As Joe Lindsay prepares to retire this week as keeper of massive Pacoima Dam, he reflects back on . . . : A Higher Calling

Each day at 7 a.m., Joseph Lindsay slips a hard hat on his bald head and a pair of leather gloves over his strong, golden brown hands.

Then he begins the long haul up the 434 odd-sized steps built in the side of the mountain and leading to the top of Pacoima Dam. It’s the equivalent of climbing to the top of a 25-story building, and Lindsay does it at least once a day.

“They told me it would get better,” Lindsay said. “They lied.”

As dam keeper, Lindsay is on call 24 hours a day, watching and guarding against any mishap that might threaten his charge and send millions of gallons of water cascading into the San Fernando Valley. That means taking a detailed inventory of the dam each morning, looking for cracks and making adjustments in valve openings.

“That dam is always moving,” Lindsay said. “The surface under the dam makes the dam move.”

Lindsay, a soft-spoken man with a ready sense of humor, has followed this workday ritual for the last 5 1/2 years. But his watch will end Saturday when he retires, just three days before his 65th birthday.

His solid body and deft movements belie his age as he pulls himself up with a sturdy rope to make the last part of the climb.

Pacoima is the only dam of the 14 in the Los Angeles County system that requires workers to walk up to the control house. Indeed, other men have turned down the job rather than face those stairs every day.

The dam, located about four miles northeast of San Fernando in the San Gabriel Mountains, is massive. Its granite bulk rises 372 feet from its foundation, stretches 640 feet long at its crest, and measures 100 feet thick at its base.

When completed in 1929, it was hailed as the tallest dam in the world. Today, it still plays a crucial role in keeping mountain runoff from flooding the Valley floor and in helping to recharge the ground water supply.

Lindsay began working with the county in 1974 as a custodian at Van Nuys Courthouse. He worked his way to supervisor, but tired of working nights and took a test to drive heavy trucks.

In that position, he made deliveries to county buildings along his Civic Center route. He transferred to the flood control department in 1980.

“I never could imagine a 65-year-old man climbing up into a truck,” he said. “And it looked interesting, so I applied for it.”

Lindsay has spent 13 years working at dams, first serving as assistant dam keeper at Devil’s Gate, Sierra Madre, Coswell and Salt Pit dams.

He took over as Pacoima dam keeper in 1994, just after the Northridge earthquake.

The stairs were ruptured in the quake, completely dislodged from the rock face in places, and the handrail was twisted, making the climb even more perilous.

“I wasn’t scared,” Lindsay said with a chuckle. “Concerned, yes--but not scared. I figured the worst was over.”

Lindsay, who is divorced, lives in a county-owned house just below the dam structure. His walls are lined with pictures of his son, daughter, grandchildren and even classmates from junior high school, who remain friends to this day. Several bowling trophies stand next to his computer.

The first rays of the morning sun reach the top of the dam just as Lindsay does.

One of his first jobs is to check the “trash rack,” a metal structure resembling a giant erector set assembly. The rack acts as a giant strainer, preventing fallen trees, boulders and other debris from wedging into the spillway tunnel.

He works until 3:30 p.m., but he stays on site 24 hours a day. The area is beautiful at night, he said, with the stillness broken by the occasional mountain lion or other visiting wildlife.

“You see bobcats quite often around here,” Lindsay said. “Coyotes. And once in a great while you see one or two deer. But no bears, thank you.”

Twice he’s killed 3-foot rattlesnakes at his back door.

Lindsay’s only neighbor lives a few yards away. That’s assistant dam keeper Joe Torres, who will take over when Lindsay steps down.

Torres, 47, was born in San Fernando and grew up in Pacoima. After a 20-year stint in the Army, he signed on with the county as a laborer on a crew that inspected and repaired underground storm drains around the Valley.

“I went from the bottom of the drain system to the top,” he said.

Torres and Lindsay say the work can be hazardous, and they are on high alert during times of heavy rainfall.

Surprisingly, however, the downpours from El Nino two years ago did little damage to the venerable dam, Lindsay said.

“Flood control,” Lindsay said with a philosophical shrug, “It’s what we do.”

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works has begun to modernize the dam. A new electric-powered tram was assembled in March at a cost of about $800,000--and will eventually mean that the dam keeper gets a lift to the top of the structure and no longer must walk the 434 steps.

Also under construction are a new control house, which will better regulate the dam’s water flow, and a helicopter landing pad that will ensure that flood control personnel can reach the dam’s crest in emergencies.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Joe Torres’ first day as dam keeper, he will rise at 5 a.m., read his Bible and pray a bit.

Then at precisely 7 a.m., he will put on his hard hat and leather gloves. And, as the morning unfolds on the Valley, begin the long, slow haul up 434 steps to make sure his charge has passed another night.

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Pacoima Dam

Facts

* PURPOSE: Flood control and water conservation

* BEGAN: March 1925

* COMPLETED: February 1929

* COST: $2.5 million

* TOTAL VOLUME OF CONCRETE: 226,140 cubic yards

* CONSTRUCTION FATALITIES: None