Union City dam part 2
union city dam up stream
If you didn’t see the first part, check out the Union City Dam.
I swung by a while ago to see if the water was high enough to be going out the spillway. It was so I took some video of the spillway in action, the over flow pipe in action with a huge whirl pool and the exits of these sources of letting water out of the dam in a controlled way.
When we think about building a pond we need to think of these water exits in the same fashion. Remember the Oroville dam in California? They had so much rain that the dam was in jeopardy of failing with the extreme amount of water flowing out the main exit and the emergency spillway. Below the dam was being eroded quite rapidly and huge trenches.
With this in mind we can see an earthen dam being eroded and cutting through the dam, if you had such a rain storm. This is the reason for the emergency spillway and over flow pipe. The overflow pipe keeps the pond level at that height during normal rain events and snow melt. If the overflow pipe cannot handle the incoming water, the emergency spillway will take over letting the excess water out in a controlled manner.
union city dam spillway
We can’t get close but had to shot through the fence but got some good footage. On the way out we took a look at the overflow pipe and the exit for that as well.
Water is our friend; actually we need it for our survival. Well at least when the water is going about it’s normal course it can be our friend. But when there is a huge snow load and fast snow melts or torrential thunderstorms it can get out of control by over flowing creek and river banks to at worst taxing dam structures. As for the snow melt we did have problems this year with flooding and ice jams in Meadville to road closures in the Waterford area with French Creek over flowing its banks.
Just a few things to think about when building a pond and to see the different ways water release from a pond or lake. Enjoy the video and if you didn’t see the first part check out the Union City Dam
