Authority not only built a dam, it built hopeful, if fragile, regional bridges
Grand Coulee or Hoover it may not be, but the Randleman dam is an impressive piece of engineering all the same ... especially from the top looking down.
Tons of water cascade down its 80-foot tall concrete stairstep spillway, crashing with a roar into frothy pools of white foam at the bottom. Two fallen limbs cling to the top edge of the wall, defying the steady current to sweep them over.
From a distance, the dam looks like a giant water sculpture -- the Center City Park fountain on steroids.
The lake is full, for the first time in its young man-made life. In the midst of a still-ongoing statewide drought, what a sight for parched lips.
The reservoir spans 3,007 acres in Guilford and Randolph counties. I got the chance to see the project up close last week -- much closer than ever before -- in a tour with former Greensboro City Councilman Tom Phillips. Phillips has been a member of the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority, which oversees the dam and reservoir, since 1992.
On a raw, overcast, allegedly spring day, we rode in Phillips' SUV onto a driveway atop the structure (way cool), which keeps enough H2O at bay to create Randleman Lake, a soon-to-be regional water source for Greensboro, High Point, Archdale, Randleman, Jamestown and Randolph County. Then we took a gravel road down to the base of the dam and stepped through a padlocked fence and a steel door into its innards.
Drip ... drip ... drip.
In a dank, dimly lit tunnel lined with pipes that spans the entire length of the spillway, water dripped like steady rain in the corridor and limestone creeps down some of the walls. A spider web flickered in the breeze above our heads.
Drip ... drip ... drip.
Then it occurred to me: Water? Leaks? Phillips didn't wait for me to say anything. He'd apparently read my panicked expression. Not to worry, he said. It's supposed to do that.
We stepped over puddles into the heart of the dam, as I prayed to myself that the vast majority of the water would stay where it belonged: outside.
John Kime, executive director of the water authority, explains the science of the leaky corridor.
Concrete expands and contracts on a dam in much the same way it does in your driveway or on a road or highway. That means something has to give.
"There are two types of concrete," Kime says, "that that cracks and that that's going to crack."
Initially the concrete that comprises the dam shrank; concrete tends to shrink when it sets up, Kime says. So the dam includes engineered cracks -- shrinkage joints every 15 feet.
It also includes nine "control joints" that allow the foundation to shift to adjust to "geotechnical changes."
Thus, cracks are a given. And leaks. "You're going to have seepage in a dam," Kime says.
On the outside, a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire surrounds the reservoir, and a number of hard-to-miss signs make it clear unauthorized visitors are not welcome. Still, people seem drawn to the lake and the terrain around it. One trespasser took a nasty tumble on her ATV and had to be airlifted by helicopter to a hospital, he says. Another interloper, who'd had more beer than judgment, climbed the stairsteps of the dam and wound up toppling to the ground. He, too, had to be hospitalized.
Some obviously see it as an amusement attraction, but the dam is most significant because of the water it will provide, 50 years worth, the growth it will empower.
Not that it hasn't been a long time coming. The dam has taken nearly a lifetime to become reality. The political and regulatory barriers were formidable but it probably is the best, most hopeful example of regional cooperation in Triad history.
Phillips credits the board members.
"The board members were committed to this even when Greensboro was looking as if was going to cut and run," Phillips says. "We stayed together and got things done and kept our noses to the grindstone. We worked things out."
So does Kime, noting that four board members, including former Greensboro Mayor John Forbis, have been there from the very beginning, and have built trust among themselves even when the governments they represent have quarreled and quibbled.
"We've frayed at the edges, but for the most part they've stayed together. They've developed a certain amount of trust that has helped them work through the issues. They've worked together and fought through the issues. ... They've developed relationships."
Truth be told, the participating governments still eye one another warily. They still fear that Greensboro and High Point will bully the smaller communities in the water compact. They still question each others' motives. That's probably why they recently greeted a generous offer by Greensboro and High Point to build and finance the project's pumping station with only a lukewarm shrug, approving it 6-4.
Their relationship creaks and moans like a rickety wooden-plank bridge in a windstorm over a moat of crocodiles. But no one's been eaten yet. And the project has gotten done anyway.
All that's left to do is build the pump station and a treatment plant and connect it all with pipelines. In two years (maybe sooner), you and I will be sipping water from that lake.
For all the hydraulic and structural engineering it took to get it all done, the most amazing feat was the regional collaboration that made it all happen.
"To get this project done," Kime says, "somewhere along the way everybody has had to give something up."
