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Olentangy flow at Delaware vs. Worthington

2K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  FOSR 
#1 ·
Since we have a flood watch, I thought hey, why not watch the flood? Here is some flow data showing how the Delaware dam operators control the flow down to Worthington and the confluence with the Scioto. The dam is the only control point on the Olentangy, and Delaware Lake is the only place where the Corps of Engineers can hold back flood water. O'Shaughnessy can hold back some water, but the reservoir level doesn't change as drastically as Delaware lake.

This graph shows the flow data on the Olentangy at two points:

The red line shows the outflow at the Delaware dam. You can see how the flow changes abruptly as the operators respond to expected conditions downstream.

The green line shows the flow at Worthington, specifically, at the Wilson Road bridge. Notice how its level rises and falls with the Delaware outflow after a time lag. Another factor is all of the water that drains into the Olentangy from every tributary between the two gauges - that includes all of the pavement and rooftops ("impermeable surfaces") along the developed Rt. 23 corridor. That water can create spikes that don't show in the dam discharge rate.

For a rough idea of a cubic foot, imagine a milk crate full of water. Then imagine a line of 4,900 of them end to end, shoved past you in one second, and you get a picture of how much water is flowing by Worthington right now.

 
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#2 ·
I drive over one of the areas many creeks during my morning commute. I did a double take when I saw how high the water was. The usual landmarks on the bank were several feet under water. Guess finally all that litter from bucket sitters will get washed out on its way to the Gulf of Mexico

Thanks for mentioning impervious surfaces, FOSR. It would be nice if development codes around the region encouraged the use of pervious pavers. For anyone not familiar with these, visit Whole Foods in Easton. The parking lot there is a good example of such pavers.

http://stormwater.wef.org/2013/10/pervious-permeable-porous-pavers-really/
 
#3 ·
Yes, guys. I have driven over a couple spots on the Nut and the Scioto. One place on the river has the water up significantly...I don't want to really hazard a hard guess, but it's gotta be well over 4 feet. There's an access road that I walk on to get to a halfway decent spot that is quite a bit above the water level normally, and this road is covered.
 
#4 ·
Yep. I drove over my local honey hole and it was raging. There’s a bridge that normally you can stand under and the water was a foot and a half from the top of it. That little creek flooded an entire farmers field which was pretty impressive. That was Friday, drove over it today and was blown away again by how much the water had gone down. Almost back to normal level but muddy.
 
#6 ·
Man I'm out here at West Broad/270 and there are many empty shopping centers with acres and acres of empty unused parking lots, all impervious pavement that flushes like one big toilet bowl when there's a rain.

Think of 0.6 gallons of runoff from one square foot of pavement, for each inch of rain, then look at those lots and try to imagine how many square feet they add up to.



That's not all to consider - when there's a thunderstorm on a hot sunny day and all that pavement is hot enough to hurt bare feet, then all that runoff is as warm as bath water at least, and that's all flushing into the streams. The heat is like an invisible form of pollution.
 
#7 ·
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