River Engineering Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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As an AP Environmental Science teacher I would like to highlight some interesting environments. This site has 3 interesting features. a retention pond, gabions and a "channelized bank". You can not access the cache from the highway-Find out who Sam was and Sam says, "be safe but don't drink and drive"n just park here. Now that Sam has left, go for a bike ride or buy a new pen as you find a good parking spot.
River engineering is the process of planned human intervention in the course, characteristics or flow of a river with the intention of producing some defined benefit.
You will first walk across a Gabions are cages, cylinders, or boxes filled with earth or sand that are used in civil engineering. For erosion control caged riprap or rock are used. You should now see the large retention pond that can capture the diverted stormwater runoff from streets and gutters and parking lots. These ponds provide two primary services. First, they retain the runoff before releasing it into streams (see the concrete triangle in the middle of the pond-that is the drain). They release the water at flow rates and frequencies similar to those that existed under natural conditions. The flood volume held in a retaining pond reduces the impact on downstream stormwater systems nad prevents waste water from overwhelming our sewage treatment plants. The second benefit of the retaining ponds is that they provide pollutant removal through settling and biological uptake. Ponds remove 30-80% of certain pollutants from water before it enters nearby streams. Common pollutants reduced are sediments, bacteria, greases, oils, metals, total suspended solids, phosphorous, nitrogen, and trash. Ponds are one of the most effective tools at providing channel protection and pollutant removal in urban streams (www.stormwatercenter.net 2001). Essentially, retention ponds provide water quality and quantity control. Now would you eat the fish from this pond?
Then notice how straight the stream flows here. In order to keep river speed up and prevent flooding of fertile, low-lying lands, straight channels have been created. Interesting, even when successful, such floodworks may simply move the problem further downstream, to threaten some other town or area. The channelization of a water way by straightening it prevents the water from changing directions randomly, the net erosion is greatly reduced. Note that the stream bank does have a mini-flood plain with a berm to control overflows.
Note, the cache is perched to avoid being washed away in a flood- please try to replace the cache container in its perching position.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
pynffvpgerr
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