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M.B.Barker and B.A. Vivian
Tumut Pond and Island Bend Dams are owned and operated by the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Authority. These dams, which are gated, have recently had significant electrical supply and control system upgrades. Subsequent reliability analyses performed for the gates provided unexpected results which highlighted issues concerning common mode failures and common cause failures associated with the mechanical systems. A further unexpected outcome of the analyses was the minor affect of human error and response to the emergency operating conditions of the gates in the event of electrical supply failure due to the over-riding mechanical system failures. This outcome was of benefit to the owners who had some concern that centralization of operation and consequent reduction in operating personnel would have an adverse effect on the reliability of the gates. The operation of the automatic control system is an ongoing issue for Island Bend where hunting of the gate operation is yet to be resolved. The preparation of the fault trees, development of failure probabilities and outcomes of the analyses are discussed in the paper which highlights some of the difficulties in design and operation of spillway gates, particularly where human response time is limited and automatic control is essential.
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2001 Papers
2001 – Are Your Gates Up to Scratch or Down the Creek?
Learn moreM.B.Barker and B.A. Vivian
Tumut Pond and Island Bend Dams are owned and operated by the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Authority. These dams, which are gated, have recently had significant electrical supply and control system upgrades. Subsequent reliability analyses performed for the gates provided unexpected results which highlighted issues concerning common mode failures and common cause failures associated with the mechanical systems. A further unexpected outcome of the analyses was the minor affect of human error and response to the emergency operating conditions of the gates in the event of electrical supply failure due to the over-riding mechanical system failures. This outcome was of benefit to the owners who had some concern that centralization of operation and consequent reduction in operating personnel would have an adverse effect on the reliability of the gates. The operation of the automatic control system is an ongoing issue for Island Bend where hunting of the gate operation is yet to be resolved. The preparation of the fault trees, development of failure probabilities and outcomes of the analyses are discussed in the paper which highlights some of the difficulties in design and operation of spillway gates, particularly where human response time is limited and automatic control is essential.
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2001 Papers
2001 – Restoration of Storage Capacity at Lyell Dam
Learn moreBill Hakin, Phillip Solomon, Geoff Hughes, Peter Siers
Lyell Dam is located on the Coxs River near Lithgow NSW Australia. It was constructed in 1982 to supply cooling water to Delta Electricity’s Mt. Piper and Wallerawang power stations.
In 1994 the storage capacity of the dam was increased by 7,500 MI by raising the embankment height and installing two 3.5m high inflatable rubber dams on an enlarged and slightly raised spillway sill.
Two significant failures of the rubber dams in 1997 and 1999, led the dam owner, Delta Electricity, to seek a more reliable way of maintaining the increased FSL whilst still providing spillway capacity for the design flood.
Following a detailed review of options, Delta Electricity chose to reinstate the storage capacity with the Hydroplus Fusegate System. The Hydroplus System consists of a series of fusible units that progressively tip off the spillway as flood magnitude increases, thereby forming a controlled breach in the spillway and providing for passage of the design flood. At Lyell Dam it has been designed such that no units tip until the 20 000 AEP flood. The System is designed to act as a normal free overflow spillway up until extreme events when it is required to commence operation. Key factors in the selection process were safety, reliability and operation/maintenance.This is the first installation of the Hydroplus Fusegate System in Australia or New Zealand. There are currently 35 installations throughout the world. The System has wide application with dam owners either seeking to store additional water and/or to increase the capacity of their existing spillways for safety reasons in an economical and efficient manner.
This paper examines the decision and selection process adopted by Delta Electricity. It also presents a case study for the design and construction stages of this unique solution for Lyell Dam.
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2001 Papers
2001 – The Augmentation of Spillway Capacity and Storage Capacity of Candowie Dam
Learn moreMike Taylor and Doug Halloran
Candowie Dam is a 15m high embankment dam with a storage capacity of 2182 ML. It is the primary source of water for the Westernport Region Water Authority which includes Phillip Island and the town of Cowes south- east of Melbourne.
