Hydroelectric plant info needed

scrook_2

MA & RI:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ma/nwis/current/?type=flow

VT & NH:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nh/nwis/current/?type=flow

CT:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ct/nwis/current/?type=flow

For rest of US see:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

Hydro-electric Plant info needed

Does anyone know if Hydro-electric plants always have a spillway, I may not have the right name for that, or a means to lower the water up river from the dam. We are assuming they do, because they lower it in the summertime to work on it. I'm also assuming that keeping the water a foot or two higher means a lot more money generated? At the expense of flooding my neighborhood. Does anyone know where we can get historical data on the average height of the river? How about pictures that show the foot print of the river over the years? Thanks, Bob Gagnon

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Brad White_185

You really think

outside the box, Bob!

I think that I would start with a web search for the Merrimack River Watershed. The Charles River is documented by the DEP and the former MDC. (I forget the current name of that agency.)

Most hydro plants have a bypass and the turbines can be isolated. The spillway is, to my usage at least, the outflow port after the turbine, but I could certainly be wrong.

I had a friend who ran a hydro plant in Alta, UT for several years, but unfortunately he was electrocuted two years ago this coming June. I was about to contact him, he was such a great resource, then it occurred to me...


Point being, be careful!

Bruce Stevens_2

Streamflow Data

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nh/nwis/current/?type=flow

https://www.des.state.nh.us/RTi_home/

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ma/nwis/rt

Find a Fly Fisherman and he will tell where to find it, the first two are NH the last is MA, might also look up MA DES for more info. And yes they have spillways most are top release spilways some are bottom release

Maine Doug_68

All the plants that

I am familiar with are in Quebec. They are large with multi-gate excess flow areas to allow the water to be regulated around the turbines. When power consumption is high the entire river would flow thru the plant. When less power was needed, the turbine flow was throttled back to keep spinning reserve and stay in sync. The excess water was let go and controlled with the gates.
So Sundays were the best viewing times for falls etc.

Maintaining an extra foot of head holds much more water behind the dam which can be used when necessary at the expense of backyards is some cases.

Here is a smaller one. I lived just up the hill on the left. The gates are off to the right and not shown here.

http://tinyurl.com/yo6akq

Here are some more plants

http://tinyurl.com/29aqv9

Mike T._2

Look to Niagara Falls, NY

If I am not mistaken, this was the first operational Hydro pland built and designed by G/E. Takes water in from Lake Erie just before the falls and spits it out in the Niagara River. Pretty interesting on how they leave the water level higher in the day time for tourism and lower it at night.

Mike T.

Tom Blackwell_2

Look up NOAA on the web and see if there is a stream/river gauge listed near your location. If so there is a utility that you can download for historical records concerning level and stream flow. Pretty interinstin to see the relationship and time lag between rainfall and stream flow.

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

Thanks for all your help

I checked out those links and unfortunatly the measurement device is down river from the dam that is affecting us. What I really need are aerial pictures that show the raised height of the river for the past three years, and from before that, to show that they are keeping the river higher. I remember seeing a builder got caught filling the wetlands. They had historical photos showing the wetlands and how over the years he had filled the wetlands, I think those pictures would be most helpful. Thanks, Bob Gagnon

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Craig R Bergman

Erosion

They lower the flow at night to reduce the amount of upstream erosion of the falls. The Discovery Chanel is GREAT!!!

Bergy

jp_2

use a topo map

the river can't be higher than the dam itself.

topo maps will tell you how far upstream the dam can effect the river. follow the gradient lines.

or use a GPS at the dam to get altitude and transfer to topo map to see how far upstream effects are.

the USGS site has historical river data.

Bruce Stevens_2

jp

""the river can't be higher than the dam itself. ""

I hate to diagree but the past two years the rivers around here have been much higher than the dams during floods and I think that is what he is concerned with. And yes the town I used to live in does arial surveys every so many years looking for people filling in wet lands extra out buildings etc they actually sent my dad a bill for a new structure, it was staging with a tarp over the top, they took back the extra charge.

jp_2

breech

as the people from new orleans will tell you, breeches are catastrophic. any dam with a berm would surely fail if the water crested. hard to believe thats let to happen.

my assumption was that bob was talking about normal operation.

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

I'm probably not using

The right terminology, but we have a dam at the pawtucket falls in Lowell, Ma. that holds the water back and keeps a usable amount of water in the river and to fill our canal system, the hydro electric plant has been keeping the water higher to make more electricity, but won't admit it. I thought aerial photos would show the footprint of the river, and streams, as being larger and therefor higher. The dam was designed to bend over during heavy spring rains, but they made the pins, that hold the boards, stronger and the boards higher. The river and streams that feed it, one goes right through my neighborhood, stay high all the time. The river used to get pretty low and the streams would dry up in the fall and winter. They stay full all the time now and when the snow melts in the spring the river is allready filled to capacity, so for the last two years we have had devastating floods. Last year we had 2' of water in the street and the year before that we had 4' of water in the street. Both times they evacuated the neighborhood and shut off the gas and electric to the neighborhood, for a couple of weeks. The last time this happened was in 1938 and we havn't had any flooding in the street since, up until 2 years ago. We just had 2 1/2" of rain and almost flooded again. I live in a great neighborhood and my neighbors are flipping out. One neighbor spent $100,000 after the first flood 2 years ago and the flooding came within 1' of forcing him to remodel again- he had just finished his first remodel job, it took him 11 months. I have a slow computer, AOL dial up, and I can't look for these pictures, but if anyone could locate them it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Bob Gagnon

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