Chances are, Kime says, that there won't be another reservoir project of this magnitude in North Carolina ever again, because suitable sites are so hard to come by and because the permitting process is so difficult.
"Probably the only thing worse than permitting a lake is permitting a landfill," he says.
Wish we could bottle that bottle the magical potion that helped make this one happen and save it for a rainy day.
Comments (12)
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We only thought we were building a regional resevoir! These regional "bridges" will explode when the rest of the state comes demanding and or we overbuild to exceed availability!
It remains to be seen if this resevoir stays regional! If Easley gets his way, it will become a state resevoir for Raleigh or Charlotte or wherever, just maintained locally! With uncontrolled building locally and statewide and an uncertain future with regards to climate change-- DROUGHTS-- it remains to be seen just how valuable or invaluable this resevoir becomes! My view is the developers can subprime this resevoir in just a few years.
What is the region going to do for all those local citizens who might need water and are not currently in the calculations because they are on private wells and power plants near Charlotte who might not have enough water to operate!
We hear how great Randleman is or might become but nothing regarding prudent planning for major droughts which have become more common and are, perhaps, likely to increase!
There is a point when overbuilding outstrips the community willingness or ability to conserve enough to out live an extended drought!
Ever witnessed a starving crowd? We continue to over build and expand at our own peril!
Posted on March 30, 2008 2:08 PM
Doesn't the water you're toting ever get heavy, Allen?
This post wouldn't have anything to do with a new blog that all the local papers seem to be bending over backwards to ignore - would it?
Posted on March 31, 2008 1:38 PM
We wrote about Mr. Baron's charges several years ago -- as his blog attests.
I don't see much credence in what he alleges. We are in a drought. Greensboro was desaperate enough at one point to have to draw emergency water from its Haw River dam. Also, Burlington became concerned enough about its own water needs that it cut off water sales to Greensboro. The region needs another long-term water source.
The city of Greensboro is well ahead of much of the rest of the state in water pricing and conservation.
What does Baron want: the lake to be emptied and the dam demolished?
Posted on March 31, 2008 3:47 PM
I dunno, Allen. Why don't you interview him NOW and ASK him?
There's a REASON newspaper circulation & revenues are way down, and many of us no longer believe in the farce billed as "citizen journalism" . . . especially locally.
Posted on March 31, 2008 5:04 PM
Because he started a blog saying the same stuff he was saying then, when the paper did interview him?
Posted on March 31, 2008 5:32 PM
I waited for it and it came.
I was interviewed by the paper a while back too Allen . . . about the resolution of two lawsuits . . . a resolution that I would later discover was negotiated on a pack of lies (told by local "non-profit" executives no less).
When I was interviewed by the N&R, I was quoted as saying I was "happy" about the settlement. Since then, everyone from Roch Smith, Jr. to John Robinson has thrown that in my face as if it were some kind of journalistic badge of honor.
I started a blog too - three years ago. And I'm NOT saying what I was saying back when you interviewed me. I'm NOT happy. And I've reported CRIMES (translation: I should not have to "sue somebody" to get the law to do what the law is supposed to do). Where is your newspaper?
Moral of the story: Things change. But some things never do.
Drip . . . drip . . . drip.
Posted on April 1, 2008 12:16 AM
I am not familiar with your lawsuits but I am with the water supply issue.
What has changed regarding water management?
Posted on April 1, 2008 9:22 AM
Given all the blather about "citizen journalism" and "transparency" and "open government" and "integrity" that the N&R is tossing around, perhaps you should familiarize yourself with my case and my blog. There's a story there - right under your nose.
I've been here in the GSO "blagosphere" for quite a while and you really don't have an excuse.
And perhaps instead of tossing fluff towards your friends in city government and looking down your nose at Mike Baron (who, I am fairly certain, knows a lot about those "water issues" too), you should try interviewing him.
Newspapers still do that . . . yes?
Posted on April 1, 2008 11:25 AM
Mike Baron has shown us the stories the N&R wrote about him but nothing the N&R has written has addressed Mr Baron's claims-- why?
Posted on April 1, 2008 11:38 AM
Yes we do. I'll consider that.
Posted on April 1, 2008 12:55 PM
This is a total smorgasbord of lefty anxiety! So many options! Will we expire in a dusty desert of dubious development, or have dark gov ops conspired to maliciously foist on us a superfluous dam? I can't decide!
Have a ever experienced a starving crowd? Well, no, not in America. We're smart enough that even in our deserts, people have water. Like in Phoenix.
Posted on April 1, 2008 6:54 PM
I know one thing we're starving for. And that's some real journalism.
Posted on April 1, 2008 8:41 PM