The existing spillway, comprising a 21m long concrete ogee profile crest discharging into a concrete chute which converges to a width of 7m, has a capacity to only accommodate the I in 6 000 annual exceedance probability (AEP) flood, well short of the required capacity of the 1 in 40 000 AEP flood.
In addition, Westernport Water would like to increase the yield of Candowie Dam as far as economically possible, within the scope of the spillway works.A solution has been developed whereby the spillway capacity could be increased to accommodate the 1 in 40 000 AEP flood and at the same time the full supply level could be raised by 900mm resulting in an increase in storage of 573 ML and an increase in yield of 580 ML per year.
The solution comprises the following:- Lowering the existing spillway crest by 850 mm
- The installation of 1.75m high precast concrete ‘Hydroplus’ fusegates on the lowered crest.
The fusegates are designed to tip off incrementally with the initial tip off occurring when the flood exceeds the 1 in 200 AEP flood. The tip offs are actuated purely by hydrostatic pressure developed by the rising flood level and programmed so that at no stage does the outflow flood peak exceed the inflow flood peak.Westernport Water can accommodate the risk (0.5% per year) of the occasional loss of the existing top 830mm of storage resulting from a tip-off.
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The total cost of the augmentation is estimated to be in the order of $ 700 000. -
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2002 Papers
2002 – Lake Daylesford Dam: Safety Review Following Overtopping
Learn moreMike Taylor, Paul Maisano and Rod Conway
Daylesford Dam forms an ornamental lake, known locally as Lake Daylesford, situated on Wombat Creek within the heart of Daylesford in Victoria. It is a focus of the local tourism industry and is vitally important to the Daylesford community as a recreational, social and environmental asset, with important heritage value.
On 24 October 2000, the 12m high embankment was overtopped following heavy rainfall and was in danger of breaching. This could have resulted in loss of the dam and lake, downstream damage to roads and the environment and possible loss of life. The overtopping of the dam prompted the Hepburn Shire Council, land manager for the dam, to initiate a safety review of the dam as well as the commissioning of a Dam Surveillance Program and a Dam Safety Emergency Plan.The spillway is of the side-channel type with a 30m long concrete sill at the entrance discharging into a 5m wide unlined trough and chute. The existing spillway can only accommodate a peak flow of 24m3/s, which represents an AEP of less than 1 in 20. The required flood capacity in terms of the latest ANCOLD guidelines on spillway adequacy is for an AEP of 1 in 1 000 which equates to 120m3/s.
Following discussions with Hepburn Shire Council, and an evaluation of public usage of the Lake Daylesford area, it was assessed that the following constraints apply when considering options for increasing spillway capacity:- A lowering of the full supply level is not an option due to existing shoreside development.
- Any raising of the embankment should be kept to a minimum as the crest forms a cross-roads for a large number of pathways and hiking trails.
- Due to the heritage value of the dam, changes to the appearance of the structure should be minimised.
- Due to the high level of recreational use of the site, the remedial works should be compatible with minimising any disruption to the use of the area by the public during construction.
The proposed solution includes the following:
- Widening the unlined spillway trough and lowering the invert.
- Utilising rock from the spillway excavation for a stabilising fill on the downstream face with a filter zone to reduce the risk of piping failure, with a modest ( <1 m) raising of the embankment crest.
- Reconstructing the spillway crest and access bridge.
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2003 Papers
2003 – Increasing Storafe Capacity at Dartmouth Regulatory Dam with Fusegates: The Construction Stage
Learn moreBill Hakin, Peter Buchanan, Doug Connors, Darren Loidl
To allow greater flexibility in their generation and hence a better response to the peaks in electricity demand, Southern Hydro decided to increase the Full Supply Level of Dartmouth Regulatory Dam by 3.5m using labyrinth Fusegates.
The Regulating Dam is located on the Mitta Mitta River, approximately 8 km downstream of Dartmouth Dam. It is a 23 m high concrete gravity structure with a 60 m long central spillway section. The dam forms the storage required for regulating releases from the Dartmouth Power Station back to the Mitta Mitta River, so as to satisfy environmental requirements.
