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Comment by Rexxar | Hacker News Reader

    With a small dam the water can sometimes be drained,
    allowing repairs to be done safely. But imagine trying to 
    drain the Hoover Dam to repair cracks at the bottom--it 
    can't be done

I don't understand why they think it's a problem to drain the dam. It's done regularly to check and repair them. (Every 30/40 years, at least in France).

Recent video of this in France : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JflFg5un5zg

It is this dam, this is not a small one : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrage_de_Sarrans

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According to their respective Wikipedia articles, the lake behind the Hoover Dam has a volume 108x larger than the lake at Sarrans. [1] It's unclear whether the same techniques apply.

[1] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=32.22+km^3+%2F+296*10^6...

IMHO, the main parameter seems to be how many time is needed to fill/empty the dam and to apply a reasonable ratio to ensure the dam is working 95% of the time.

From Wikipedia on Hoover Dam: "Filling of Lake Mead began February 1, 1935, ... ... In the latter half of 1936, water levels in Lake Mead were high enough to permit power generation ..."

To empty Hoover Dam once every 60/80 years doesn't sound absurd to me.

Give us a few years, we'll drain it for you.

--Love, the Western US.

Based on my last visit to the Hoover dam, draining it would be little or no problem at all these days. Water levels are incredibly low.

Caveat that it would require trucking in water to Las Vegas it was suggested to take advantage of the drought to work on the sediment levels and do potential maintenance. Not something you can just decide on the spur of the moment though.

A sadder thing is that while the Marinas that are now on dry land have a chance to do some upgrades/maintenance, they have no cash since they are very day to day based on the cash inflow from slip fees. That is a tragedy I think, you could completely rebuild the piers and develop a much more durable infrastructure for future use I would expect.

I'm surprised this isn't an underwater robotics project.

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