UNFOUNDED RUMOUR

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 83, 20 March 1928, Page 6

UNFOUNDED RUMOUR

LEAKAGE AT ARAPUNI. CONTRADICTED BY ENGINEER. The Hamilton Borough Engineer, Mr B. Worley, interviewed concerning the rumours that a leak had occurred in the Arapuni dam, stated definitely that there was no truth in the statement. This rumour was based on the fact that notwithstanding the prolonged dry spell the Waihou River, some 12 mile® away from Arapuni, has shown no appreciable fall from the winter months ’ level, while it was thought that the Waikato River bglow Arapuni had decreased in volume. However, figures in the engineer’s office show that the lowest volume registered at Hamilton this year was 6300 cusecs, whereas in 1921 inn 1923 the river was down to-.as low as 4800 cusecs. The reason for this lies in the fact that, although the district has been in the throes of the most severe drought that has been experienced for many years, the ranges have not been affected and the source of the Waihou River has consequently remained unaltered. COMPARED WITH ST. FRANCIS. SOME INTERESTING FIGURES. The recent Los Angeles tragedy when the bursting of the great St’ Francis Dam let loose a wave of destruction, has caused some speculation as to the probability of a similar occurrence with the Arapuni scheme. The borough engineer, Mr R. Worley, entertains no fears that Arapuni will fail, considering that the greater curvature and the shorter of the Arapuni dam, compared with that of the St. Francis make the danger a very slight one. th probility of title abutments being carried further into the sides of the Arapuni project would make it appear that it is more substantial on that account also. Al though the storage capacity of the big Waikato dam exceeds that of thu Los Angeles scheme by 20,000,000 gallons, the nature of country through which the water would travel in the event of a collapse of the gigantic concrete structure would minimise, to a large extent, the destruction that, would follow.

A comparison of the respective dams is interesting: Storage capacity of Arapuni, 32,000,000 gallons, St. Francis 12,000,000; length of ' Arapuni dam, ’ 300 ft, St. Francis, 655 ft; total height of Arapuni dam 210 ft St ’Francis, 205 ft; depth of foundation below river bed, 30ft in both cases; thickness of foundations, Arapuni 174 ft, St. Francis, 169 ft; volume of concrete, 95,000 cubic yards, St. Francis 175,000 cubic yards. ' The curvature of the Los Angeles dam was much less than that of Arapuni.