'Rubble' Made Up Part of Mo. Reservoir

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051216/ap_on_re_us/reservoir_failure

ST. LOUIS - Inspectors were shocked to discover that the collapsed portion of a mountaintop reservoir was made of rocky "fill" instead of the granite that was assumed for decades to be the main material, the state's chief reservoir inspector said Thursday.

James Alexander, director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Dam and Reservoir Safety Program, said the broken portion of retaining wall — 70 to 80 feet high and about two football fields wide — appeared to consist entirely of soil and smaller rock.

The breach apparently occurred after an automated system malfunctioned and pumped too much water into the reservoir. A backup system that should have caught the problem also apparently failed, said Gary Rainwater, chairman and chief executive of St. Louis-based utility AmerenUE.

If a large part of the retaining wall was mostly soil and smaller rock, it was likely doomed once too much water was pumped into the reservoir, said Charles Morris, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Missouri-Rolla. Soil-based retention walls will erode when overtopped, he said.

Such nefarious actions only occur in New Orleans. Just ask any republican sitting in congress.

loose on the environment: construction scams, bribery and graft to cover up the scams, and ultimately the failure of a dam and -- often -- the deaths of hundreds, even thousands. Avoidance of this sort of thing was precisely one of the reasons FDR founded the Tennessee Valley Authority -- just as the opportunity to repeat this sort of outrage again and again is why the Republicans want to shut TVA down: anything for profits, and if the dam breaks and people die, so what.

Want an eye-opener? Google "dam disasters" and "dam failures"

The only place corruption occurs in this country is in the state of Louisiana and in particular New Orleans. Bribery, graft, scams in other parts of the country. NO WAY! You need to check with the RNC and get your facts straight.

...but the levees in NOLA were built and maintained by government.

I agree that construction scams, bribery, and graft figure in many large-scale construction projects. I disagree that government is somehow immune to the weaknesses of human nature and the enticements of human greed.

I propose an alternate theory: there are good people and bad people, and some of both kinds are employed in the public as well as the private sector.

Peace.

logic always trumps emotion...

As you say, "the levees in NOLA were built and maintained by government" and government (mostly in the person of the Corps of Engineers) had been warning for years of their inadequacy. The Clinton Administration at least made an effort to correct the problem but the racist neglect of the preceding and following Republican administrations sealed the city's doom.

As to the levees that failed due to improper construction -- piles driven only half as deep as required (obviously to save money) -- The Times-Picayune reported that construction was done by private subcontractors (who were obviously profiteering in the archetypical capitalist manner). Sorry I don't have a link; the story ran in October and is now undoubtedly archived and thus beyond reach of anyone who is not a paid subscriber.

Not that New Orleans was unique. Deliberately cheapened construction is at least potentially a huge problem everywhere private industry is hired for governmental projects -- note for example the repeated incidents in which freeway overpasses have collapsed due to the cement being "sanded" -- that is, mixed with too much sand to save money and inflate profits. The problem, endemic to capitalism (just as FDR understood), is much bigger and more deadly than most Americans imagine.

It takes a few minutes to test the strength of a concrete sample. It would take not long to figure out if pilings are deep enough. Also sometimes engineering plans get botched. That's what caused the collapse of an elevated walkway in a hotel in Kansas City 24 years ago. Plan got changed and no one bothered to see if anyone had actually worked out the change. Was nothing malicious at all involved, no profiteering involved, just poor oversight.

Corps of Engineers was perplexed.

The independent team investigating the failed levees in NOLA did tests to indirectly measure the sheet piling length and reported that the steel sheeting wasn't deep enough. The Army Corps did the same tests, and got the same results.

Then the Army Corps actually pulled some of the pilings up and measured them directly. They were as long and as deep as the construction specifications said they should be. They didn't have an explanation as to why the indirect measurement gave the wrong result.

That the same technique gave the same result twice is expected, if they did it properly; that it gave the wrong result is perplexing. But apparently there was no corruption or shorting of the implementation side of the levees.

That pushes the concern back to why they picked that particular design: Did those choosing and approving the choice of design know that the soil was as weak as it turned out to be?

I absolutely agree that "there are good people and bad people, and some of both kinds are employed in the public as well as the private sector." Indeed as a journalist I have encountered (and sometimes exposed) some genuine public-sector villains.

