THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 1, 1995 TAG: 9506300015
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
On June 22 south of Lynchburg, a 70-year-old earthen dam broke, loosing a wall of water that killed two people.
Two factors destroyed the 33-foot-high dam, which once formed a 75-acre lake.
(1) A 10-inch rainfall.
(2) A doubling of storm runoff into the lake caused by development in its 2,950 watershed.
Chester F. Watts, director of the Institute for Engineering Geosciences at Radford University, explained:
``This drastic increase in storm runoff is the natural result of having less forest and farm land, which absorb rainfall more readily than do parking lots, roads and buildings, which collect and concentrate rainwater. This is a major cause of flash flooding anywhere storm water is not properly managed.''
In 1972, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, 29 percent of the watershed was residential and 1 percent commercial. By 1990, half was residential and 4 percent was commercial.
Last September, a state dam engineer told the dam's owners it should last for years with proper and regular care. It didn't, and the scenic lake was transmogrified into a mud pit.
Environmentalists often are portrayed as overly alarmist; many conservatives say the word ``environmentalist'' with a sneer. For them, the word conjures visions of needed development and jobs stopped cold by snails or owls or shrews.
Still, it is unwise ever to forget that when development and Nature collide, there are consequences, occasionally fatal. If we do forget, a dam break or a hurricane will remind us. by CNB