NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: An essay about maps
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2010 Nov 15, 07:06 -0500
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2010 Nov 15, 07:06 -0500
I'll ask a friend who works at TVA and try to get back to you all. I doubt the official TVA story, since the catchement area behind the dam is only 1000 acres or so. My bet is that the TVA story glosses over a plain, ordinary screw up. On Nov 15, 2010, at 12:39 AM, Frank Reed wrote: > Fred Hebard, you wrote: > "I live near Bristol, VA/TN. A dam was built on the Virginia side > (just northwest of Exit 7 on I-81) but the lake never filled; I'm > not sure why, have heard that the ground leaked (limestone soils/ > karst topography). Regardless, the Google map depicts the lake > that's never been there!" > > Fred, I LOVE that one. The trails run right through the middle of > the phantom reservoir. And apparently you can play soccer > underwater. Here's the coordinates of the reservoir if anyone wants > to visit: 36.6467,-82.1091. > > The TVA, which built the dam, states on their web site that the > Beaver Creek Dam is "a flood detention dam with no permanent > reservoir pool." It seems that it was designed only for emergency > flood control. But somehow, decades ago, the USGS mapped it as a > filled reservoir (Google gets their basic data in the US from the > USGS). I wonder if the TVA ever let it fill up just to test its > integrity... Probably more likely that boundary just represents the > potential size if a flood ever requires closing the dam. By the > way, I could find no references to geological or soil issues. The > TVA counts it as an active flood-control structure, and it will > probably work just fine if Bristol ever needs it. > > -FER > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > NavList message boards and member settings: www.fer3.com/NavList > Members may optionally receive posts by email. > To cancel email delivery, send a message to NoMail[at]fer3.com > ---------------------------------------------------------------- >