Bye-bye Tempe Town Lake Dam
We knew it was going to happen. The dam was supposed to have been replaced in 2008 but we all know what a sucky year that was and the city had no money to do it. Then it was supposed to be replaced earlier this year, but we had so much rain that there was no way to repair anything until water levels lowered. So the dam was basically a ticking time-bomb until last night when the explosion shook the shore of Tempe Town Lake. Like a flash-flood reminiscent of the old days, thousands of gallons of water rushed into the riparian habitat just west of the dam and westward into Phoenix. No injuries have been reported but wildlife was seen dashing up the sides of the once dry river bed.
It’s really not that bad. There was at least that much water or more flowing over the dam this past winter after all the rain.
Here is a picture from last night:
And here is a picture from January. It was pretty full then.
Did they deflate the dams back in January? It looks like they are non-existent in the photo above.
They did. That was one of the benefits of having the rubber inflatable dams was they could be raised and lowered with the water levels. So when we got all that rain they lowered the dams and let all the excess water run off. It lasted a couple days actually. I called it “Tempe Falls” because water was gushing over the dam like a big waterfall. It was pretty cool actually.
Then the two in the middle were deflated for a while as well.