The documentation describing the connection was incomplete.
And the records raised questions about whether the full route and its downstream condition had been properly evaluated.
The old Crescent Branch structure had not been designed to receive those modern operating conditions.
In particular, the surviving gate assembly and surrounding soil had deteriorated during decades of abandonment.
Changes in flow and pressure could disturb the old structure and accelerate erosion around the buried chamber.
Claire's team compared the available operating information with the pond measurements.
The relationship became significantly clearer.
The irregular water-level changes were not explained by rainfall alone.
Groundwater behavior played a role.
So did the deteriorating infrastructure.
But the investigation now had evidence that modern industrial water movement was contributing to the conditions beneath the pond.
The old system and the new operation were interacting.
And the combination threatened the stability of the lower bank.
Naomi listened as Claire explained the findings.
For several seconds, she didn't speak.
Then asked, "So I wasn't imagining it."
Claire smiled gently.
"No."
Naomi looked toward her notebook.
All those weeks.
The tape measurements.
The photographs.
The times she walked to the pond after putting the children to bed.
The laughter from the ranchers.
For a moment, she felt exhausted.
Then Claire continued.
"Your records helped us recognize the pattern earlier than we otherwise might have."
Naomi stared.
The engineer looked directly at her.
"That matters."
For several seconds, Naomi struggled to speak.
Then she whispered, "Thank you."
Ridgeline disputed parts of the preliminary conclusions.
Its representatives argued that the old structure had been deteriorating for decades and that the company couldn't be held responsible for every historic defect.
They pointed toward Naomi's rope experiment, suggesting that her attempt to move a submerged object might have contributed to the gate's instability.
The allegation frightened her.
She had hooked the structure.
She had pulled.
And the black metal had moved while she held the rope.
But the photographs and measurements established that the shoreline was expanding and the bank was sinking long before that afternoon.
The technical analysis also indicated that the pressure changes were not caused by a person pulling on a rope.
Naomi's actions had been risky.
She knew that.
But they hadn't created the underlying hydraulic condition.
Claire's report distinguished between those issues.