In the life of this flood control dam the level behind it has never even got close to the spillway level, and the spillway is very wide and could handle a huge amount of overflow, at a level well below the top of the dam. There are no gates on this flood control facility and water constantly empties through a large drainage tube under it. I have seen in the bottom of washes in the desert mountains near our home while hiking signs of flooding that must have been epic at whatever long ago time it occurred. One spot in particular has a whole field of boulders piled up, with various ones being ( I estimate ) over 1000 pounds. In 2011 when we had the biggest flooding around here in the high desert in some peoples memories and this dam got the most water behind it I had ever seen, the wash by this boulder field did not even have a trickle going down it after all of those heavy rains. Makes me wonder about the off the scale conditions that caused all of those boulders to wash down out of Granite Mountains and pile up where they did. Who knows how many thousands of years ago ( possibly ) this occurred.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2019 01:13PM by Wizard.