STREAMS AND DAMS - 1
Streams and Dams as a swimming pool
The owner whose property includes a
stream which can be damned off to make
a good swimming hole is fortunate indeed.
Somehow swimming in the impounded waters
of a flowing stream is more exhilarating
than swimming in a formal pool. There
is often a greater variety of depths,
and the surroundings are usually more
in spirit with outdoor recreation. The
water is usually free of irritating chemicals.
Men whose lives include boyhoods in the
country rightfully look back to the old
swimming hole as source of fun which
cannot be matched by a masonry pool no
matter how elaborate. Unfortunately,
in many regions, the old swimming hole
is not what it used to be. Often its
waters have long ago been polluted by
factories or even an overabundance of
dwellings along its banks. Denuding of
the forests has exposed the soil to the
ravages of every storm with the result
that the waters that flow through the
old hole are now more often muddy than
clear. Nevertheless, there are still
some streams that have been unspoiled
or which, because of anti-pollution legislation,
have been more or less restored to their
original purity. Even the old swimming
hole was seldom provided entirely by
nature. Usually nature made a shallow
hole in the stream bed and the boys of
the neighborhood helped her along by
clearing it of rocks and building a dam
to deepen the water. When a swimming
hole is made or deepened now, it is usually
necessary to construct a dam. Although
most dams require the outlay of some
money, few such as are built to deepen
swimming holes cost anything like even
a small swimming pool. Before the construction
of a dam is undertaken, there are several
steps which should be followed through.
The first is to find out whether it is
permissible to build a dam on the stream.
Even though both banks of a stream are
your property, there may be restrictions
which will prohibit the building of a
dam or make its construction too costly.
In all states there is some unit of the
state government which has jurisdiction
over streams. Often the authority is
vested in the health department, but
sometimes it belongs to an engineering
board or other unit. In most states there
is also a considerable body of common
law which has been built up over the
centuries in court decisions.
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