With tornadoes, ice storms and flooding, the state of Kansas and the weather weren't exactly on good terms last year.
Dams holding back floodwaters during four major disasters suffered a lot of damage in 2007.
During last summer's flooding in eastern Kansas, more than 100 dams had to use their emergency spillways. Of those, 61 were damaged with costs totaling $2.4 million.
Soil and vegetation were carried away in the water, leaving behind steep, eroded drop-offs in flood channels. One dam had an 80-foot breach, and another lost part of a wall in front of its spillway.
"Overall we didn't have any major catastrophes, thank goodness," said Kim Feldkamp, who is with the Division of Water Resources. "But there was a lot of damage to auxiliary spillways that we are still dealing with today."
Brian Lang of the Natural Resources Conservation Service said he doesn't know of any repairs that have been made to the dams since the flooding.
"I think the status is pretty much the same as it was on July 1," Lang said last week to a group of dam engineers and owners in Manhattan. "I think a lot of (owners) are waiting on dollars."
Lang and Feldkamp were among those who spoke at the Dam Safety Conference, organized each year by the Kansas Department of Agriculture's Division of Water Resources. A couple of sessions focused on the effects the summer floods had on dams.
Repairing dams would require filling the eroded flood channels with soil and plants, changing the slope or location of the spillway or covering the spillway with a hard surface such as rocks or concrete.
For those dams where spillways are built on fine-grain soils, another flood could be costly.
"You are looking at a breach of a dam with another storm event," Lang said.
Perhaps the dam with the most expensive repairs from last year's flooding was Cedar Creek Valley Reservoir, which supplies the city of Garnett with its drinking water. It is expected to cost $645,000 to repair.
On June 30 after getting hammered with rain, almost half of a 400-foot wall in front of the dam's spillway was ripped up and carried downstream. Rocks - some the size of cars - were deposited in nearby fields. Earth was also washed away, exposing ancient rock formations.
Lawrence Comfort, an engineer the city hired to work on the project, said the damage isn't an immediate threat to the dam and its ability to control flooding, but over time it could be. If it isn't fixed, the dam's spillway will be used more frequently.
"Its integrity is critical for the long-term function of the dam," Comfort said.
The city is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to determine who will pay for what repairs.
The Cedar Creek Valley Reservoir wasn't the only dam to see problems last summer. In Clark County, a dam upstream from a feedlot failed. The 80-foot breech caused sediment to be deposited on county roads.
In Dickinson County, a private dam overtopped two or three times during the storms, sending sand downstream and flooding several homes.
"The main thing is funding," Feldkamp said at the conference. "I know several watershed districts and landowners where that is the No. 1 thing right now. How are they going to find the thousands of dollars to repair this damage?"
Almost every county in Kansas has seen some kind of flooding since 1976, said Tom Morey, with the Division of Water Resources. But in 2007, many communities saw record flooding events.
"This year," Morey said, "I heard people say, 'I lived here for 80 years and have never seen it that high before.'"
Comments
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Baille (anonymous) says…
Whoever said global warming was going to lead to universal drought in the short-term?
From what I have seen the theory and studies supporting it discuss variable weather effects - especially within a limited geographical area.
50YearResident (anonymous) says…
Get ready for the Bowersock Power Co to ask the City to repair their dam.
camper (anonymous) says…
Actually, there will be more rain if global warming is occuring. Hotter air can hold more moisture, thus more precipitation should occur. I think atleast. Could be wrong though.
thebcman (anonymous) says…
This is a dam shame.
RedwoodCoast (anonymous) says…
Camper, well, it isn't that simple. Some of the driest places on the planet are also the hottest. It all depends on where the air is coming from. In prehistory when the climate has shifted, it usually involves shifting atmospheric patterns. Between 7500-4500 years ago, the area was hot and dry due to the dominant atmospheric regime. So whether or not the air is hot, wet, cold, or dry depends upon a complex combination of factors like where most of the air is coming from and how much of its moisture has been lost or gained due to the geography that it passes over. Atmospheric pressure also plays a huge role in precipitation. I'm no meteorologist, so I'm probably over-simplifying all of this.
gr (anonymous) says…
"From what I have seen the theory and studies supporting it discuss variable weather effects - especially within a limited geographical area."
"So whether or not the air is hot, wet, cold, or dry depends upon a complex combination of factors like where most of the air is coming from and how much of its moisture has been lost or gained due to the geography that it passes over."
Sounds like the consensus is that weather will vary between hot and cold and between wet and dry.