Although this is the second Fusegate project in Australia it is unique in that difficult access conditions determined that construction in mild steel would be the most appropriate. Initial civil works involved construction of a flat sill to replace the Ogee spillway crest so that it could support the Fusegates. The installation contractor devised an ingenious method for installing the huge structures over the top of the gate-house which blocks direct access to the spillway. Design was very much undertaken with the installation method in mind to ensure a high quality project with minimum contractual risk.
This paper discusses the construction stage of this very interesting spillway modification.
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2003 Papers
2003 – REMEDIAL WORKS DESIGN AT CHURCHMAN BROOK DAM IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Learn moreChurchman Brook Dam is a 26m high earthfill dam with a puddle clay core and impounds a reservoir of 2.2GL. Various remedial works have been undertaken since completion of construction in 1928. In September 2000, a sinkhole in the right abutment was observed during a routine dam inspection. Following this incident, detailed site investigations were carried out. These investigations revealed that there are soft zones and possibly voids formed in the upper part of the clay core.
A comprehensive dam safety study and a risk workshop undertaken in 2002/2003 showed the dam to be deficient in aspects associated with piping, spillway adequacy and outlet works condition. A rational geotechnical model was developed for the foundation utilising triaxial test data from 1980s and recent investigations. The existing spillway chute will be upgraded with a concrete liner attached to the existing chute incorporating no-fine concrete as a free-draining medium. This paper presents the various aspects of the remedial works currently being designed.
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2003 Papers
2003 – Remedial Works Design At Churchman Brook in Western Australia
Learn moreN. Vitharana, A. Gower, G. Bell and N. Petrovic
Churchman Brook Dam is a 26m high earthfill dam with a puddle clay core and impounds a reservoir of 2.2GL. Various remedial works have been undertaken since completion of construction in 1928. In September 2000, a sinkhole in the right abutment was observed during a routine dam inspection. Following this incident, detailed site investigations were carried out. These investigations revealed that there are soft zones and possibly voids formed in the upper part of the clay core.
A comprehensive dam safety study and a risk workshop undertaken in 2002/2003 showed the dam to be deficient in aspects associated with piping, spillway adequacy and outlet works condition. A rational geotechnical model was developed for the foundation utilising triaxial test data from 1980s and recent investigations. The existing spillway chute will be upgraded with a concrete liner attached to the existing chute incorporating no-fine concrete as a free-draining medium. This paper presents the various aspects of the remedial works currently being designed.
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2003 Papers
2003 – SPILLWAY GATE RELIABILITY AND HANDLING OF RISK FOR RADIAL AND DRUM GATES
Learn moreThis paper discusses reliability issues of the fourteen 3.85m high by 7.89m wide radial gates at Glenmaggie Dam in Victoria and the twin 3.6m high by 16.5m wide drum gates at Little Nerang Dam in Queensland. The Glenmaggie dam radial gates are manually controlled using electrically driven (mains and diesel generator power supply) hoist motors with a petrol driven hydraulic pack for use in the event of complete electrical power supply failure. A detailed fault tree analysis was developed for the spillway gate reliability of the Glenmaggie Dam gates as part of the risk assessment for the dam, which was being completed at the time of publishing the paper. Each of the identified components of the spillway gates, including human error in operation was used to evaluate the probability of failure of a single gate or multiple gates for inclusion in the event tree to estimate the risk and assist the evaluation of the requirement for remedial works. The Little Nerang drum gates are fully automatic hydraulically operated gates with independent operating mechanics and a common override system in the event of automatic system failure. Drum gates are uncommon on dams and the system operation is discussed together with an assessment of the reliability and measures taken for handling operating risks during floods for the dam, which has some stability concerns.
