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Gathright Dam is an earthen and rolled rock-fill embankment dam on the Jackson River north of Covington, Virginia. The dam is tall and long and has a controlled spillway within the structure's southern portion. It creates Lake Moomaw, which has a normal volume of . The dam serves flood control and recreational purposes and is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.〔(Findlakes.com - Gathright Dam )〕 The Gathright Dam's intake tower contains nine portals that allow it to release water between reservoir depths of 12–87 ft. This allows the dam to manage the temperature and flow of water released downstream.〔( Lake Moomaw 2008 )〕 This helps mitigate some of the negative environmental effects posed by the dam and manage fisheries downstream. ==History and construction== The Gathright Dam was authorized by Congress with the Flood Control Act of 1946 to provide flood protection of industrial, commercial and residential properties along the Jackson and James Rivers, with immediate impact on Covington, Virginia.〔(Lake Moomaw Archives )〕〔(USACE Gathright Dam Action Plan )〕 Benjamin Cline Moomaw, Jr., a Virginian businessman who was influential in gaining approval for the project and is known locally as "the Father of the Gathright Dam" and is the namesake for the lake. The dam itself is named after Thomas Gathright, who owned the land that was flooded by the reservoir.〔(Lake Moomaw - Virginia Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries )〕 Because of setbacks though, construction did not begin until 1974. The dam was finished in 1979 and that December, Lake Moomaw began to fill. The reservoir was filled by April 1982. The reservoir reached its highest elevation in 1996 at . above sea-level.〔 Environmentalists and the EPA challenged the plan for construction on grounds that the scenic Kincade gorge and important historical and archaeological sites would be destroyed by the lake. Contesting parties suggested that the dam was constructed for the benefit of the Westvaco paper plant downstream that relied on a regular flow of water to operate.〔(Corey L. Wrenn "Powerlessness and Pollution in Alleghany County, Virginia: A Historical Analysis of Paternalism and Economic Coercion in Appalachia and its Relationship with Environmental Degradation" )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gathright Dam」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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