Bluestone Dam: Our Present, Past and Future

[Music] hello I'm Colonel Philip seekers commander of the Heinz and District US Army Corps of Engineers welcome to blue stone dam we've entitled this video perspectives our past present and future throughout this broadcast we invite you to become informed engaged and empowered as you learn about the blue stone project you'll meet some remarkable people who have helped to shape and position the dam to where it is today in addition you will receive invaluable insights on where we've been where we are and where we are headed with the blue stone dam and finally we will remind you of the importance of staying alert to know and understand both the risk and responsibilities of living near a dam throughout this broadcast and all others we provide we want you to be mindful of this message at all times thank you for joining us today and now let's get started you are seeing one of the most important dams in the state of West Virginia bluestone dam the dam reduces the risk of flooding throughout the new and kunal river valleys and provides recreation fish and wildlife habitat it has a very important impact on three states let's take a look at our past as we gather a bit of history bluestone dam was authorized in 1936 and 1938 during a period of much construction in our nation it was built in the 1940s by the US Army Corps of Engineers and was completed in 1948 the construction was considered state-of-the-art at the time bluestone dam is a special place the new river is a special River the new River itself is said to be the second oldest river in the world it starts in North Carolina and flows north the dam itself is the history of itself especially the building of bluestone dam actually was decided by the United States Supreme Court it's back in the 1930s there was a purpose for this area that two groups had looking for investment so that you provide public protection ended an and another was looking for installation of a hydroelectric facility a for-profit business there is so much friction that that eventually had to be settled at the highest level in our nation at the US Supreme Court and that landmark ruling really established the government's jurisdiction over dams and waterways what really is significant is there's people who made all the difference in the project and how its operated when you think back to 1954 and the dam tender Charlie Hockman he had huge responsibilities over a dam that had 16 tunnels that had to be opened up to 10 feet at variable heights across it in and he actually modified just a tableside alarm clock and he calibrated it so that every hour was 1 foot of her eyes or fall on the Rams that opened and closed these gates and because he did that it increased the accuracy and dependability of the operations and it was in place in use for over 60 years bluestone dam has allowed for the growth and economic prosperity of the communities below its 4,600 square mile basin for more than 75 years bluestone dam is a federally operated facility located on the new river we have multi-purpose ha's here our main purpose is flood damage reduction on a new kunal and Ohio rivers but we do other things here we are the third largest lake in the state of West Virginia providing great recreation opportunities for boaters and fishermen we have a largest drainage area in the state of West Virginia we have a largest drainage area of any dam in Huntington district it's over 4,600 square miles of drainage so what we're doing we're monitoring the water it comes in to our lake and what we're trying to do is reduce flooding downstream bluestone dam is a straight concrete gravity dam it is half a mile long and 165 feet high when it is projected that rivers and streams in the new canal and Ohio river valleys may cause flooding blue dan can store and slowly release this storm water to reduce the impacts of this flooding this prevents billions of gallons of water from flowing downstream including to the state capital of Charleston West Virginia and all the way to the Ohio River at Point Pleasant West Virginia and beyond whenever rain falls above the dam it still it will make its way down through the streams and the tributaries into the new river and then flow down to the damned if downstream of the dam say the towns of Hinton Thurman can all Falls Charleston if those areas there's been rainfall downstream that's caused flooding we will capture all the water above the dam hold it behind the dam and and not release it until the downstream flooding has receded bluestone dam has 16 tunnels that we can see here right above the water fall that we release water through during normal operations in addition to that during extreme events we have 21 crest gates that we can see at the top we will release water through those crest dates during extreme events commit to protect the integrity of the dam water will flow through either the tunnels or the crest gates into a stilling Basin the stilling Basin is a pool of water just above this waterfall we're seeing here that water will flow across the weir causing this waterfall into the new river right behind you caring for bluestone dam and ensuring it works as intended comes with tremendous challenges and it takes the right team to make it happen flood control management is very interesting it actually takes a specific type of personality to do it it's almost like firefighting so we basically look at it instead of firefighting we're flood fighting you're basically every day you're preparing for the next flood you're working you're proving your models your you're working on your water control manuals you're talking contact with the project personnel but in the end the way that we handle it is as a team the team works well together