But only capitalism -- the quintessence of which is the redefinition of greed to a virtue -- so persistently honors the bad. In this context note George Bush and his entire administration, modern capitalism's ultimate achievement in its 70-year campaign to reduce the United States to fascist tyranny: as history demonstrates beyond doubt, the only form of government with which capitalism is truly comfortable.

That was a classic government boondoggle, which killed 11 and destroyed three entire towns when it went out.

of all governmental restraints (especially environmental considerations) in service to capitalist greed:

http://www.idahoptv.org/outdoors/shows/bofr/teton/brown.html

The roots of the Teton Dam project were greed and tradition. The greed of irrigation interests had been a tradition for almost three-quarters of a century; it was a type of socialism that was attractive to nominally conservative Western farmers. The opportunity to get Federal money for personal enrichment was always a sufficient reason to make the welfare state socially acceptable.

For more, Google "teton dam"

there were no federal regulations about building earthen dams. Basically the regulation said it had to be substantially built. Lovely engineering requirement. But that's what was on the books, and that's how everyone built. Except when they didn't. But there are dams built out of mining tailing that have held up very well. It's not so much the material that matters as it is how the whole thing is put together and where and how much water is behind it. Also taking into account things like seepage and rainfall.

We used to go whitewater canoeing on the Black River in early spring, its a beautiful area.

Its tragic for many of the low income rural folks who live in the area.

and his brother, Sideshow Bob?

LOL.
I remember when they were building this fucking disaster. I do believe something like this was the reason many were against it.

Of course, Ashcroft was involved in it up to his eyeballs. I think he was either the attorney for the contractors or the power company then, and moved into state government either during or just after this.

This is really shoddy construction. I've taken a tour of the area on Google Earth, and this also looks like a TERRIBLE place for a reservoir. It's so close to populated areas that there'd be no time to warn of a breach.

another environmental fuck up

before there were any regulations in place regarding specifics of earthen dams and resevoir retaining walls. Except that they be, and I quote, "substantially built". I'm still wondering why anyone would expect to find granite within the wall. Unless they thought the entire resevoir would have a perimeter of stacked granite slabs or large chunks of granite up to some height. But that would be impractical to build, unless there's a granite quary two hundred feet away, nevermind be of no instrinsic superiority. If there was an expectation of rock of some size to be present, then it wouldn't matter what kind of rock it is. Granite in such form offers no advantage over any other fairly hard or harder stone.

was taken from the top of the mountain was used to make the walls... I suppose that rock got sold for top dollar.

trying to work out just how much of a 90 foot tall retaining wall you could build with 6 million tons of granite. More to the point, how much of one given a surface coverage of roughly 30 acres. It could be done, but it wouldn't be too much of a wall. Also when they act all surprised about the retaining wall being mostly soil and stone, duh that's what earthen retaining walls are. Basically they built a huge bowl, the granite only formed part of the sides. Also given the amount of water released, a billion gallons, somewhere either someone's numbers are messed up or something is askew. Heck they state the granite was used to cover an area of 30 acres roughly yet the resevoir is stated to be 50 acres. That itself leads to some questions. No matter how I play with the numbers, I don't see a lack of granite as a problem. Though I am wondering what doofus put a huge earthen retaining wall on a downslope.

It claims 6,000,000 tons of granite was removed from the mountain top to 'make' the reservoir and then was supposed to be reused in the walls. It also claims the wall was "over-topped" which I guess means water flowed over the wall, which no doubt erodes the back, and swoosh!

if they had run low on granite, they'd have used whatever was handy and it would've gone without report or notice really. From the looks of it, wasn't a granite or fill issue, but an earthen wall issue.

granite would come in slab or large chunk form. Either way, it wouldn't mean much. The strength of a dam or resevoir wall, in this case the resevoir is basically an enclosed curving dam, comes not from the material alone but how it's put together. Rock rubble can be entirely suitable to the purpose. Just have to build it right. What's interesting is the resevoir is concrete lined around it's perimeter. So the soil and rock was acting only as a support. And the concrete would spread a load around. I'd venture a guess the overfilling lead to too much stress on soil that was on a downhill slop pushing it downwards ultimately causing the collapse. Has not to do with the material, but with the location and how it was built upon.

