The Rainbow Lake Dam
As we all know, the Rainbow Lake Dam sluice way finally gave in to old
age and infirmity last spring, with a frightening release of water. RLA
volunteers managed to plug the opening with tarps, rocks, etc. at that time,
and fund raising began to raise the money needed for professional repairs.
In the meantime, member Gavin Watson designed and built a temporary
sluice gate, as a more stable alternative to rocks and tarps to hold us
until we had raised the necessary funds for professional repair. Have
a look below at photos of various aspects the work:
December 28, 2002 Installing The Temporary Sluice Gate
It was COLD out there today! Despite the freeze, I arrived to find volunteers
Gavin Watson, David Sarath and Harry Sewell already hard at work preparing
to install Gavin's temporary sluice gate. Activities included slowing
the upstream flow of water with really heavy frozen sandbags hauled down from
the dam, lugging the heavy gate over and then lowering it down to be installed
over the opening, and then tightening the gate which was a slow and drenching
activity for the guys, particularly Gavin who actually crawled INTO the waterfilled
sluiceway to do something to a gasket (pardon my pedestrian commentary, I
am no engineer, though I did hold a few nails for awhile). Thanks also
to Parker Ward, Alex Sabido, Rob Drescher, and Alex's daughters Alex and
Sarah for being very cute and bright against the snow!
December 22, 2002 Unplugging The Sluice
After several weeks of frustrating weather delays, the volunteers finally
succeeded in removing the temporary plug on December 22. Below are pictures
and observations of the event from Member David Stallman (thanks for your
photojournalism, David!):
Well…they did it! After setbacks of cold, ice, rains and rising
lake level, the dynamic trio David Sarath, Gavin Watson and Parker Ward
have exposed the sluiceway to the light of day. The sandbags are in
place and water level down to where we can see exactly what we are dealing
with. These pictures and their measurements have documented it and
soon the contractor will be here to give his assessment.
The next step is to install the temporary sluice gate in place. Gavin
Watson, inventor and entrepreneur has designed and built this temporary
gate and it will be installed so that the water can rise again.
