News Story Archive

District Employees Discuss Dams, Water with Students at Water Festival

Albuquerque District Public Affairs
Published May 30, 2013
TRINIDAD, Colo., -- Employees from the Albuquerque Districts’ Trinidad Lake Recreation Area joined more than 40 presenters at the second annual Water Festival at Trinidad State Junior College May 16, 2013.

More than 1,500 local students attended the event designed to educate them about water conservation, how water impacts people and its importance to Las Animas County, Colo., residents. Other topics covered included water witching and the Purgatoire River ecosystem.

“We had kids in grades K through eighth visit our station,” said Traci Robb, supervisory natural resources specialist at the District’s Trinidad Dam. “I discussed the past floods, the amount of water that passed through town, the damage they caused and the important part they played in getting the dam built. I talked about the different types of dams and how they are built.”

Robb also discussed the different purposes and uses Trinidad Dam offers the community including fish and wildlife habitat, flood control, irrigation and recreation.

The students then got the opportunity to build their own dams and test them with water. Each group of students split into two teams to build their dams. The dams were tested for strength and integrity by their ability to hold back water.

Jesse Gutierrez, maintenance worker at Trinidad Dam, not only assisted Robb with the dam building activity, he also made “these awesome models for us to use in our demonstration,” Robb said.

To finish off the presentation, all the “new USACE Engineers” received goody bags filled with water safety items and literature. In addition to talking to the kids about the dam, Robb and Gutierrez made over 120 water safety contacts.

Karl Martin, chief of the District’s Lakes & Assets Branch, Operations Division, said the event was “Great work by the Trinidad team. Despite the limitations of not having “direct” Natural Resource Management, Recreation, and Visitor Assistance responsibilities, Traci [Robb] continues to look for opportunities to get the good news Corps message out into the community.”