly questionable condition at the time of the inspection about twenty-five years ago (and probably still is), but the city had not been doing a very good job at all of inspecting it. "And why was that?" you ask. Well, I'll let the engineer's report explain the situation: "The City staff does not inspect the dam, especially the inside [an 800-foot gallery], on a regular basis. There were numerous stories shared [by them] about Satan worshipers using the dam for their ceremonies, and there is some fear among the staff because of these stories."
Is that Williamson Dam?
Everybody knows that's THE place to go for satanic rituals...
> Is that Williamson Dam?
>
> Everybody knows that's THE place to go for satanic rituals...
LOL! Yes, that's Williamson Dam near Cisco in Eastland County.
My father was a civil engineer (and surveyor) in north Texas. I believe he did some work at the reservoir in the late 40's and early 50's, possibly at the WTP (that was his thing).
If I remember his stories, they always had to operate the lake quite a bit lower than originally planned because a railroad route would be inundated at the planned levels.
If it's the same place, he use to talk about the water quality. Apparently high mineral contents of some sort.
> My father was a civil engineer (and surveyor) in north Texas. I believe he did some work at the reservoir in the late 40's and early 50's, possibly at the WTP (that was his thing).
Hello! He didn't lay out a whole bunch of "lake lots" on the North shore of Lake Cisco, did he? Those aren't a part of the lawsuit. I'm just curious.
> If I remember his stories, they always had to operate the lake quite a bit lower than originally planned because a railroad route would be inundated at the planned levels.
Yes, the M-K-T Railroad Co. actually got a court injunction against the City of Cisco that required the City to operate the late at a level about 24 ft. lower than they had been. That was to prevent the roadbed of the track along the West side of the lake from washing out.
No lots in Cisco
Don't think he layed any lots out down there, that was during his early years.
I think he fancied himself an infrastructure engineer during that time. He was always into hydrology and water distribution. We lived near Dallas at my grandfather's place "way out" on NW Highway by the Elm Fork of the Trinity during those years. I think my granddad's place is a Tropicana Inn & Suites now.
He did get into land development after working on the Homestake Water Line Project in Colorado that took water from Taylor Reservoir across Buffalo Peaks into South Park, 1964-1965.
You sure travel a lot in your work, Kent. I guess that's normal for the size of Texas, though. How many miles do you put on a vehicle before you park it out back?
No lots in Cisco
> You sure travel a lot in your work, Kent. I guess that's normal for the size of Texas, though. How many miles do you put on a vehicle before you park it out back?
Oh, I just like to survey someplace new where you never know what you're going to get to follow. As for mileage, my twenty-year-old 3/4-ton GMC Suburban only had a bit over 200,000 miles on the clock when it was forced into retirement in 2005 by some folks who ran into it one rainy morning on US 90. I was heading out to a ranch, knowing that it would probably be dry by the time I got to the gate and they were apparently relying upon St. Goodyear to give the tires on their pickup more traction at high speed on curves than the laws of physics predicted.
No lots in Cisco
Although we converse in English on this site, there are some who are incapable of recognizing it when they see it. Roughly half of what Kent writes is incomprehensible to the buttonpusher crowd. The longest word they know is ENTER.
No lots in Cisco
Nothing wrong about being succinct and erudite.
YOS
DGG
We used to do a yearly flood control dam monitor survey.
Angles, distances, levels up the ying-yang.
One year in the Dam Keepers office I was completing the notes.
Curious, I asked where they ended up at.
"Oh, I send them off to some (State or Federal) agency to be analyzed".
After a few minutes of silence he said,
"I have to admit something, I haven't sent them in in several years"
"What?" I asked.
"One year I forgot to send it in. Never heard anything but realized what happened the following year. After that I just never sent anything in because I was scared they would raise hell about that first missing set."
I always ass-u-med the data would be used to detect a problem before it was a disaster.
Apparently, it's only used to figure out what caused the disaster after the fact.
That's IF they can find the data. SNAFU
Don't you do a year-to-year comparison yourself? If not as part of the job description, at least as a blunder check? Then if you see a trend or discontinuity you can flag it for the powers that be.
No lots in Cisco
> Although we converse in English on this site, there are some who are incapable of recognizing it when they see it. Roughly half of what Kent writes is incomprehensible to the buttonpusher crowd. The longest word they know is ENTER.
In the spirit of non sequitur, I once had to fire a guy for wrecking a survey rig, a 2003 Expedition. Bit of a gashog, but the lads liked it.
Actually, yes.
The forms we filled out, if I recall, had some sort of date/value table thing.
and...
When the monuments were set they were initially all online on top of dam in a service road.
Wasn't a "Random Traverse"
Elevation were more or less at same elevation.
So any creep would have been fairly obvious on paper.
Probably would have seen it on the ground.
Anyway the dam rarely held water or much of it.
It was a "back-up" to another dam upstream.
Didn't live within 20 miles myself so who really cares? I would have plenty of warning.
The Dam Keeper lived on the property. Cherry job. Long Retired.
Does make a kinda funny story.
here it is
33.81527, -117.76490
I think you can see "dots" that are the concrete rimmed monuments in middle of the roads.
They are actually releasing water in the Google photo.
Never got to go thru the "drain" when dry.( or whatever you call it).
Cool.
