Low head dam hydraulics. Click here for enlargement.

Representative Project

Low-head dams across the United States, from New Jersey to Oregon, continue to needlessly take lives as victims are lured into the seemingly placid water below the dams. WWE has analyzed several submerged hydraulic jumps and resulting reverse rollers across the United States and designed various types of dam retrofits. 

WWE serves as experts for evaluations and testimony in depositions and court hearings. Our work includes scientific analyses of currents, hydraulics, and hazards.

Low-head dams are often called killing machines. The submerged hydraulic jump is an energy dissipating underwater jet that can often maintain enough kinetic energy to cause it to travel downstream and then rise to the surface as a "boil," with a portion of the water of the jet flowing back to the dam. This is known as the reverse roller effect. Hydraulic engineering analyses can define the approximate location of the boil and the likely velocity of the reverse flow. It is this reverse flow that carries a victim back to the base of the dam, where he or she is trapped in a vicious cycle.

Scope of Services

• Testimony

• Trouble-shooting 

• Design of retrofits

• Consulting

Representative Clients

• Salt River at Tempe, Arizona 
• Clear Creek Drop Structures, Denver, Colorado 
• Union Avenue Dam, Englewood, Colorado  
• Swackhammer Dam Fish Ladder at Union, Oregon 
• Island Farm Weir, Bridgewater, New Jersey
• Highland Dam Near Clarksburg, West Virginia