LEAKAGE IN DAM

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18761, 18 July 1935, Page 10

LEAKAGE IN DAM

WAITAKI HYDRO SCHEME ENGINEERS CONCERNED (Ter Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, last night. Engineers at Wuitaki hydro works have been concerned for many weeks about a. leakage in the darn, but it will now be possible to go on with the work of sealing and arrest the wastage ot water. When the dam was completed towards the end of last year, eleven sluice gates hail to bo dropped into position to close tho passages through which the river had flowed. While the work was being completed eight gates closed satisfactorily, but three did not. The engineers were at once aware of the trouble and suspected the cause of it, but had to wait until the river had fallen to a low mid-winter level before, the work of sealing tho vents could be done. The river this year has maintained a high level for an abnormally long period, but lias now fallen to a level which permits the necessary investigations. The engineers have already located tho leaks and the scaling is being poured in already. Mr, F. T. M. Kissel, chief electrical engineer to the . Public Works Department, • who is in Dunedin, stated tonight that rapid progress was expected. The difficulty confronting the engineers was to find out what had happened to the gates when they were closed. This week in the presence, of Mr. Kissel, the engineers on the job made new tost s with colored'dyes. These dyes, showing in the water escaping through tho gates, indicated where the principal leakage was occurring, and now the scaling is being poured oil this spot. There had been rumors that- the leakage was so serious as to impair the possible efficiency of the scheme, but Mr. Kissel] said to-night that these were quito without- foundation. The engineers, he said, knew that they could remedy the defect, but had to wait for a fall .in the river level before they could do the work. The flow escaping through the leaks, he said, was less than 5 per cent, of the total flow of the river.