- Industry: Government
- Number of terms: 15655
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
A U.S. Department of the Interior agency that oversees water resource management incuding the oversight and operation of numerous diversion, delivery, and storage projects the agency has built throughout the western United States for irrigation, water supply, and attendant hydroelectric power ...
A term used by Reclamation to describe those facilities examined by the respective regional or area office. These facilities include most carriage, distribution, and drainage systems, small diversion works, small pumping plants and powerplants, open and closed conduits, tunnels, siphons, small regulating reservoirs, waterways, and class B bridges.
Industry:Engineering
An estimate used in an appraisal study as an aid in selecting the most economical plan by comparing alternative features or for determinimg whether more detailed investigations of a potential project are economically justified. Used to obtain approximate costs in a short period of time with inadequate data. Not to be used for project authorization.
Industry:Engineering
A gate that resembles a large barrel, reinforced to withstand external pressure, with no top or bottom. An outlet gate with a vertical hollow cylinder being raised and lowered to expose openings in the outer (usually concrete) wall through which water enters the central area of the gate. Flow in the central area is up or down away from the cylinder.
Industry:Engineering
A rating of a given earthquake, independent of the place of observation. It is calculated from measurements on seismographs and it is expressed in ordinary numbers and decimals based on a logarithmic scale. A measure of the strength of an earthquake, or the strain energy released by it, as determined by seismographic observations. See Richter scale.
Industry:Engineering
The water content corresponding to an arbitrary limit between the plastic and the semisolid state of consistency of a soil; water content at which a soil will just begin to crumble when rolled into a thread approximately 1/8 inches in diameter. The minimum amount of water in terms of percent of oven-dry weight of soil that will make the soil plastic.
Industry:Engineering
System of ditches, or conduits and their appurtenances, which conveys irrigation water from the main canal to the farm units. The portion of an electric system that is dedicated to delivering electric energy to an end user. The distribution system "steps down" power from high-voltage transmission lines to a level that can be used in homes and businesses.
Industry:Engineering
Lakes and reservoirs which are relatively deep, do not freeze over, and undergo a single stratification and mixing cycle during the year. These lakes and reservoirs usually become destratified during the mixing cycle, usually in the fall. Warm-water lakes which turn over annually, usually in winter, and where the temperature never falls below 4 degrees C.
Industry:Engineering
As defined by the North American Electric Reliability Council, this refers to the flow of electric power on an electric system's transmission facilities resulting from scheduled electric power transfers between two other electric systems. Electric power flows on all interconnected parallel paths in amounts inversely proportional to each path's resistance.
Industry:Engineering
Seepage characterized by a boiling action at the surface surrounded by a cone of material from deposition of foundation and/or embankment material carried by the seepage. A swirling upheaval of sand or soil on the surface of or downstream from an embankment caused by water leaking through the embankment. The ejection of sand and water resulting from piping.
Industry:Engineering
A dam consisting of a watertight upstream part (such as a concrete sloping slab) supported at intervals on the downstream side by a series of buttresses (walls normal to the axis of the dam). Buttress dams can take many forms. See arch-buttress dam, flat slab or slab and buttress dam, massive head buttress dam, multiple arch dam, and solid head buttress dam.
Industry:Engineering
