Investigative Voices

From Engineers to Authors: Exposing Dam Mismanagement and Flood Risks

• Lidia LoPinto • Season 1 • Episode 3

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What does it take for two retired engineers to transition into compelling storytellers? Join us for an engaging discussion with the dynamic duo, Lydia and Charles Lopinto, the brains behind the Echo Cops book series. Listen as they share their fascinating journey from college classmates to life partners and co-authors. Discover how their engineering expertise and shared passion for environmental science inspire their thrilling novels, including their latest work, "Surge," rooted in the realities of storm-drenched North Carolina. You'll gain insights into Charles's expert take on dam management and Lydia's critical views on practices that could potentially heighten flood risks.

Prepare to have your curiosity piqued as we explore the controversies surrounding the TVA's lake water management and the conspiracy theories that swirl around it. Lydia and Charles dissect these claims with a blend of factual analysis and engaging storytelling. We also dive into the captivating world of Echo Cops, where real-world issues like cruise ships dumping toxins and the discovery of nuclear materials in the ocean are woven into gripping narratives. Whether you're a fan of inventive storytelling, a lover of mystery, or simply interested in the challenges of engineering and environmental management, this episode offers something for you. Get ready for a blend of fact, fiction, and a touch of intrigue from our talented guests.

Speaker 1:

You can't do it over there? Yes, you can, all right, hi, this is me again. This is Lydia, and I think you guys know us, lydia and Charles Lopinto, if you're local. If you're not, you've seen our books, the Echo Cops, and we've written books. Charles is here. He's written the third book.

Speaker 2:

I'm writing the third book. Really he should be out next month.

Speaker 1:

And and you know what it's called Surge? It's all about Sandy, okay. So my husband and I were arguing because we're retired and we have nothing better to do. If you want to be married 50 years like we have learn to argue, I claim that I always win, win, but he says he wins.

Speaker 2:

I win because if the dogs come and rest on me, I'm the winner okay, so he's the winner now because the dogs are on him.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so he has just done the calculations. Because he's also an engineer with a master's degree. Because we both met in in college as engineers. In fact, how we met is we were both on the same science. Um, what was it? The science project? Environmental science project we were on the same environmental science project on a grant and we were doing research on air pollution control. That's how we met Okay.

Speaker 2:

So a lot of things going around about the storm in North Carolina.

Speaker 1:

Wait, I can't see you Come over here. I can't see you at all. Do you see yourself? Okay, yeah, I see here. I can't see you at all, do you see?

Speaker 2:

yourself. Okay, yeah, I see myself. So here's what. For you know, a quick analysis is that this storm dropped around that area about 14 to plus inches to plus inches, and the amount of total volume dropped over a period of between one to three days was about two billion gallons of water.

Speaker 2:

And in that area they have many dams that were built during World War II, initially to basically prevent flooding from such an incident as storms, and later some of those dams became producers of electricity and provided for the area. The three major dams along that area hold about four billion gallons. So you had two billion gallons dropped. They hold 4 billion for those three major dams and other dams in the area would increase that 4 billion. I'm not sure how much right now, but basically the analysis probably done back you know when these were designed is the fact that if the dam was at 50% full, it could hold 2 billion gallons of water from a storm, which would prevent the 20 plus foot surge or rise in the rivers in that area from causing all this damage. However, if the dams are essentially at capacity, for whatever reason, and you get two billion gallons more of water coming in, it's got no choice but to let that water run out and go down and cause this type of damage.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so that's.

Speaker 1:

I think he kind of explained it in a more engineering language, because my husband is very technical and he calculates everything. He was there doing calculations, mathematics and in volume calculation. I sent him out. He showed me charts. Where's your chart? There was a chart. There was a colored chart. I mean, when Charles calculates something, he really does a calculation.

Speaker 1:

Charles was actually an engineer that I met at Manhattan College in 1971. And we were matched up by Dr Theodore. Dr Theodore was a chemical engineering professor who matched us up to work on this engineering project and of course, we met, we dated and we got married. We've been married close to 50 years now. Dr Theodore is still alive and he is still saying that he is responsible for our marriage that he matched us up.

Speaker 1:

So Dr Theodore was the king of writing books. He would write all kinds of technical books, a couple hundred books he wrote. He made all the students write them for him and then he put them all together and sent them to McGraw-Hill and he published these books. So he was still after me to try to give him an article for one of his books. So yes, we are engineers and we're nerds. We have always been nerds, but Charles can do real calculations. I think he was using ChatGPT to help him do fancy calculations and whatever, and he came back with the conclusion that I already intuitively knew, but he actually confirmed it with his calculations that if you run the dams at 50% full, you won't have the problem you had. And that in order. What did I figure out? That in order to drain the dams for the rainy season to 50% full, to accommodate a storm like this, you would have to be draining for six months before, a little bit at a time, and that would only rise the level of the water by inches or two or three feet. It wouldn't be noticeable, it wouldn't harm anybody, because the water would go out every day for 150 days. And so to allow a dam to be completely full and not drain it, I'd say it's incompetent.