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2003 Papers
2003 – Spillway Gate Reliability and Handling of Risk for Radial and Drum Gates
Learn moreM. Barker, B. Vivian, J. Matthews and P. Oliver
This paper discusses reliability issues of the fourteen 3.85m high by 7.89m wide radial gates at Glenmaggie Dam in Victoria and the twin 3.6m high by 16.5m wide drum gates at Little Nerang Dam in Queensland. The Glenmaggie dam radial gates are manually controlled using electrically driven (mains and diesel generator power supply) hoist motors with a petrol driven hydraulic pack for use in the event of complete electrical power supply failure. A detailed fault tree analysis was developed for the spillway gate reliability of the Glenmaggie Dam gates as part of the risk assessment for the dam, which was being completed at the time of publishing the paper. Each of the identified components of the spillway gates, including human error in operation was used to evaluate the probability of failure of a single gate or multiple gates for inclusion in the event tree to estimate the risk and assist the evaluation of the requirement for remedial works. The Little Nerang drum gates are fully automatic hydraulically operated gates with independent operating mechanics and a common override system in the event of automatic system failure. Drum gates are uncommon on dams and the system operation is discussed together with an assessment of the reliability and measures taken for handling operating risks during floods for the dam, which has some stability concerns.
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2006 Papers
2006 – Investigations and Design of Remedial Works at Millbrook Dam in South Australia
Learn moreN. Vitharana, G. McNally, C. Johnson, A. Thomas, K. Dart and P. Russell
Millbrook Reservoir is an offline storage with an earthen embankment dam containing a puddle clay core and a moderately sized upstream catchment. The dam is 31m high and has a capacity of 16.5 GL when the storage water level is at the Full SupplyLevel (FSL). The reservoir is 25km NE of Adelaide on Chain of Ponds Creek, a tributary of the River Torrens. The dam was constructed during the years 1914-1918. Earthworks were carried out only during summer as the five winters during the construction period were very wet.
Dam safety reviews and geotechnical investigations, undertaken between 2001 and 2004 by SKM, showed that these winter recesses would have created weak layers, increasing the potential for piping due to the lack of a filter. This was highlighted by the large deformations which occurred at the end of construction in 1918. The spillway was assessed as able to pass a flood event with AEP of 1:1,300,000. Given the location of the dam, ANCOLD(2000b) Guidelines suggest the dam should be able to safely pass the PMF flood event. Accordingly, the dam required upgrading to modern guidelines.
The 2005 detailed design of the upgrade included the construction of a 70m wide unlined spillway, construction of filters on the downstream face of the dam with a stabilisation (weighting) fill, installation of instrumentation and seismic protection of the outlet tower. The construction of these works is currently underway.
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2014 Papers
2014 – Some Lessons Learned from Gate Operations and Testing
Learn morePeter To
This paper outlines lessons learned from 8 years of regular operations and testing of 111 gates at 22 sites. It points out that the implementation challenges involved are not only technological in nature, but also encompass human factor and organizational issues. This is perhaps understandable since the initiative is part of the cultural shift to sustain gate reliability long-term.
An increase in gate testing frequency has led to the identification of more performance anomalies, ranging from deficiencies to operational failures. This finding may not be unique to a single dam owner. It leads to the following question to the general dam owner community: Are we testing our gates enough?
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2015 Papers
2015 – Design of the overbank spillway for St Georges Dam
Learn moreMonique Eggenhuizen, Eric Lesleighter, Gamini Adikari
St Georges Dam is located on Creswick Creek approximately 2km southeast of the township of Creswick and 135km northwest of Melbourne. The reservoir, located within the Creswick Regional Park and originally constructed to supply water for the Creswick quartz crushing plant in the 1890s, has since been established as a popular recreational storage and is the responsibility of Parks Victoria. The dam is approximately 16m high and located across a relatively steep gully. The embankment consists of earthfill with an upstream face of rock beaching and a grass covered downstream face. The primary and secondary spillways are cut into the right and left abutments respectively.
