Water Levels

[jpb2187]

dammmn

 

[Greasy B]

No dam, thank goodness. ? Get out of harms way and let her flow. 

[Smalliebigs]

YEP THEY UPED ALL OF THE CREST PREDICTIONS.....The Meramec will be over HWY 44 on New Years eve morning just east of the old chysler plant.....it did it in 82 as well http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=lsx&gage=vllm7 

[Haris122]

How much damage do you guys think that sewage treatment plant leak in Fenton is going to do? 

[Al Agnew]

Sewage plant leaks happen all the time in floods...they are usually sited where they will go underwater.  It sucks that they can't build one that isn't in danger of doing so, but at least the sewage is diluted considerably with all that water.

I always maintained that every municipality that gets their drinking water from the river should be required to site their sewage plant UPSTREAM from where they get the drinking water.  I suspect that would make people a lot more careful about how they build sewage plants!

[jpb2187]

Al, 

Could you jog my memory on on the effect of major flood events on structure in the river, such as gravel bar movement. I know I've read posts in the past where people have discussed the transformation of the river, and people such as yourself have mentioned that it would take a significant flooding event in order for some major changes to occur. How do you see this event effecting the body  of the river?

 

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

1 hour ago, Al Agnew said:

Sewage plant leaks happen all the time in floods...they are usually sited where they will go underwater.  It sucks that they can't build one that isn't in danger of doing so

Having provided the steel pipe needed on these facilities gave me some insight over the years.

They are located as close to where you want to discharge the processed water as possible.  And of course where nobody can smell it.

Otherwise they pay for the steel pipe needed to get it there.

And that can get really expensive.

Pete

[Al Agnew]

Big floods like this make major changes in some places, but small floods can actually be more damaging to the river overall as far as habitat is concerned.  A big flood like this, with all its power, can rip out whole sections of bank, trees and all, if it has just a little something, some weak point, along that bank to attack.  It can make the river switch channels if there is an old, usually dry channel alongside the present one.  But the good thing about a big one is that the power of the flood can blow gravel completely out of the channel or move it for many miles, so it's as likely to scour out deeper pools as it is to fill them in.  Small floods, the kind that gets the river bank-full but are not so powerful, still move gravel, but they tend to move it off the loose tops of gravel bars and dump it just downstream in the next pool, so they often fill in a lot more pools than they scour out.  

What's amazing to me is that huge floods don't change the river a lot more.  It's a testament to the health and stability of stream corridors.  As long as the banks are vegetated well, they hold up very well against the power of a flood.  Even gravel bars, if they are stable as far as not having people dig around in them and run around on them with ATVs and such, can withstand flooding without much movement.  But once you start disturbing a gravel bar and the gravel loosens, all bets are off no it's going to move.

One other thing about big floods caused by extreme rain events, though...they dump an incredible amount of new rock and gravel into the rivers out of tributaries, even those as small as little ravines.  The good thing about that is that they also scatter that debris for miles down the river.

[Al Agnew]

Looks like the Meramec is just about to crest at Eureka at 45.82 feet.  That blows the old record as far as height out of the water, no pun intended.  The old record was 42.89, Dec. 6th, 1982.  However, the river there is flowing 155,000 cubic feet per second, which is "only" the second greatest flow on record; the greatest was 175,000 cfs on Aug. 22, 1915.  Changes to the valley bottom in the intervening years could mean the river is flowing in a narrower passage right now than back then, making it higher at a lesser flow.  But it could also very well be that the measurement of flow is more accurate now than then.  The amazing thing is, the river is now about 41 feet higher than its normal level for this time of year!  Imagine yourself standing at the edge of the water at normal level and looking up more than the height of a four story building, and that's how high the river is now!

[Al Agnew]

It's also making southbound traffic out of St. Louis a nightmare.  My wife is in St. Louis today and fortunately, is staying the night. At present, there may not be ANY way to get past the Meramec heading south, without traveling halfway to Jefferson City and then down.  MODot website keeps crashing from all the people trying to figure out how to get home from work.  All the highways crossing the river from Eureka on into St. Louis are closed, except that I-55 might have one lane open at present.