both the district team for for hydrologic forecasting and the project team who is working out here at the project who the folks who are operating the dam itself together we worked through all the challenges and and we take it as it comes [Music] during the early part of the 21st century a significant investment was made to bring the dam up to modern standards this included stabilizing the dam with thousands of anchors increasing outflow with a new auxilary spillway and redesigning the primary stilling Basin to pass extreme outflows the Corps of Engineers has over 700 dams within its collection and of those 700 dams about 80% of those dams are earth an embankment or soil compacted on top of existing schools to form a dam those dams often have problems associated with seepage through them which means the water migrates through the dam or the foundation and starts moving particles resulting in erosion of those materials back to the dam and ultimately the potential for failure of those data and that's primarily the issues that the Corps is dealing with across the country with its dams however bluestone is one of the other 20% of our dams it's a concrete gravity dam that's founded on rock and the issues that bluestone presents are unique compared to those of our earth and embankment dams bluestone has about three primary mechanisms that could potentially lead to failure one is a sliding within the rock foundation of it itself the other is the potential for over topping of the dam the dam has to hold back or pass more water than we originally thought and due to that excessive water the overtopping could lead to some instability with the dam and erosion that we never thought about before and the third way that the dam could present some problems for us is the Rock Foundation through the stilling Basin of the dam or the area where we discharge the water that rock can erode or scare back to the dam further making the stability issues with the dam even worse so this is actually a piece of the the stony Gap sandstone and that's what blue stone the foundations is sitting on and it's made up of a very clean sandstone that we call an ortho quartzite but each one of these layers has a very thin carbonaceous shale layer on top of it and that makes it a lot like this deck of card so when you look at a single card that card is comprised of compressed paper and they put a clear coating on it so that that deck that that card will slide easy on the card below it so you can deal that day but a deck of cards is very strong in the vertical direction so we don't have any kind of bearing capacity issues at bluestone the problem is as we load the dam and we add a horizontal load just like we added to this deck of cards the rock below it wants to slide forward so when we look at this dam and water would come up and we load the dam those rocks below it that foundation rock wants to slide and let allow the dam to slide out to address that issue we've been installing nearly 500 rock anchors into the face and top of the dam these anchors are made up of 61 strands of wire rope that are directionally drilled deep into the bedrock and help the dam resist the intense forces of extreme storm waters up against the face of the dam secondly we installed a large piece of mass concrete we called a thrust block which also increases the dam stability thirdly we were concerned that there was extreme storms that could overtop the dam causing it to breach and send that uncontrolled wave of water downstream in the early 2000s the US Army Corps of Engineers continued its focus on safety by implementing the dam safety assurance project one important result was the creation of the penstock auxilary spillway providing yet another way the dam could pass extreme storm waters and reduce the potential of those waters over topping and breaking the dam this project was made possible by taking advantage of six existing tunnels on the downstream right side of the dam called penstocks those penstocks were originally installed and constructed to support a hydroelectric generating plant that was designed to provide power to Oak Ridge Tennessee when the Manhattan Project was being developed during World War two when the city of Oak Ridge found that they could address their power needs in opportunity arose for the US Army Corps of Engineers to address the large excavation that was remaining to resolve this issue the Corps installed a large piece of mass concrete just downstream damn called a thrust block and then extended those penstock tunnels through the thrust block by installing bottom hinge gates onto the ends of each of those six tunnels the dam could now safely discharge water in an emergency situation the final and perhaps the most important feature to be implemented because of the dam safety assurance project was altering the two stage hydraulic jump stilling Basin in the primary spill way to handle flows nearly twice those envisioned when the dam was originally constructed by shutting down the basin a portion at a time normal operation could continue while a concrete divider wall was installed to allow for the construction of scour protection 1,800 bar and strand anchors to help the dam stay in place during extreme water flows as well as constructing more than 40 supercavitating baffles to help calm and still extreme discharges of water the dam safety assurance project is a major investment to ensure that bluestone Dam can safely discharge water flows in some of the most extreme flood situation this project provides protection to hundreds of thousands of people downstream additionally it creates an environment that businesses and industry can thrive investments in this project that we're making today will allow this type of benefit to continue