Photo Credit: Karl Jansen
Pictured here is a water tower located on the northside of Ann Arbor, MI. Water towers can be seen all over the world. The purpose of a water tower is to store water needed for the residents of the municipality that operates the tower. Usually located in a higher elevation in the area, this allows gravity to do the work in the municipality’s water distribution system.
Photo Credit: Karl Jansen
Pictured here is a simple detention pond. A detention pond is a temporary place to store water, usually rain runoff from a nearby development, for a calculated period of time while it is slowly discharged. This provides an effective way to control flooding caused by developments. The water enters at the culvert end sections, and exits through the riser.
Photo Credit: Karl Jansen
Pictured here is a detention pond riser. The purpose of a riser in a detention pond is to manage the outflow of water from the pond. The rocks that surround the plastic tube help filter out large particulate matter such as sticks and leaves. The plastic tube is perforated with smaller holes that allow a managed amount of water to flow into the tube. Inside the tube, there is the beginning of a culvert that only allows water to exit once the elevation of the water level in the pond reaches a certain level. This culvert leads the water to it’s next destination on it’s path through the water cycle.
Photo Credit: Karl Jansen
Pictured here is a standard flared culvert end section made out of concrete. These are connected to one or both ends of a culvert. They prevent erosion by minimizing maintenance on the surrounding land by improving the hydraulics and reducing velocity of flow. Additionally, they also look better aesthetically than a bare circular ending on a pipe.
Photo Credit: Karl Jansen
Pictured here is a culvert located along a ditch and goes under a sidewalk. A culvert is a pipe that goes from an open space to another open space, in this case the ditch on both sides of the sidewalk. Culverts are used to allow water to flow where otherwise it would collect and potentially cause flooding problems.
Photo Credit: Alex Mead
Featured in this photo is a temporary cofferdam made of sheet piles. This dam is used to keep the water from the Rouge River, the water on the far side of the dam, from flowing into the canal on the near side. Although it is difficult to tell, the water levels are actually quite different on each side of the cofferdam. By holding back the water from the Rouge River, construction crews can perform work on the banks of the canal in a dry environment instead of working beneath the surface of the water.
Photo Credit: Alex Mead
The dam pictured above is one of thousands of such dams spread across the United States. This dam is used to control the flow of water downstream by limiting the flow of the river over itself. Water volume is regulated by raising and lowering steel doors, called sluice gates, on top of the dam. During normal conditions this dam operates with two sluice gates partially open, but during flooding more gates can be opened to allow more water to pass. It is very important that too much water doesn’t build up behind the dam which could lead to dam failure.
Photo Credit: Nathan Shoemaker
Pictured above is a coal ash impoundment pond. Coal ash, a result from the combustion of coal in power-plants, is typically impounded in such ponds because the ash can be mixed with water into a slurry and pumped from the power-plant to the pond for extremely convenient handling. When deposited in the pond the ash will settle to the bottom and the water will be removed from the top and treated. Coal ash, classified as fly ash, bottom ash or boiler slag, depending on what part of the process the ash comes from is frequently disposed of in impoundment ponds. Exact disposal methods, however, are ultimately dependent on the state environmental code.
Photo Credit: Alex Mead
This is a fish ladder. It is used in conjunction with dams and weirs to allow migratory fish to pass around the main falls of the dam. It consists of small steps of waterfalls, one right after each other, so fish can make the jump from level to level getting up around the dam to continue their swim upstream. Without fish ladders many migratory fish couldn’t go up stream for spawning and the fish population would undoubtedly suffer.