Vernon
downstream from it. B u t the problem is you build a dam and before long everybody starts
moving into the floodplain down below it because they figure there is not going to be any
floods anymore down there, even though it may not be designed for flood control.
People move into the floodplain and then a flood comes along that's bigger than that 100-
year flood and those small dams fail and people get drowned. The whole concept has
changed because people have moved in downstream. That was one of the considerations
we had in deciding on what kind of a flood that the dam had to be able to pass without
failure. It had to do with how many people were living downstream. Would failure cause
a lot of people to lose their lives or none or a few? So we had different requirements for
different conditions downstream.
Q ..
That sounds like the airports. You build an airport and everybody moves around it, and
then they say there's a safety problem because you've got all these businesses and houses
around the airport.
A ..
They moved in there because the airport was there.
Q ..
Was there, right. Then the airport is the source of the safety problem.
A ..
Right. Well, dams in some way are like that. A lot of dams are built, and they say,
"We're going to control floods and save lives by building these big dams for flood
control. What happens is they have more people drowned in the reservoirs than they ever
had drowned from floods downstream from there. People get in their boats and take along
a keg of beer with them or a bunch of whiskey, and they get out there and get intoxicated
and run into each other and fall out of their boats, and even go over the spillways like
some guy did at Fort Peck.
A couple of guys were out fishing in a boat and the boat motor quit on them, and they
drifted toward the spillway--real slow at first because they were quite a way from it. One
guy jumped out of the boat and swam to shore and the other stayed with the boat, he kept
trying to get the motor started. Pretty soon it got to the point where he couldn't swim, the
water was going too fast, and he went right on over the spillway and down the chute and,
of course, got killed. So those incidences are happening all the time all over the country.
Q ..
Well, there has been a big program in the water safety program at those reservoirs. It
doesn't do any good with some people, does it?
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