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southern MN | It’s a bit of an oddity, as there is no lake behind it. The rivers here were formed by glaciers melting off, these rivers near the Minnesota River are cut down into mini versions of the Grand Canyon, very narrow.
So they walled off a canyon area to make electricity in the very early 1900s. Give enough fall for the turbines. But it didn’t create much of a body of water behind it, stacked the water up vertically.
The good news if the dam fails, or just continues to wash out the side, there isn’t such a huge volume of water behind it as a normal dam that creates a large lake.
The bad news is that the dam has had lots of trouble over the past years because it needs to react immediately to any river flow changes. There is no real buffer behind it. What comes in needs to flow out.
They have been pondering a study upon study since 2019 whether to repair/ restore the dam for $18 million or remove it for $82 million.
Looks like they might not need to continue the study.
Paul | |
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Rapidan Dam Breached
