My First Few Days

The first few days of work have gone pretty well. The first week is mostly orientation. The first day was all spent meeting people and getting the many securities clearances we needed to be able to walk around the dams unmolested.

The second day we took a detailed tour of each of the dams we will be working at, The Dalles Dam, and the John Day Dam. I've never been inside a hydroelectric dam before, it is pretty neat. They took us through the powerhouse and everything. Apparently most of the electricity generated at The Dalles dam is actually routed directly to southern California for use.

I got some more details about the job. We will all be working 5 days a week on either the morning or evening shift. The morning shift works from sunrise to about midday, and the evening works from midday to sunset. Our shifts rotate each week between morning and evening and between the two dams, so we will get to try it all. The downside of this is that for two weeks you will work from 12 pm - 8 pm, and the next 2 weeks you will have to be at the dam at around 5 am. It will certainly wreak havoc on our circadian rhythms.

We start observations on Friday. I think I'm on PM shifts for the first couple weeks. But the end before 8 this early in the season.

Here's the John Day Dam from the Navigational Lock Peninsula, one of our observation sites:


Here's a closer shot of the John Day spillway. They're spilling right now because there is apparently way too much water. I believe they told us that the dam was spilling around 100,000 cubic feet per second right now. And that's not including what goes through the turbines.


Here's a picture of all of us walking through the powerhouse at the John Day.


And here's a group photo taken of all of us this morning. From left to right, the interns are: Me, Natalie, Ryan, Lisa, Amy, and Melissa

And yes, we get to wear these hardhats every day.

Also, the picture at the top of this post is of the area around The Dalles. I took it one day when I decided to go for an early morning drive. The Dalles, I believe, qualifies as high desert.