Water Resources: Hydraulics and Hydrology
We had to maintain some expertise in hydropower for evaluating other people's projects
besides evaluating the potential for our own projects.
Q ..
Were there any different techniques you used when you were doing that or was it just a
different type of thing?
Well, that was primarily what we were involved in just looking at the hydrology and
A
hydraulics of the projects. When we were doing our own, we were looking then at size
of plants, based on the flow and the head. What size plant could you support and maintain
firm power and secondary power and all that kind of stuff.
But when you looked at the others--oh, we got involved, too, of course, when they wanted
to modify a Corps project to put in hydropower. They would come in with plans for what
they were going to do with a Corps project to add the hydropower to it. Then we'd have
to evaluate the practicality of doing what they were going to do.
We might have a big flood control release conduit. They might want to cut down the size
of that by putting in a pipe that went over to a hydropower plant. To get that pipe in they
had to cut down the size of our flood control outlet, then we'd have to try to decide
whether that was an acceptable thing or not.
Obviously when we designed that flood control outlet, we wanted it that size for a reason.
Then for them to just come along and say arbitrarily, "We are going to cut the size in
half, doesn't fly. Either we made a mistake in the first place by making it too big or else
something was wrong if they could go in there and just reduce the size of it without
making some studies to be sure that there wasn't going to be a serious impact on the
floodplain. So then we had to do those kinds of studies.
Then there were structural studies, too, of course, to be sure that when they made their
modifications they weren't screwing up the stability of the plant that was there.
Q ..
Were a lot of the Corps' projects subsequently modified to have hydropower facilities--I
don't remember many that they did.
A
There were a few. I don't think it was an outstanding number but there were several.
Q ..
I mean that seems to me to be one thing that has to be decided from the beginning or else
you're going to have some problems.
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