for future generations however even with all these additional improvements in place bluestone dam is not designed to retain extreme storm events dams are built to minimize the risk of flooding not stop it in all cases there are very extreme storm events that must be released through the dams to spill ways to prevent the dam from overtopping and failing when this occurs significant flooding will occur downstream bluestone dam also cannot eliminate flood risks from storms that occur downstream of the dam the safety of the residents downstream of bluestone dam is the Corps of Engineers top priority it is also a shared responsibility the Corps of Engineers maintains and operates the dam but it is up to all residents to take very important steps to protect their lives loved and property if you live in a river valley regardless of a dam the following steps need to be taken know your risk everyone in the basin is at risk of flooding no one to evacuate have a plan and follow it follow the public advisories of local emergency managers and the National Weather Service work with local government officials to develop a plan for your neighborhood the importance of planning cannot be overstated strongly consider purchasing flood insurance to protect your property avoid all flood water and evacuate when asked to failure to do so puts you and your family's lives at risk bluestone dam is a critical piece of the nation's infrastructure providing not only important flood reduction benefits but substantial recreational opportunities and contributing to unique aquatic environments the state of West Virginia has taken advantage of the 11 mile long blue stone lake to develop a state and a Wildlife Management Area the town of Hinton has also taken advantage of land downstream of the dam to develop a city park enjoyed by locals and visitors year-round the dam has also contributed to the new rivers renowned reputation as a pristine and unique environment enjoyed by fishermen voters and environmentalists alike the importance of bluestone dam is reflected by those who worked with it over the years the people that we work with upstream whether it's the state of West Virginia or the town of Glenn land the Presbyterian Church there are several leases that we're working with these are partners these are people that we work with on a daily basis to help make good recreation opportunities aside from that unique engineering challenges and and my role as a senior dam safety engineer within the Corps engineer what's special to bluestone to me is as long as I can remember I've known about bluestone I spent my childhood camping at bluestone we spent 21 days and nights there one summer camping and fishing bluestone is just a unique recreational facility that you don't find everywhere the lake provides some good deep water recreation but then downstream provides some of the greatest habitat and the company for fishing stuff so to me boost phones is just a treasure that we need to protect you I think bluestone aims a treasure because it's a silent strong piece of infrastructure that that blends in with the community in fact and not only blends in it's been part of the community for generations and it provides that silent strength that can be counted on are those that lay their heads downstream to sleep every night there are some of the biggest kind of fans of the dam in fact our construction is interrupted some of their daily trips where they walk and touch the damage today but I hope they can trust that the sacrifice their minigame while we improve the project and bring it up to standard that it will be back in place for the future generations to come we've seen the generations you know grow up here and unfortunately we do have to go to not being able to take it away at the end of the day even though sometimes the job can be frustrating and challenging but you do feel like at the end of the day at the end of the day's hopefully the end of this project it would be a water manager and with the primary purpose of flood control management it actually gives me a lot of it allows me to appreciate my work because I can wreck I can have a tangible benefit as looking downstream and looking all the houses and looking at all the industries and looking all the roads going and recognizing that that I and and and the team that I work with impact those people's lives in a very positive way although they may not recognize them this is an extremely rewarding professional experience for me I get to leave a team of top-notch engineers and specialists to deliver in a critical upgrade to an important piece of infrastructure which impacts people's lives on a daily basis and the way they interact with it with recreation and fishing and habitat but also more importantly keeps communities healthy and reduces their flood risks and allows our nation's economy to continue to grow and flourish from my perspective I don't think I could find a better job in the nation thank you for joining us on this journey and for learning more about bluestone dam we hope that we have shared important news and information to ensure your welfare and well-being if you would like to learn more about bluestone dam please visit on our various websites as listed on the screen or feel free to contact our Huntington district office thank you for watching this presentation of bluestone dam perspectives our past present and future we'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: USACE Huntington District

Views: 9,050

Rating: 4.9024391 out of 5

Keywords: Bluestone Dam, Hinton, WV, USACE, Huntington, Charleston, West Virginia, Army Corps of Engineers, Dam, documentary

Id: f0JSPFpFk5Y

Length: 18min 42sec (1122 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 28 2019