Speaker 1:

How would you run a dam system that is meant to stop floods? I mean the whole reason it was built. Right, charles? It was built to stop the flooding, basically yes, because floods like this did happen before, and to make power eventually. Yeah, well, the power came afterwards, but it was to stop the flooding because floods like this have happened before, and there are pictures of the 1917 or 23, with water all the way up to the roofs. So this happened all the time in that area and they built these for the reason of trying to stop the flooding.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so yeah, if you had them, a 50% capacity, that is, they drain, which some of the residents said they used to drain the lakes, but they didn't do it this year. But they said they used to drain the lakes to pretty low and then when the rain came it absorbed the water. So this didn't happen. This was a regular thing. The water so this didn't happen, this was a regular thing. So to run in full percent capacity when it wasn't designed to be done that way, was designed to be drained regularly it's just completely irresponsible, I would say, from the people running the TVA.

Speaker 1:

Now, of course, the conspiracy theorists are going to tell me that this was done on purpose to get money for the mining rights. Okay, to take over the land. Fema was going to come in and use eminent domain to take over the land and they'll have the mining. No, okay, because as bad as FEMA was, they never came to Little Lake Harbor and did an eminent domain for anything they didn't take over. There were some lands that were meant to be no longer built on. There were some areas that they knocked down the houses and they never built on them again because they knew it was going to keep getting flooded. So they couldn't. If you can't get flood insurance for that area, you're not going to build on it, but I don't know about this eminent domain stuff, whether they're there to take over your land and run a mine.

Speaker 1:

That would be ridiculous. What you want is the labor to run the mines. You don't want to get everybody off the land so you can take over the land. That is again more conspiracy theories for stupid people. Okay, there's no such thing about. You know of the lithium mines. This is not Star Trek the lithium mines and the what is the other Quartz mines. And that's why they flooded the whole area so that they could take over these mines. It's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. If they wanted the mines, all they need to do is open up the mine and then give people jobs and they would mine the mine. Of course, a lot of people were against the mines. You had people against the mines, but there's always people against them for any kind of development and they would have had to fight it Now to get the rights to run the mines by flooding everybody on purpose sounds a little bit bizarre, science fiction-like.

Speaker 1:

But if you choose to believe these things, I'm sorry, but you need to go looking for the actual truth. And the truth is never as weird as you might think. The idea that Harpa is churning up the storms on purpose, the idea that they're flooding people out on purpose to take over mines, or that the earth is flat, or these other insanity ideas that you see on the Internet they're all for clicks. These are science fiction videos that attract attention, just like you would look at a science fiction movie in Star Trek or something and think it's fun. But to peddle these things is truth to people who don't have the training to know that it's not true, I think it's irresponsible. So be careful what you read. If you want to read truth, you really need to do your own research. There's no way to find truth in these things. But Charles did do the calculation.

Speaker 2:

I mean, usually you start off with the simple answer and see if it really can make sense. And in this case, not taking down the dams to about 50% resulted in the aggravation and the extra devastation that this type of storm would bring. And also you could say, well, what's the simplest solution why they didn't do it. I mean, of course you could say, well, they just people who are there now just don't understand that need and just weren't for doing that, don't understand that need and just weren't for doing that. But that may be so.

Speaker 2:

Or it could be that they just need to produce so much electricity because there is such a demand on electricity in our system, which for years wasn't at peak capacity, is now been really running at peak capacity because we don't have enough production capacity and they had. They just decided to run the dams power systems instead of draining the dams when they needed to. That could be a possible reason. We don't know, because you'd really have to look at the actual thinking and the documents in that area. Who runs that TVA running this system and what their thoughts were on why this was done or not done, in this case not training them.

Speaker 1:

I would say that whoever was running this, and if they decided to sacrifice safety for the sake of power, then that's irresponsible and they need to go to jail. Okay, because you don't do that. It could very well be that they couldn't drain these things because they're so dilapidated that they couldn't drain them. That's another possibility. There was issues with the dams. Some of the dams were ready to crumble and they needed money to fix the dams and somehow they weren't getting the money. The projects were not getting funded because it's the federal government and you know how. The federal government always sends the money to Ukraine to build their dams. But over here, our dams are crumbling and they're doing nothing about it. Just now, after the actual situation, ok, let me see if I can turn this around. Oh yeah, oh, here you go. I only see the dog. What are you doing? Oh yeah, oh, here you go. I only see the dog. What are you doing? Ok, hold on, just now, right after this this terrible situation, they're getting money from Congress to fix the dams.

