Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 13:10:36 on Fri, 9 Aug 2019,
bert remarked:

The one thing I've not seen mentioned anywhere is whether they have
been emptying the reservoir by the normal route (valves draining into
canal system) in addition to the much-publicised pumping operation. I
presume they have, but it's not (that I've seen) been mentioned.

Exactly. Have they decided not to, or has it just escaped the attention
of the civilian press?



The reservoir already has an outlet to feed the canals and probably another
€œservice drain€�. Im sure that they were using all all available drains
before bringing in pumps. Why wouldnt they?

Agreed. I'm more interested in why it's not been reported. Just lack
of observation perhaps?

Probably. No very visible and not as exciting as fire engines and lots
of pipes and pumps.

That's gets my vote for the most likely answer.

Also not straightforward to dump loads of water into the canal system.

Although it's incredibly straightforward. One bloke just needs to open a
handful of sluices (to use a generic name).


Last week I took a gander at the CART stoppage notices for the Peak Forest
canal , the closure notice wasnt
that informative and just said they were drawing down water in a controlled
manner from the reservoir and that the Peak Forest Canal was closed as was
the Bosley flight of Locks on the Macclesfield Canal.
The latter joins the Peak Forest just above the Marple flight of the Peak
Forest so may suggest that the
CART staff had closed the Macclesfield Locks so no additional flow from
there would hinder what had to be got away from down the Peak Forest from
Whaley Bridge and down through the Marple flight.

Interesting when they started to rescind the navigation restrictions on
the 7th they referred to removing stop planks from bridges on the Peak
Forest Canal.

Putting stop planks in a canal you want to drain down quickly seems counter
intuitive but maybe it was an insurance in case the dam did breach in
attempt to break up any possible large discharge from that.
So none the wiser really from the stoppage notices.
Perhaps only some stop planks were in permitting some flow but allowing
staff the possibility of quickly inserting the last to full height quickly
if required.

Will have to keep an eye on one of the waterway periodicals over the next
issues to see if details come out.

GH