‘Smart’ operator is not so smart
Jeremias Andrade Carrera
19 Oct 2009
Dear Mr. Castanaga:
First, I would like you to educate me how to determine typhoon’s rainfall intensity like that of Ondoy’s as a 100-year flood.
Secondly, please note that the San Roque is a multipurpose dam, one purpose of which is for FLOOD CONTROL. Since it is for flood control it means your statement that the water will just spill as the water continues to rise is false. The dam was designed among other purposes or functions to contain massive volume of water to be released in a “timely and controlled manner” such that there will be no flooding downstream.
Mr. Tom Valdez, vice president for corporate social responsibility of the San Roque Multipurpose Project stated last Oct. 6 (Monday) when the dam breached its normal level of 280 meters (was actually 284.7) since 2003 to quote “What you are seeing is the dam’s flood control component at work” and added “We have not opened the gates yet”. Very assuring statement.
At 6:00 AM Tuesday (Oct. 7), the level was 285.4 but there was no rain yet in Pangasinan and that is the BS alibi of the smart operator for not releasing. So what happened was that the dam did what it is supposed to do but the smart operator did not-the sudden high rate of release (more than 5,700CMS which was way over the designed capacity of Agno River Flood control levees) because of the high rate of release from Ambuklao and Binga dams, and at a time when the rainfall intensity brought by Pepeng reached Pangasinan.
Had they used the earlier data from Ambuklao and Binga dams and released earlier because of their high water levels, the rate of release could have been much lower.
Your statement that water from the dam will rise and spill over to “DISSIPATE” and no harm will happen is similar to the smart operator’s statement that no one died in Pangasinan.
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