There was a good story about the break on NPR yesterday. The dam was above a State park campground. It was empty, except for the house of the Park Superintendent and his family, who were injured. They had no warning. If this had happened during the Summer, hundreds could have died.

Will we ever learn the lesson?

never mind the redundant automatic systems that were supposed to release water that didn't. never mind the fact that it appears from the photos that they kept that sucker filled right to the top. never mind that there had to be at least a few onsite personnel that might have seen the water getting too high. never mind the fact that a layperson like myself looks at the pictures of that reservoir, and asks himself, what kind of moran designs a reservoir with earthen sides, and doesn't include some kind of channel for water to follow in the case of over topping, instead of letting it erode the reservoir itself?

Not suprising that this happened at an Ameren UE facility, those asses are notorius for skirting codes and regulations when it comes to things like this. They've got a nuclear reactor over in Callaway County that is just a disaster waiting to happen. I know a couple of the guys who helped build it, and both state that the concrete work is substandard and was cracking before they ever brought the plant on-line. Luckily nothing has happened so far, so either the concrete is hold or they repaired it, but they've just increased their power producing capability and thus are going to be upping the structural stress on the entire plant. Real scary thing is that they're wanting to build another one next door.

Meanwhile they keep raising their rates like there's no tommorrow. I'm so glad that I don't have to deal with them now, for either electric or gas.

http://www.asce.org/reportcard/index.cfm?reaction=full&page=6

excerpt:

2001 Grade 2003 Trends
Dams D

The number of unsafe dams has risen by 23% to nearly 2,600. Because of downstream development, the number of "high-hazard potential dams" - those whose failure would cause loss of life - has increased from 9,921 in 2001 to 10,049 in 2003. There have been 21 dam failures in the past two years.

Some progress is being made through the repair of small watershed dams constructed with assistance from the USDA since 1948. This is only a small portion of the total number of non-federal dams. On the federal side, the federally-owned dams are in good condition; however, continuing budget restrictions are placing pressure on and limiting many agency dam safety programs.

Despite the recent passage of the National Dam Safety and Security Act of 2002 (HR 4727), which provides funding through grants to improve state dam safety programs, it is estimated that $10.1 billion is needed over the next 12 years to address all critical non-federal dams - dams that pose a direct risk to human life should they fail. In the meantime, the 78,000 dams in the U.S. National Inventory of Dams continue to age and deteriorate.

FEDERAL ACTION NEEDED: Introduction and passage of legislation to create a loan fund for the repair, rehabilitation and removal of non-federal dams would provide seed money to advance the process of rehabilitating the most critical dams.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/caruba032105.htm

Monday, March 21, 2005


Years ago when I had a full head of hair, I worked for the New Jersey Institute of Technology and gained a great respect for engineers and architects. Without them, nothing gets built, nothing works, and we would all be back rubbing two sticks together to make a fire.

In early March, my local daily newspaper ran a story that was four paragraphs long and buried at the bottom of the page. Engineers see U.S. Infrastructure Sinking. It was one of those stories deemed newsworthy enough to include since it cited a report by the American Society of Civil Engineers, but I doubt that anyone at the paper considered the full implications of the story. There was no mention of it on the broadcast news media. After all, how exciting are bad bridges and solid waste management?

Let me tell you how important it is; if some attention and a whole lot of money is not spent on the nation’s infrastructure, i.e., aviation, bridges, dams, drinking water, energy, hazardous waste removal, navigable waterways, parks and recreation, rail travel, roads, schools, security, solid waste, transit, and wastewater, then life in this country as we know it is going to resemble a Third World nation.

How bad is it? The ASCE report, issued every four years, gives the national infrastructure an overall grade of D, down from a D+ in 2001. The Society estimates it would take a total investment of $1.6 trillion dollars over five years to bring these various elements up to acceptable levels. "If we treated our own homes like we treat our infrastructure," says William Henry, ASCE president, "we’d all live in shacks."

"The nation’s infrastructure is sliding toward failure and the prospect for any real improvement is grim," says Henry. One thing I know about civil engineers, they are not prone to exaggeration.

...more...

We are spending half of a trillion dollars "rebuilding" and occupying Iraq while our own country crumbles into a third world nation.

:banghead: