Lake Meredith Questions???

[blindref757]

I was wondering how the diving is on Lake Meredith in the panhandle. I grew up about an hour north of there...which is completely out in the middle of nowhere. A place to get wet might make the trip back to see mom and dad a little more exciting!!!

What's the skinny? I'm wondering about Temp, Depth, Viz, Access, etc. I vaguely remember from my childhood that Meredith is rocky and sandy...so that should equate to good viz unless there are other factors???

Any info would be appreciated.

 

[amascuba]

I'm close to there, but I haven't dove there yet. I'm having problems finding a buddy that wants to dive it with me. I know people who have dove in the stilling basin. There is a bunch of stuff at the bottom from what I'm told. I don't imagine the visibility would be all that great. I go out there a few times a year to boat and would really like to check out the coves. I imagine the visibility would probably be under 5 feet, but it could still be a cool dive. From news reports the depth is 58 feet at the dam. It's allot lower then I remember it as a kid. Damn drought is killing the water levels. I'm always up for a dive or two, so if you are in the area let me know and we'll see if we can go explore and find some decent dive sites.

 

[Teknadv3x]

I'm close to there, but I haven't dove there yet. I'm having problems finding a buddy that wants to dive it with me. I know people who have dove in the stilling basin. There is a bunch of stuff at the bottom from what I'm told. I don't imagine the visibility would be all that great. I go out there a few times a year to boat and would really like to check out the coves. I imagine the visibility would probably be under 5 feet, but it could still be a cool dive. From news reports the depth is 58 feet at the dam. It's allot lower then I remember it as a kid. Damn drought is killing the water levels. I'm always up for a dive or two, so if you are in the area let me know and we'll see if we can go explore and find some decent dive sites.

From this report it is not the drought that is draining the lake.

163_The_Great_Abyss_A-D.html



dave

 

[texdiveguy]

From this report it is not the drought that is draining the lake.

163_The_Great_Abyss_A-D.html



dave

Dave.... how in the world did you stumble across this 'thing'.........:11:

 

[amascuba]

From this report it is not the drought that is draining the lake.

163_The_Great_Abyss_A-D.html



dave

The person who wrote the article doesn't really provide any references to support what he's talking about, he doesn't know east from west, doesn't understand what Pantex does, and he doesn't seem to understand that Lake Meredith provides water for about 500,000 people in the region (Amarillo, Lubbock and the numerous surrounding towns). Engineering wise, Lake Meredith was only expected to provide about 100 years worth of water. It just seems to be a little too sensational and based on conspiracy theories.

 

[texdiveguy]

The person who wrote the article doesn't really provide any references to support what he's talking about, he doesn't know east from west, doesn't understand what Pantex does, and he doesn't seem to understand that Lake Meredith provides water for about 500,000 people in the region (Amarillo, Lubbock and the numerous surrounding towns). Engineering wise, Lake Meredith was only expected to provide about 100 years worth of water. It just seems to be a little too sensational and based on conspiracy theories.

Your right James....'text/photos' looks and reads like typical internet smack.

 

[Teknadv3x]

Dave.... how in the world did you stumble across this 'thing'.........:11:

Someone had sent this to me at one point or another about the worlds helium running out. They knew I had a interest in trimix. Glanced thru it and I thought it was just another internet doom & gloom thing, never thought about it much but the parts about the helium running out and the Lake Meredith stuff stuck in the back of my mind. Then when I found the post amascuba made about the drought and the lake being only 58 ft instead of 190 decided to post the link.



Dave

 

[Guba]

The author of the report knows just enough about geology, chemistry, density, and physics to be dangerous. Not correct, just dangerous.
For example, the "huge" gas reserves he cites may exist as described (although it doesn't move the way he believes), but the idea that draining the lake to "float" the gas is flawed. True, producers often use injection wells to increase production at a given site, but that's a purely local effect within a particular production dome. Compare the volumes. The volume of all the lakes in Texas would be only a fraction of the billions of cubic meters of "gas chambers" he reports. Therefore the "inflow" of air and oxygen would be-at best-minimal. And subsidence (the pressure of the land pressing down on "empty chambers") doesn't create an oxygen-sucking vacuum as he describes. It leads to lowered surface levels--sinking--in land features. We could go on and on exposing flaws in the "science" he reports, but it's unnecessary. It's typical internet gloom and doom/conspiracy mentality.
And yes, I'm a scientist and I have no vested interest in the petroleum/gas industry.

 

[amascuba]

Someone had sent this to me at one point or another about the worlds helium running out. They knew I had a interest in trimix. Glanced thru it and I thought it was just another internet doom & gloom thing, never thought about it much but the parts about the helium running out and the Lake Meredith stuff stuck in the back of my mind. Then when I found the post amascuba made about the drought and the lake being only 58 ft instead of 190 decided to post the link.



Dave

Now a days the lake level is around 53 feet and the author is somewhat right about how the not much water makes it to the lake from the river. That is because our upstream lakes (ute and conchas in new mexico) have been bogarting water (their lakes are completely full and actually had to release some water from ute last summer), which have created a drying river bed, salt ceders have taken over portions of the river, and have effectively created a dam made of sand and salt ceders near the delta of the river at meredith. Amarillo has been buying up land north of the city for the past few years to get more water rights from the ogalala aquefier. Quiet a bit of Amarillo's water comes from the aquefier rather than the lake now. Lubbock has a full lake (allen henry), but it sits down hill from the city and they are now thinking about actually investing the money to build a pipeline and pumping station to pump the water up hill.

It's also worth nothing that in Amarillo anyways that the water table from the aqaefier starts off at around 80 feet. We have some drainage holding tanks in Amarillo that never get below a certain water level, because that hit the water table (talk about contaminating the water). It may be deeper north of Amarillo.

Pantex isn't a nuclear weapons storage facility as the author would like us to believe. It is a nuclear weapons disassembly plant and they do house the nuclear material, but do not store completed weapons. So the "explosion" causing weapons to blow up at pantex is unlikely.

We also do have some natural gas deposits. People drilling water wells run across them from time to time. The last one I heard about was around Lake Mackenzie (south of Amarillo). The government also used to run a helium plant here, but that's been closed down for 10-15 years or so. Whether Amarillo is still sitting on a helium deposit or not... I have no idea... I would be interested in finding out more though. My uncle was an engineer at the helium plant... I should hit him up and ask him some questions.

 

[Aaron203]

I grew up in Amarillo, but only went skiing and fishing at Meredith. I'd be interested in what's below. If somebody does dive it, please let us know what you find.