Thursday, August 27, 2009

Those Damn Dams

Remembrances and Thoughts on Some Damming Business.

Frank Starginer passed away last week. He was quite the man in town. Some people loved him. Some people didn’t think so highly of him. I wish I’d had the time to pick his highly informative brain and record all I could from him. He was so full of information that we need. And now….most of it is lost to us.

One of Frank’s pet ‘peeves’—he had a number of important ones—was the safety of Pueblo from the possibility of a failure of the Pueblo Lake dam. I’ve heard him talk on it a number of times. As I’m sure a number of others have as well. Many to the point of despair. However, what he said about the potential for disaster may have been more accurate than most people would care to think.

I say this based on two incidents. One from a year ago. Another just today.

A year ago, I attended the Colorado Federation of Garden Clubs, Southern District Annual Meeting. There the guest speaker was talking about water issues for southern Colorado. I happened to be seated at the table with the gentleman and somehow….I don’t know exactly how….the discussion came around to water control mechanisms, e.g., dams. During the conversation, he mentioned that about 50% of the dams in Colorado were below ‘par’, i.e., not up to ‘snuff’, for their requirements. This prompted me to remember Frank’s comments about dam safety. Especially the Pueblo Reservoir dam.

Today, I found THIS on the web.

Now I have to wonder about the safety of Pueblo again.

If Frank were here and heard about this, I’m certain he would have been at the next 2010 Commission meeting raising (1) his hand and (2) cain.

[Hero: n., One who is never appreciated until he is no longer around.]