Hydrological technicians deploy RC boat to record data
Zachary Scott, a hydrologic technician with the United States Geological Survey, prepares a jet-powered, remote controlled boat Thursday morning, Aug. 30, to test the river flow at Steuben. Jo’s Kountry Bar in the background was inundated with water after the river flowed over the sandbag wall. (Photos by Ted Pennekamp)
Hydrologic technician Clay Utzig checks with fellow technician Zachary Scott Thursday morning as he prepares to move the remote-controlled boat out into the main current at Steuben. The boat relayed information such as current flow to a monitor in a USGS van. Playground equipment is in the background, including a swing set.
By Ted Pennekamp
The record-setting flood on Aug. 29 and Aug. 30 in Steuben of 19.84 feet caused a lot of problems for area residents and business owners, but it was the perfect time for two hydrologic technicians to gather information and test theories.
Zachary Scott and Clay Utzig of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) used a jet-powered, remote controlled boat to gather information about the raging river Thursday morning. The river had gone down a little by Thursday, but was still very high. The 19.84 crest on Aug. 29 eclipsed the previous record of 19.16 set on June 10, 2008.
It took awhile to get the boat ready, but when it was put into action, it responded beautifully by holding steady in the heavy current while recording and relaying streams of information back to a monitor in a USGS van on shore.
Scott and Utzig said the main thing they wanted to measure was the rate of flow or discharge in cubic feet per second.
“The river rarely gets this high, so now is a good time to record data,” said Scott, who noted that the gauging station in a little green building across the river was mostly under water but still operating correctly.
“We would like to equate the gauge height (river stage) to the amount of discharge so we can project the amount of discharge per river foot in real time,” said Utzig. Utzig and Scott explained the data should also help to confirm the accuracy of data collected throughout the years at various river stages. They said the data collected on Thursday should help them to enhance a model which would allow the USGS to accurately predict the cubic feet per second of the Kickapoo River at any given river stage.
According to the USGS measurements recorded on Thursday, Aug. 30, at 1:20 p.m., the river stage was at 18.69 feet in Steuben with a cubic feet per second (cfs) discharge of 16,500. The measurement conditions were considered “fair.” The cfs was not measured on Aug. 29 when the river was at 19.84 feet, but a USGS graph shows that the discharge was more than 20,000 cfs.
The USGS is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it.
The USGS National Water Information System contains surface-water, groundwater, water-quality, and water-use data collected at approximately 1.5 million sites across all 50 states.
