Opinion ID: 176166
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Daguerre Point Dam Sign Plan

Text: The Corps' sign plan for the Daguerre Point Dam is very specific. The plan requires the Corps to post several permanent warning signs on the Yuba River, including a sign four miles upstream from the dam that says Warning-Submerged Dam 4 Miles Downstream, a number of signs that read Raft Portage, and signs on the dam abutments that say Danger-Keep Back. A portion of the river upstream from the dam is popular with pleasure boaters in the spring and summer months. [1] The Daguerre Point Dam sign plan requires the Corps to post seasonal signs that clearly instruct boaters to portage when they approach the submerged dam. Two seasonal signs are placed on a gravel bar in the middle of the river and read, respectively, WarningSubmerged Dam 1500 Downstream and DangerSubmerged Dam Ahead Take Out Now. On the south bank of the river, seasonal signs direct boaters to points on the bank where they should ground their boats and begin to portage. These signs read ← Raft Portage and DangerSubmerged Dam AheadTake Out This Side. The sign plan also calls for the Corps to anchor a buoy in the middle of the river that directs boaters ←Take Out. In no uncertain terms, these signs make clear that boaters must begin to portage well before they near the dam. None of these signs, according to the Complaint, were in place when Mrs. Bailey's husband and children began to raft down the Yuba River. The only warning signs posted were the Danger-Keep Back signs on the dam itself, and they came too late. As a result, Mr. Bailey and his sons had no knowledge of the dam and were never instructed to take their raft out of the water. Mrs. Bailey argues that, had the Corps timely replaced the warning signs that had been washed away in May 2005, her husband would have known that the submerged Daguerre Point Dam lay ahead, taken his boat out of the water as instructed, and survived.