Tag: Dams

Structures, Strategies for Dealing With Floods

“Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head,” B.J. Thomas famously sang in the hit song from the 1969 classic film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” The song, written by Burt Bacharach and Hall David, may have aimed to evoke fond memories of romantic strolls during gentle April showers. But when rain (or any other form… Read More »

Five Dam Engineering Terms That Hold Water

Most of us are familiar with dams and their basic function, but what about everything else that falls under the water resources umbrella? We can’t cover them all here, but let’s look at some not so weir-d words engineers use to describe some pretty practical structures. What’s a Weir? A weir is generally part of… Read More »

Engineers Tasked with Helping Fish Get Past Dams — But Only Certain Species

By Pete Haug, PE Dams can provide great economic benefits to society – irrigation, clean energy, recreation – but often they have an unintended consequence: Fish lose their freedom of movement on a dammed river, which can wreck spawning and migratory patterns. Potamodromous fish (those that desire to migrate as part of their biological cycle)… Read More »