Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Why Does Army Corps Of Engineers Not Like Dallas Whitewater Wild Rapids Blocking Trinity River?

I saw that which you see here a few minutes ago, from Elsie Hotpepper, via Facebook.

Til the past week, give or take a day or two, I did not know that the Dallas version of the Trinity River Vision already saw a whitewater wild rapids installation.

A wild rapids installation which cost a few million bucks and which blocks upriver boat floating on the Trinity River.

That blockage has turned the Dallas wild rapids into a problem with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, whose job it is to make sure America's navigable rivers remain navigable.

How this Dallas wild rapids thing got installed without the Army Corps of Engineers being in the loop is a mystery to me.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, I have long known that a proposed wild rapids installation is part of Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision. I learned of the Fort Worth wild rapids via signage installed, long ago, by America's Biggest Boondoggle,  in Gateway Park, which is the location of the proposed Fort Worth wild rapids.

I don't quite understand how wild rapids are supposed to work in an area where the topography is a bit flat, hence a slow moving river.

If the Dallas wild rapids is now an issue because it has blocked navigation, why are the multiple dams across the Trinity River, as it passes through Fort Worth, not a navigation blocking issue?

Are the Fort Worth Trinity River dams not relevant, navigation blockage-wise, because the Trinity River is no longer considered navigable by the time one goes upriver as far as Fort Worth? Who knows?

What I do know is I have wondered ever since I saw The Boondoggle's Gateway Park signage touting the Gateway Park wild rapids feature how in the world that would work, what with that absence of much elevation change problem that I already mentioned.

I have not seen the Dallas wild rapids on the Trinity. I have no idea where this is located. By Tramwell Crow Park, perhaps? I have seen the steep boat launch at that location.

If the Army Corps of Engineers is threatening to pull the plug on Dallas' water, why doesn't Dallas simply remove the silly fake wild rapids? Have people actually been using these fake rapids in kayaks to have themselves a pseudo wild river experience? Seems unlikely.

Then again, 10 years ago I would never have dreamed that the local sheep could be convinced it is a good idea to float on inner tubes in the Trinity River, drinking beer, while listening to music blaring from an imaginary pavilion on an imaginary island....

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