Destroyed Benchmarks

[+Ernmark]

There is a USGS office in my area - and after being told about some displays that thay have in their building, I stopped by when I was in the area (they did have a nice small display of surveying equipment as well an an entire "destroyed" concrete monument removed from a field and a few disks w/ out stems placed over an enlarged circa 1909 topo). I mentioned about submitting recoveries to NGS electronically , etc. and he mentioned that the USGS still requires physical return of a USGS disk either to their office or to the main office. I have run across a "destroyed" USGS (w/ NGS PID) disk which I am planning to send pics off to NGS...but if I want to make it an official w/ USGS also - I'll have to grab a sledge, bust it out, and traipse it down to them? .. Has anybody else submitted any destroyeds to USGS and is that the procedure you used?

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Ernmark -

 

I have been reading this forum for a long time and never heard of people sending disks back to the USGS. If one is on the NGS database, we use the NGS rules.

 

The impression I get from the NGS communications reproduced here in the forum is that they are far more interested in getting a destroyed disk to leave the area of monumentation than they are concerned about where it goes. Of course, this is only after the NGS has officially agreed that it is destroyed.

 

Interesting point though. Why use NGS rules if it isn't actually an NGS disk (NGS written on it)?

 

I gather that they'd rather it was gone because some do-gooder might re-install the disk near its monumented position and thereby cause lots of expensive confusion.

 

I would certainly advise asking not us, but the USGS office in every such case what to do with such a disk, and only ask them after the NGS has declared it destroyed.

Edited July 3, 2006 by Black Dog Trackers

[Bill93]

And just to make it more complicated, the NGS standards for a usable disk for geodetic purposes may be tighter than the USGS standards for mapping. So a disk with a broken post that could still be fitted together, or an intersecton station tower where only the base remains might be destroyed at NGS and still usable at USGS? We haven't been thinking about those cases.

[+Crystal Sound]

I might be mistaken in my notion, but:

 

I was under the impression that the USGS is no longer interested in the benchmarks. I recall reading here that a few have been in contact with various persons o the USGS and there seemed to be a lack of interest on their part. I guess it might also depend on whom one were to talk to within the USGS organization. Ask 5 different people, and you are likely to get 5 different answers.

 

Earnmark's posting is the first I have seen of any interest.

[Z15]

Ask 5 different people, and you are likely to get 5 different answers.

 

Very true of most gov't org's. The right hand never knows what the left hand is doing. And the main reason for that is the way they are managed. Its always a worker vs supervisor climate in most places and especially more so in gov't agencies where funding is controlled by buracrats and lawmakers in DC who are playing politics with everything. Our Sen (CL) was on a soapbox about all the spending by the current admin. etc and complaining up and down while over the 4th holiday here was in our area bragging about the money he was instrumental in securing for local projects. Talks out of both saids of his mouth.

 

I know, I worked under those conditions for over 30 yrs in state dot.

 

 

I was under the impression that the USGS is no longer interested in the benchmarks.

 

More likely due to personnel changes (job eliminations), there no one who is there today cares about them. That was how our DOT was.

Edited July 7, 2006 by Z15

[+BuckBrooke]

I've only run across USC&GS disks and some from the NMDOT (or NM Highway Commission, etc. depending upon the decade). The NMDOT is rather cavalier about my reporting destroyed disks; they just want an email when I reported one.

 

It's different for different agencies, so I would suggest that you make a good faith effort at contacting whomever's disk you will list as destroyed.

Edited July 10, 2006 by BuckBrooke