A dry dam is a dam constructed for the purpose of flood control. Dry dams typically contain no gates or turbines, and are intended to allow the channel to flow freely during normal conditions. During periods of intense rainfall that would otherwise cause floods, the dam holds back the excess water, releasing it downstream at a controlled rate.
Development of dry dams was pioneered by the Miami Conservancy District which built five such dams on tributaries to the Great Miami River to prevent flooding of the Miami Valley and Dayton, Ohio.
Famous quotes containing the words dry and/or dam:
“The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead—
There were no birds to fly.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“The devil take one party and his dam the other!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)