Show ideth ana s G gate ate dam s ole I 1 discussed I 1 by engineer editor news tr your news of march 3rd ard at hand si and with considerable pleasure year editorial on the devils gate cate reservoir lr has been read bead the spirit of 0 fair play and real concern Is manifested manitt sted in your article As a protector ol of your community both in weal and woe y ou chave acted promptly arid and specify ak w cally I 1 am confident that from your standpoint good judgment would dictate such an all article my illy particular interest in in this matter lies in the misconception of the real circumstances r upon which your I 1 good judgment has been based you have summed up the whole matter as tar far as you ire are concerned in the last paragraph 5 in it which thich you state that the danger lie s in the ille unfinished condition ot of the dam t the following f facts acts and deductions will probably be ot of interest to you T 1 the dam although in finished probably would meet enery requirement ot of the state engineer standard slope of 0 3 to 1 on water side two to one in earth and 1 ia to I 1 in rock on oil the foundation side with 18 feet ot of width on oil top this might be increased to 20 feet five feet and one halt difference in elevation between spill way floor and top ot of dam the bottom width ot of spillway 18 feet and in creasing crea siDi g to 35 three feet higher in addition to the spillway area thirty five second feet runs thru the openings in the bottom ot of the reservoir under maximum pressure with such a spillway functioning over second feet ot of water would flow through the spillway before the top ot of the the dam would be reached now you can 1 imagine 1 a stream ot of twenty times that of box elder creek in devils gate I 1 valley that place which most abrl brig ga hani ham people declared could not produce sufficient water to warrant the building ot of a reservoir one hundred awen ty ly eight feet Is the largest flow ever recorded from that valley daliey 2 the snow admitted has wied tilled the iho spillway to a depth of probably i tour four feet in its condition orl jorj three feet after our late thaw may alay 1 I 1 ask you what fills the reservoir no water in it now and no water in it i until the snow melts which snow melts the easier and quicker the snow snow aa north exposed hillside as 81 per cent of the watershed above the reservoir or snow in a flat country running almost due north and south the answer is plain and your deduction is however by our experience ot of last year when the snow was shoveled out ot of the spillway prior to the flood season and by the time the water in the reservoir was up within twenty leet of the spillway in elevation there was no snow on oil either side of 0 the spillway 3 A flow ot of one hundred second feet of water over a period of ten days would force the water over the spill way create the maximum pressure en cn tho the dam with the tunnel outlet wide open you would then have the same condition in extreme flood as you have now and relief relict is not needed as stated above except when a flow of second teet feet Is experienced and no one expects such a condition nor Is it at all probable you can see therefore that opening the tunnel wu would id in sio no way decrease the danger except to 0 o the ahe extent ot of 20 second teet feet or 4 per cent of 0 spillway capacity I 1 without attempting to recognize the horrible results ot of a break in the devils gate dam let me call your attention to the tact fact that allowing the full amount of water flowed from the reservoir in one hour the flow would then present a face of water four feet feat deep teet feet wide flowing at 5 teet feet a second the velocity would probably bo be nearer ten feet per second in which case the wall ot of water would be tour four hundred feet wide and two to and a halt or three feet high the knoll in front ot of the lam dam the heavy loose rock back the change ot of direction ot of the creek bed below the dam arid and its choked condition together with trees and boulders would retard the water until the preceding estimate would be overstated rather than under to talk of the breast ot of water filling a channel five or six hundred feet wide and alf teen feet beet high like the box elder creek bottom at the power house hauae la Is of course wholly imaginary and not bythe by the the case at all I 1 admitted that it would be bad 0 dough nough terrible la in tact fact but city as a city has nothing positively to bo be fearful of 51 am authorized by the company to clean the spillway and take any other precautions necess necessary dry which I 1 shall do I 1 written this article tor for publication it if you should care to use any of it I 1 shall not object what do you think ot of the comparative interest of 0 one who has worked ten years on oil a project a heavy stockholder in the company and whose 1 professional reputation is at stake I 1 together with the responsibility of 0 being the creator of 0 the whole scheme as compared with at least ninety per I 1 cent of 0 the people ot of brigham city who are neither directly nor indirectly concerned in this matter except as all people are arc in gener general al interested in others welfare wol tare this letter is long I 1 must close now as much as I 1 dislike I 1 to with very best wishes and kindest lest regards I 1 remain very respectfully yours A K |