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Show T Jack-Straws By Jack Wallis . J L MMill dam has leaked it A 'target of all kinds of abuse 7" - After a dam is finished 't is impossible to tell ' designed and built cor- , is known is that it leaks "s free license to say jf -M wrong. to be the case with the .H Long Park Dam in For some unknown etits who built the dam are t PUte concerning the sate- ar Usually a contractor ' J ork. Not so with L.C. )D They have contend- e U.S. Soil Conserva- Water Resource Divi- i .nlgnand construction of A Dam was unsafe. was on KSL television J j, he was surprised to see .gained when he was elk .7 Park area and he t r Persons had said the pared leaks. (Division of Water Jthat Long Fark is S i :i 7. 11,31 by aPP'y'ng a I '""g the bottom of the I ..l0 the dam, the leaking i I M,ooo has been ap- j Jb and the reservoir : !1P0urtedon Revision that C toe long-run . , ould give way in 5Jture leaks. He sug-gs sug-gs the only method I a safe dam. of the Division of lCSfrted that the Ml 6 most expensive Uleiw Ver built for the C;Served- The project vC $3mimn- J 'Clf,the controversy WUch sha11 we spend seemed au alng that more money was not spent on grouting. The state agencies have maintained that the precautions already built into the dam are adequate and that the clay blanketing will stop off the seepage under the porous formation at the dam site. Engineers have maintained that millions could be spent in grouting and the leaks would still occur. It seems to be a decision that a 50 patch will do the job just as good as a $1 one. Why spend more good money on an already costly project? The Long Park Dam controversy doesn't seem to be that big of a thing in and of itself. But when it is considered along with the huge cost over-run due to safety precautions on the Red Fleet Dam and then consider the escalating costs of the three proposed dams for .i il ,,nht ctrilrps that the tnis area, me uiuubui - .. , time is coming when earth-fill dams will be unaffordable. Their cost will be prohibitive. In fact the time may come when the pendulum could swing so far in the name of safety as to ban all earth-fill earth-fill dams. But concrete dams leak too. It is unfortunate un-fortunate that the Long Park Dam controversy con-troversy is the subject of the KSL-1 v probe team. But leaky dams, especially when they are new, have great emo-Uonal emo-Uonal impact, and this makes gripping news, especially when it is the contractor contrac-tor and the designers arguing over the safety of the dam. If the present engineering ability of those who design our dams continue ; o he Questioned, we are afraid that future Sams wiH be so overbuilt that they w.l SKostffective. Paying double for a patching job will not double the safety of the job. A noint of diminishing returns s reachPed,ntand this is what the , .cb working close to the Long Park Dam KDamS'salandlSthe. caking Tould be watched and dealt with in the most feasible way. |