Corps and Nature Conservancy Join Forces on Dam Control

摘要

For most of its 34-year history, the Green Dam―located on the Green River in Kentucky 60 mi (96 km) upstream of Mammoth Cave National Park―has been operated with a drawdown regime requiring the steady release of water at about 1,000 cfs (28 m~3/s) between the months of September and November. So it undoubtedly came as a surprise to some downstream residents when in December 2002, for the first time in nearly 20 years, water was released from the dam at the maximum capacity, 8,000 cfs (226 m~3/s). For most of the day the river rushed hard through its course and overflowed into the flatlands near its edges―as if a heavy storm had swept through the area.