Fulton Family Flume Fiesta!
- Stephanie Fulton
- Mar 19, 2015
- 3 min read

As of March 2015, my dissertation research was still unfunded. Unable to pay for field support, I invited my dad, Jack Fulton, a fine art photographer with a great love off the outdoors, and my sister, Maren, an engineer-in-training working in groundwater remediation, to help me install a flume to measure stream flow at my study site in eastern Kentucky.
The 2' H-flume was too big (6'x4'x2') to fit in the University pickup, so dad and I dismantled it so it could fit in a 10' U-Haul trailer and towed it up to Kentucky. This gave Dad the perfect excuse to buy a new Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck to drive out to Athens, Georgia from California and help me tow the darn thing up there. (Ishi, dad's 20 year old Mitsubishi pickup truck, was on its last legs...he just couldn't admit it, or bear to replace him). Maren flew out from Portland, Oregon, so Dad and I picked her up at the Lexington airport, and drove east to Prestonsburg, KY. On the morning of the 19th, we met my friend and University of Kentucky colleague Dr. Chris Barton and drove to the mine site to install the flume in the stream in a light rain. The flume measures stream flow in small stream draining hollow fills 2 and 3. A stormwater detention pond is located directly below the fills approximately 800’ upstream from the flume.
We made 2' wing walls out of four pieces of ¾” treated plywood wedged in the stream channel between the stream bank and the flume (above). The wing walls were then backfilled with concrete blocks and layers of local bank material, bentonite and concrete to prevent scour around the flume. The flume is anchored to the banks using a water resistant 4’x4’ post. The post was placed behind angle irons on the top of the flume to hold the flume in place and then anchored to the bank by driving 4’ iron fence posts into the ground directly behind the 4’x4’ post.

University of Kentucky colleague Chris Barton looks on (right) as large rocks are removed from the bank and channel to accommodate the flume and wing walls. The bank (below) was cut back approximately 1-2 feet to accommodate the flume.

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Chris looks downstream standing next to the small diversion channel (right) constructed to divert flow away from the flume installation location.
The flume was dismantled into two pieces (below) to transport it to the field site (nose section in front with bolts attached and approach section standing on end behind the nose).


MMaren and dad (right) reattach the nose to the approach using caulking and anchor bolts. The flume was then lowered onto the channel bed (below) and leveled (below right).



Once the flume was in the channel, 2’ wide plywood wing walls were placed behind and in front of the flume to prevent scour and hold the flume in place (right). Several concrete blocks were placed immediately behind the upstream (right side of photo) wing walls and secured to the channel bottom with 4’ long rebar posts. The area between the wing walls was backfilled with alternating layers of native soil, bentonite, and concrete.

The final layer of backfill (left) was concrete to protect the wing walls from scour in the case of high flows. The upstream wing walls were reinforced with concrete and sandbags to deflect flow and reduce scour (below).


Several large, flat rocks were placed on the channel bed immediately beneath the pour spout to prevent the development of a scour hole and maintain flume stability (left).

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