1. September, 2003 - wrapping up the long weekend
- Well, it’s Labor Day, and a much-needed holiday. There was plenty to do over the weekend, but today is pretty much open, except for household chores. But it’s also the traditional last day of summer,classes start at the U tomorrow, and all the students are back, so I feel as though I should get outside and do something today, too.
- Saints drop regular season finale, 4-3, losing to Gary, and finishing just below .500 for the second half of the season. The regular season is over, and it’s time for the playoffs tomorrow. Foster and Von Haefen will be the starters at home on Tuesday and Wednesday, and they’re good guys to have on the mound, but we’ve had trouble with Winnpeg all year (they lead the Saints 11-6 in the regular-season series this year), so I don’t think this will be a cakewalk. Cautious optimism…
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On Saturday, I took a walk down by St. Anthony Falls to see the River. Brian had mentioned to me that they’d shut off the water going over the falls and were working on things down there.
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Apparently, I’d missed the Coming up dry on the Mighty Mississippi story in the Strib, which explains some of what’s going on.
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On Saturday, the Pioneer Press had FYI: Mississippi boats delayed, which had a little more explanation.
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But it’s not every day that you get to see the riverbed completely dry, and trucks, bobcats and men wandering around in what’s normally river-bottom. Nor do you get to see the big slabs of limestone that form the old base of the falls. Of course without the horseshoe dam and other manmade bits, the falls would probably already be gone, as the limestone cap that made them possible ends not much farther upriver.
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And so, in order to keep everything in place, Xcel Energy, which runs the powerplant at the falls, has to do periodic maintenance on the dam. I haven’t noticed this in years past, other when their generating plant at the lower falls washed out, but they usually time it for the late summer, when the water flow is lowest, so it’s easiest to stop the flow over the horseshoe dam.
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There’s also trash to be removed, both from the repairs to the dam, as well as stuff that’s washed down the river.
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Another neat thing is that thanks to the Corps of Engineers, you can check out raw data about the river on their website. Since the NSP pool is at the same level as the area above the horseshoe dam, and that data’s available online, it’s pretty easy to see when they started lowering the water level so work could begin. The online data shows only a foot or two of drop in the water-level for the past month, and it looks to me as though the water’s almost three feet lower on the new dam in front of St. Anthony Main. But looking more closely, it looks like they started lowering the pool about the first of July in preparation for this project, and the water level’s down over four feet from the highest levels, and about three feet from the normal summertime levels.
Copyright 2008, Dave Polaschek.
Last updated on Mon, 01 Sep 2003 08:26:36.