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At the completion of a detailed design review, St Georges Dam was assessed to be within the top three of Parks Victoria’s dams portfolio in regards to Public Safety Risks. The detailed design review assessed that the risk position for the dam plotted within the unacceptable region of the ANCOLD Guidelines for the static, earthquake and flood failure modes. As such, upgrade measures were considered to be required. In 2010 and 2011, a number of significant flood events emphasised the importance of upgrade works at this dam, particularly in regards to upgrading the spillway capacity, and consequently Parks Victoria assigned these works a high priority.
SMEC was engaged to design the upgrade works for the dam. A number of arrangements to increase the spillway capacity of the dam were considered, with the most cost effective option being assessed to be a secondary spillway over the dam embankment in the form of a rock chute.
This paper describes the decision making process associated with the option selection and the methodology for designing the overbank spillway which utilised the findings in ‘Riprap Design for Overtopping Flows (Abt & Johnson, 1991), and US Army Corps of Engineers, Waterways Experiment Station, publications of standard riprap gradations and computer program CHANLPRO.
Keywords: Embankment Dams, Spillway, Rock Chute, Erosion Protection -
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2016 Papers
2016 – Investigation of the Foundation, Sub-surface Drainage and Slab Anchor Degradation of a Concrete-lined Spillway: Fairbairn Dam, Queensland
Learn morePeter Simson, Deryk Foster
Fairbairn Dam is an earth and rockfill embankment dam with an ungated, concrete-lined, spillway, located at AMTD 685.6 km on the Nogoa River, approximately 16 km south of Emerald in Central Queensland.
Following the flood of record in 2011 it was decided to repair a number of areas of spalling concrete which uncovered a collapsed transverse drain and a large void beneath the chute floor. The spillway chute is designed with subsurface drainage system of floor slabs consisting of alternate strips of concrete footing and gravel bed to aid in the control of uplift. The gravel was flushed from under the spillway floor into collapsed earthenware pipes of the drainage system resulting in an unsupported floor slab. Further investigation was carried out using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) which identified additional locations of possible voids. Concrete coring was carried out at selected locations to confirm the voids with some being over 250 mm in depth.
Investigation of the sub-surface drains was carried out using CCTV and showed many of the open jointed earthenware collector pipes had cracked and/or collapsed causing the drainage gravel and founding sedimentary rock to be scoured out by spillway flows entering the system through open contraction joints.
Following the discovery of the foundation scouring it was decided to expose a number of anchor bars in the chute floor to undertake a pull-out testing program. Of the ten anchor bars that were exposed, six were found to have corroded completely with the remaining four noted to be partially corroded and subsequently failed under loading.A geotechnical investigation of the foundation materials was planned to determine the condition and strength of the founding sedimentary rock. In addition, the investigation also included sampling of seepage and reservoir waters to characterise the hydro-geochemistry and its contribution to the deterioration of the anchors.
Artesian conditions also occur within the spillway area, driven by the reservoir, with water passing through an extensive network of pervasive defects in addition to permeable flat-lying strata.Coal seam gas is also known to occur, providing a further contribution to aggressive water geochemistry.
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2016 Papers
2016 – Paradise Dam – An Analysis of Severe Damage to a Modern Dam
Learn moreDavid Scriven, Lawrence Fahey
Paradise Dam is located approximately 20 km north-west of Biggenden and 80 km south-west of Bundaberg on the Burnett River in Queensland. The dam was designed and constructed under an alliance agreement with construction completed in mid 2005. It is a concrete gravity structure up to 52 m high, the primary construction material being roller compacted concrete (RCC).
In January 2013 the flood of record was experienced at the dam with a depth of overflow on the primary spillway reaching 8.65 m following heavy rainfall in the catchment from ex-tropical cyclone Oswald. The peak outflow was approximately 17,000 m3/s. This equated to a 1 in 170 AEP flood event. When the flood receded it was discovered that the dam and surrounds had suffered severe damage in a number of locations including: extensive rock scour downstream of the primary dissipator and the left abutment, damage to portions of the primary dissipator apron, and the loss of most of the primary dissipator end sill.
