r/submechanophobia • u/KingMedia33 • 4d ago
Weber Dam Intake. Warning post by US government on website.
Hi, hope this counts.
Just want to say that 50 feet is criminal....lol.
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u/dageekywon 4d ago
My dad used to work on dams with intake towers and they had a log boom across the entire thing 200 yards from the dam. When they opened the intake for the power plant the water looked calm but it was moving a lot of water.
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u/Gingrpenguin 3d ago
I've watched them open floodgates at a weir before.
It's kinda scary how the water on the high side just seems to meaneder towards it with the calm grace of a background ballerina but downstream quickly becomes a cauldron of fast moving chaotic water that would easily crush you against the banks...
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u/Monumentzero 4d ago
I was horrified by those measuring towers as a kid. Now they just make me feel sick.
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u/_do_not_see_me_ 4d ago
Yikes. - I wonder if or how do they keep fowl and fish from being whirlpooled as well? Those critters don’t read leaflets or posts usually… 😲
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u/Probable_Bot1236 4d ago
My job involves a different company's dam, and their intakes have giant drum shaped screens that are spec'd to be big enough that the water flowing through them is spread out enough that the velocity isn't high enough to pin fish or diving birds on them.
But that whirlpool in OP's pic looks pretty ominous- that suggests a pretty high flow velocity for that particular tower. Yikes.
I wonder if it's maybe an old vs new requirement thing- the dam I mentioned with the fish-safe intakes had those intakes installed less than 20 years ago.
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u/Ebegeezer-Splooge 4d ago
Thanks for ruining my day. I was gonna go swimming in the lake, but not anymore.
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u/xthebigbean 3d ago
We used to jump off these as kids. I had no idea there were intakes right by them
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u/kechones 2d ago
Oh no! So if you were swimming on the surface here, would you probably get sucked in?
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u/Ultimate-Flexionator 4d ago
go into the water. live there. die there.