part of the thames on red

thamesS23

thamesS23

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 Jan 2006
Messages
1,141
Location
hertfordshire
www.spotonprint.net
Just looking at the EA website for river conditions and saw the following:

Buscot Lock to Grafton Lock No Stream Warnings
Grafton Lock to Radcot Lock Caution strong stream
Radcot Lock to Rushey Lock No Stream Warnings

Now I don't know that area, but it seemed strange to me that one section of the river can be on reds, whilst all around it there are no stream warnings at all, not even yellows.
Is there anything on that part of the river that could cause this to happen?
 
A bit like flushing the loo -

They open the "taps", run it through to the next reach, and shut the taps again.

Rather than even the flow EA now get rid of excess water as soon as possible, just in case there's a load more rain around the corner - as it were.
 
Re: A bit like flushing the loo -

No they don't /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif don't know where you got that from ? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Doing that creates 'lumps' and 'holes' - something we , as the lock staff try and avoid as much as possible. The idea is to keep the headwater as flat as possible. Go into any lock office and see if they will let you have a look at the trend monitor , in an ideal world it will display a flat line , sure there'll be some gentle fluctuation in it , but hopefully no mountains and valleys.

If someone emptied for arguments sake , a billion gallons of water in one go into the river at the head , then yes , you could open the weir at St Johns and it would be in the next reach within an hour or so. You could then shut the weir and the 'lump' would go downstream. However water percolates into the river slowly , So if a billion gallons was dumped in over the course of a week say , you may open a gate at a time every few days until you have peaked and then you begin shutting in the weir .

I'm certainly not aware of any directive to run off excess water. The Agency has a charter to provide a target level on each reach taking into account the needs of navigation , abstraction etc , our aim as lock keepers is to stay as close to that as we can. If we suddenly started dumping loads of water , we would fall out of levels quickly and thats a bad thing.

It was probably just a glitch on the new page , someone has hit the wrong key when it was being updated or something.
 
Re: A bit like flushing the loo -

I think you need to spend some time upriver and experience just those happenings. Last summer was particularly bad, often we found one reach had no water, the next reach had too much. We were scraping the bottom on one reach then struggling to get under a footbridge on the next.

I arrived at Sonning one evening to see very low levels in the weir stream, the next morning when the relief lockkeeper came on duty he immediately set to to bring the levels back to normal.

It was getting to the stage where we had to set mooring lines as if we were on a tidal river like the Broads.
 
I\'m obliged to you, kind sir -

[ QUOTE ]
No they don't /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif don't know where you got that from ? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

To an extent I made it up from my imperfect observations. In the last couple of years I've noticed an increasing occurrence of stream warnings rising, peaking and falling quickly, whereas previously the whole process appeared more gradual.
Understandable in the off season months where the catchment area is already saturated, but in the summer (last summer) when the flood plain is dry???

Now I made this allegation a while ago and nobody (attacked), umm - corrected it so I've persisted.
That's great as you've kindly come back with something that's a lot more considered and logical. But hey that takes the fun out of it (haha).

As you suggest "finger trouble" may be the cause as I see from today's bulletin (11:15) that Iffley to Days are now on Yellow+

Maybe that, due to EA's improved communications this year, I'm rushing to the wrong conclusions.

You must agree that it's an attractive assertion - get rid of the ruddy stuff before we get girt big floods and attacked from all quarters?

Note to self Thinks of some more scatty ideas and wait for more logic to be fed back by Them 'as Knows. That way we all learn more about the River.



Edit: Aha, I see I have some support from Brayman, so perhaps I didn't need to grovel so much. Perhaps the discussion should continue until we get to the bottom (Oops - an unintended pun) of the matter...
 
Re: A bit like flushing the loo -

Brayman.

Hmmmmm ..... got me there i'm afraid . I can't explain that , sorry /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

True Blue.

It would be nice to do it that way and no doubt some computer somewhere will say it is possible , but in the real world ? To be honest , i've never worked on the upper reaches of the river , so am unqualifed to speak on how they do things up there , i can only advise on the way that we in Lower Thames do things.
 
Re: A bit like flushing the loo -

[ QUOTE ]
i can only advise on the way that we in Lower Thames do things.

[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps we need a representative lock-keeper from the far reaches to supplement your knowledge base.
Anyone going to volunteer, or be volunteered?

Nigel?
Ian?
Bob? anything to stop him puffin' away,
Ferd?
 
Re: A bit like flushing the loo -

"No they don't" "Yes they do"

Hope it doesn't sound like a pantomime! But I think they do, particularly, after many year's observations, particularly around the Henley Royal Regatta period. If there's any danger of excess water they appear to pull the plug as much as possible in the week before and replace it a few day before.

I've certainly been caught out with low levels where's there's been a lack of communication between locks. Several times this has involved the Clifton to Culham stretch.

IanC
 
Re: A bit like flushing the loo -

Ooops! Thought this was a post about diesel! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
Re: A bit like flushing the loo -

[ QUOTE ]
Ooops! Thought this was a post about diesel! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I have never used this before, but....

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top