SunWater initiated a staged remediation program to manage the dam safety risks and by November 2013 had completed the initial Phase 1 Emergency and Phase 2 Interim repairs. Phase 3 of the program was to implement a comprehensive Dam Safety Review (DSR) and a Comprehensive Risk Assessment (CRA). The DSR became arguably the largest ever undertaken by SunWater and included: extensive geotechnical investigations, large scale physical modelling, numerical scour analysis, stability analysis, and an extensive design assessment. This paper describes some of the key aspects of the DSR undertaken related to the flood damage.
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2017 Papers
2017 – Construction Flood Risk Strategies for Dam Upgrades
Learn moreColleen Baker, Sean Ladiges, Peter Buchanan, James Willey, Malcolm Barker
Dam Owners and Designers are often posed with the question “what is an acceptable flood risk to adopt during the construction of dam upgrade works?” Both the current ANCOLD Guidelines on Acceptable Flood Capacity (2000) and the draft Guidelines on Acceptable Flood Capacity (2016) provide guidance on the acceptability of flood risk during the construction phase. The overarching principle in both the current and draft documents is that the dam safety risk should be no greater than prior to the works, unless it can be shown that this cannot reasonably be achieved.Typically with dam upgrade projects it is not feasible to take reservoirs off-line during upgrade works, with commercial and societal considerations taking precedent. It is therefore often necessary to operate the reservoir at normal levels or with only limited drawdown. The implementation of measures to maintain the risk at or below that of the pre-upgraded dam can have significant financial and program impacts on projects, such as through the construction of elaborate cofferdam arrangements and/or staging of works. This is particularly the case where upgrade works involve modifications to the dam’s spillway.The use of risk assessment has provided a reasonable basis for evaluating the existing and incremental risks associated with the works, such as the requirement for implementation of critical construction works during periods where floods are less likely, in order to justify the As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP) position. This paper explores the ANCOLD guidelines addressing flood risk, and compares against international practice. The paper also presents a number of case studies of construction flood risk mitigation adopted for dam upgrades on some of Australia’s High and Extreme consequence dams, as well as international examples. The case studies demonstrate a range of construction approaches which enable compliance with the ANCOLD Acceptable Flood Capacity guidelines
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2017 Papers
2017 – Spillway Concrete Scour Detection and Repair at the Base of an 84m High Arch Dam
Learn moreOliver Giudici
A common concern for large spillways is erosion of the receiving plunge pool and potential impacts on the stability of the dam.Devils Gate Dam is an 84m high, double curvature arch concrete dam, located in northern Tasmania and constructed between 1968 and 1970.The full 134m long crest is designed as a free-overflow spillway and spill flows impact the downstream valley sides and plunge pool below, where energy is dissipated to reduce riverbank erosion downstream.To protect foundation rock,the plunge pool and large portions of the valley sides were concrete lined with 450mm thick reinforced and anchored concrete. During spill events the area is inundated by up to 12m of tail-water.In 2016 damage to the plunge pool concrete was discovered by divers during a special inspection of the impact areas, but poor visibility limited the understanding of the extent and severity. Subsequent investigations, including detailed sonar scanning, improved the understanding but it was not until the plunge pool was fully dewatered that the full extent of the damage was quantified.The damage commenced around 35m downstream of the dam arch and consisted of approximately 330 square metres of moderately to severely eroded concrete and exposed, deformed, and in some areas completely removed reinforcing bars. The most significant feature was a penetration through the concrete up to 2.5m into the foundation rock.A number of stressed anchor heads were also damaged or destroyed.A full appreciation of the damage necessitated the decision for immediate repairs given the impending power station refurbishment (commencing January 2018) which will subject the plunge pool to nine months of constant spill.This paper outlines the diving and sonar investigations undertaken in 2016, discusses the challenging tasks of dewatering the plunge pool and gaining access through the narrow canyon, and presents the physical works to strengthen the damaged areas.It discusses the difficulty of identifying and treating such damage, and serves as a cautionary tale for other owners who have fully submerged plunge pools downstream of spillways.
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