Page 18 - sfdcoronersinquest

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upon the height of the water in the dam.
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Q.
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A Yes, it was unusual. It was unusual for itssmallness.
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What was the objeet of the construction of the St.
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Francis Dam?
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A The conservationof water. Sometimes9111" watearis
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derivedas the Lord makes it. Sometimes it is in bucketsfull in
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the mountains and as fast as we can we use it andthen are:Ji111i
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when there is a dearth of water and then we haveto use the reservoirs.
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The usual use o't a reservoiris to conserve the water.
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Some cities do not have to have them because theJ" arefronting on
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great riversor lakes or great sources of inexhaustible supplies.
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The City of Los Angeles is one of the unfortunatecities in ftpl'I.
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to a water supply. We live under a hazard here. The people of
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the City of Los Angeles take this as a matterof course, that
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there is going to be water in the faucet the next morning. There
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have been various times in my experience here -- I have been in
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charge of these worksfor nearly fUt,' y&ars-- where we were
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pretty closeto the bottom. That is the purpose of reservoirs,
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andwe eoa14 not exist without reservoirsat all.
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andprudencewas exercised,as an engineer who has constructed •
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in the construction of this dam?
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A The conventional observations used in building dams. I
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have had rathermore experience than most engineersin building
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dams.I havebuilt nineteen of them and took the usualprecautions,
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judging theformation the bestI could, the MUilU whichthe dam
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must be exposedto and all the things that relate to the continuous
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safeatyo't the dam. We overlooked something here.This inquiry
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is a very painful thing for me to have to attendbut it is the
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occasion of it that is painful.