Margaret S. Petersen
Now, why would that be since they had so many projects out there and they had enough
rivers?
Well, I think, the strength was in the planning branch, and hydrology was in the planning
A:
branch. I suppose it was the feeling that if you know the hydrology, what your flow is,
anybody can design a structure to pass it.
That was the feeling, but that's not the truth, is it?
Well, some of the designs probably weren't the optimum, but they seemed to be adequate.
The big problem in the last twenty years has been that spillway design floods are now
different (larger) based on more years of record, and many spillways won't pass the larger
flows safely. But that's because of new data and better hydrology.
Well, wasn't that also a change in the way the Corps goes about things?
A:
Yes, that's true. If you have only ten years of data and you need average annual values s ,
years will give a much better estimate.
So you went into the planning branch in Sacramento.
A:
Yes.
Sacramento River Shallow Draft Navigation Project
What did they have you do?
Initially, I worked on two projects, the Morrison Creek Stream Group Project and a
A:
navigation project. The one they really hired me for was the Sacramento River Shallow
Draft Navigation Project. The investigation concerned improving the commercial navigation
channel upstream from Sacramento to the Feather River, and then up the Feather River. This
was in the
There wasn't enough present or projected traffic to justify it, and the
investigation ended with the feasibility studies.
At about that time, commercial barge traffic that had been coming up the Sacramento
decreased markedly. Traffic was largely petroleum products and rice, and petroleum barges
Previous Page
