Joplin To Use Stockton Water?

[Walcrabass]

Terrierman and others,

After doing a little bit of research I have found that the "Head" for dammed waters is considered to be "High" if the fall of the water is over 10 feet. Considered "Low" if it is below 10 feet. The difference being that if it is Low then it takes a greater volume of water to turn the turbines for generation.

Here in the Ozarks as in many other places in the U.S. A. dams are built in low lying areas such as creek bottoms, run off ravines, rivers, etc. These areas are substantially lower in elevation than land around them. The depth of the dam, or height of it as one might say, is usually quite a bit greater than the downstream side it dumps water into. Therefore even if the land around the dam was pretty flat then it is just a matter of building the next dam downstream at a lower elevation to the top. In this way we can artificially create the "Head" that would be needed for generation. It all boils down to the particular site and what we have to work with in the elevations, canyons, ravines, etc. and how much MONEY we are willing to spend to save (keep, retain,) the most valuable natural resource on the planet. As we know land in most dam spots is somewhat less than flat.

There is also the possibility that we would have Turbines in different elevations in each dam so that as the water levels shrunk we could then use the lower units and thus be back in the "High Head" situation that we need. Probably need the advice of an Engineer on that one. Don't know how many holes you can put in a dam without wrecking it.

At any rate if we just throw generation completely out of the picture we still have created more trapped water for "Drinking" etc. in these downstream dams and thus not "Lost" the water from High Flow times and at the same time not wrecked the "Main Lake" at the first dam during dry times. If worse got to worse as far as the head pressure is concerned we could always just pump the water to another location to be used for whatever. Possibly that location would have enough "Head" to generate from this water and also gain it as Drinking water. After all we are already pumping water from Stockton Lake.

Always Thinking ( but maybe not correctly),

Walcrabass

[bfishn]

Wow... I don't know where to start... so I won't.