Excerpt from Observations on the Flow of Rivers in the Vicinity of New York City
In most parts of the country the public water supply of the cities and towns must be derived from the rivers. Large sums are expended every year in conducting water from the streams to the centers of population. Before this money is expended it 18 of the greatest importance to know that there is sufficient water at all times for the use of the town. Too often have great hydraulic works been built before proper investigation has been made of the flow of a stream, and great financial loss has resulted.
It is to furnish information upon which to base estimates of avail able water supply that the Hydrographic Division of the United States Geological Survey has been, during the last fourteen years, 001 leeting data in regard to the flow of rivers in the United States, and their variation from season to season and throughout a series of years. The necessity for such data is frequently brought to the attention of the engineer, sometimes in a most startling manner. The lack of this information frequently leads to the most disastrous mistakes in the construction of hydraulic works. One of the best examples of this in the design of a hydraulic plant was the construction of a dam and water-power plant at Austin, Tex. After an expenditure of it was found that a grave mistake had been made in the estimate of the low-water flow. The works were constructed by the city in accord ance with a vote of the citizens of Austin in 1890. It was estimated that horsepower could be developed, and the people felt that their city was to become a great manufacturing center. No hydro graphic data had been collected, except from the hazv memory of the oldest inhabitant. In the spring of 1890 a measurement of flow giving cubic feet per second was taken as the minimum. This estimate was more than five times too great, as was shown by subse quent measurements. An error of 500 per cent had been made m the estimate, but this was not ascertained until the works were nearly completed.
Mistakes of this kind have occurred in every part of the country in hydraulic works. The Sweetwater dam in California in a good example of a project carried through on insufficient data. The dam was built after a series of wet years and was soon after filled to overflowing, so that increased spillways were constructed, but since that time the water in the reservoir has never reached an eleva tion near the crest of the spillways. And during most of the time there has been the greatest scarcity of water.m 1 introduction.
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