Thread: water level
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Old 04-24-2021, 10:13 AM   #17
XCR-700
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffk View Post
The interesting thing to remember about this graph is that the high water in 2005 and 2006 were associated with single "100 year storm" events; yeah 2 years in a row. Low water problems are usually associated with droughts. In 2005 and 2006 the whole NH watershed was flooded. I lived along the Merrimack river and the water level in Nashua was touching the bottom of some bridges that are normally 20 - 30 feet above the water.

In general, the folks that control the dam do a pretty "dam" good job. It is the weather, long and short term, that messes things up. When water levels are dropping normally through the summer and the dam outflow is adjusted accordingly, there is no way to know that 2 months later we will be in drought conditions. There is no magic reservoir of water to fill the lake back up. In 2005 & 2006 we got so much rain that the lake level jumped over 2 FEET. How do you plan for that? How do you get rid of the water when everything downstream is already flooded?

If you look at the graph from the quoted post and go to Bizer for the current one, you see most years follow other year's patterns closely. Considering what they are trying to work with, that's amazing.
Ok, agreeing with your notion that we really cannot predict the weather impacts 2 months out, someone needs to decide what is the lessor of 2 evils (too much water in the lake/too little water in the lake) and it appears that that decision is a potential for too much is the concern we will go with.

I feel certain that is because home owners want to build inside the flood zones, and insurance company's and officials who deal with flood/safety want to avoid problems with the people who have put themselves in harms way.

Just look at the ocean front home homes that get destroyed every year, and emergency responders expend tremendous amounts of time and effort and suffer great risk because of these homes. And in the end, we all pay to rebuild those homes with our increased insurance rates.

So long as people want to live that close to the water, and do so in expensive homes; where there are controls to limit water level they will be set on the conservative side. And if there are late season droughts, it is the boaters that will have to endure it. I seriously doubt there will ever be any change in this model. In the end its about the money, and homes, and emergency services, and lives in danger all cost more then damage to boats.

Well that how it appears to me.
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