Speaker 1:

Now there are a number of people. I know there was some sabotage by certain environmental activists, by certain environmental activists, and this is one of the things that we talk about in our books, that some environmental activists are very, very radical and sometimes they're our worst nightmare. And they were what slashing truck tires? The truckers were complaining that they were slashing the. They don't want any help. What these people want, these environmentalists want, is for the dams to be taken down, to be destroyed, and for the water to flow the way it used to flow before World War II and for people to leave, because the actual floods are a natural event and they should be allowed to happen. Okay, so, in other words, because people built next to the river, they're disturbing the environment there. So there are some radical environmentalists, which we talk about a lot in our books, that have these radical views and they have been actually, I guess, sabotaging the efforts.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I don't know what goes on with these people's minds, but we do write about them and all of our books are based on real events. We research, we find out these radical groups do exist and, of course, we make it into stories. Charles is working on this next one. The third book is all about some World War II uranium that they find it's pretty amazing. So you can see our books. They're always listed in our website, global Relleaf Pub, and you can find our name. You can just Google, you know, search our name on Amazon and you'll find all our books. Anyway, enough with the plug. I don't know if someone would purposely run the turbines for power At 50% capacity. Do you get 50% power? Is that it? I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 2:

Well, you can only make so much power.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you're limited on power that you can make. If you were to drain the dams, their power would be reduced, whether they would do this and leave the and just eliminate all possible safety for people by running the turbines full power and not draining the dams in order to produce maximum power and leaving people at risk of a flood. It's like this. I mean, even our worst antagonists in our novels are not this evil. Okay, so that would be the subject of another novel, because I can't imagine that they did this. I have not yet gone deep enough this rabbit hole to find out why they didn't drain the dams. I got to the point where they did announce that TVA did drain the dams on purpose that time that during the storm, and the radios did announce it. But I haven't figured out what happened six months before actually technically to convince them that they shouldn't drain the dams. Was it that the dams were crumbling? Was it that it was an environmental decision, or was it just neglect on their part? Or was it greed that they wanted more power? So I'll try to get some answers for you and post them in another couple of days, two or three days, to see what was the reasoning behind not draining these dams and why they had to open the gates, which you know. Again, to reiterate, the purpose of these dams was to stop floods. So if the purpose of the dams was to stop the floods, they didn't do their job, did they? Okay, so again. So, charles, you will be tasked with trying to figure out the math of this situation. I will be tasked with trying to find out the politics of the situation. We'll try to get down to the bottom of why these dams were opened up at the wrong time and why people still believe that it was the storm that caused the flood, when in fact it was the fact that the dams were not maintained, they weren't drained when they're supposed to be, Because these again, these dams were built for the specific purpose of. They weren't built for hydroelectricelectric power, they were burnt, built for flood control. Okay, so they didn't do their job for flood control, all right. So we need to look into this and find out more. We'll come back with whatever answers we can come up with and keep you updated. Anyway, keep looking at my thread here on Facebook, because I do post other articles as I find them, and you may find some interesting articles Also. You may want to join me on LinkedIn because I also have a bunch of articles there. You can just look up my name and if you want to take a look at our books, you can just go on Amazon and find our name, and Charles is working on the novel three.

Speaker 1:

I have a bunch of novels I'm working on and it's always about government incompetence or government corruption, all kinds of stuff like that. This is all we do in our novels, you know. So it's kind of interesting. I have three novels now that I'm writing a series which is called AI Detectives and what they do is they uncover medical scams in Medicaid, medicare, all those things. So all those scams, medicaid Medicare, all those things, so all those scams. And I found out that there were so many scams millions of dollars being stolen by these scammers that is for real that I was just flabbergasted at what's going on with the corruption.

Speaker 1:

So this is what my other novels are about, and the Echo Cops novels are about horrible disasters, like well, the first disaster was what? A cruise ship dumping toxins into the ocean. The other one was a train wreck, which is the same exact thing that happened in Ohio, and yet we wrote this before it happened, but it was based on a lot of train wrecks, and the third one is about nuclear materials being found in the ocean. So these are all the kinds of things we regularly write about in our retirement. So if you want to follow our books, you can, but other than that, seriously, we do some real research about in our retirement. So if you want to follow our books, you can, but other than that, seriously, we do some real research to find, to get to the bottom of things. Alright, goodbye now. Thank you for listening. And I don't know, I may share these videos on to different threads to see if people get to them.