steady rains

12.02.09

Water Vapor Almost Busts Dam

A strange phenomenon was shredding Glen Canyon Dam. Here's how it was saved.
By Brian Fortner Posted 03.05.2003 at 1:26 pm 0 Comments

THE SITUATION Late spring, 1983. Heavy snowmelt and steady rains create the worst flooding in nearly a century in the Colorado River basin. Lake Powell, a 185-mile-long reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border, is the hardest hit. Both spillways at the reservoir's 710-foot-high Glen Canyon Dam must be opened for the first time to prevent the reservoir from breaching its top.

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