Posted on 02/28/2014 8:07:24 PM PST by steve86
A massive crack in a major Columbia River dam poses enough of a risk of dam failure that Grant County authorities have activated an emergency-response plan.
Officials said there is no threat to the public from the crack in the Wanapum Dam, which is just down stream from where Interstate 90 crosses the river.
But utility managers are lowering water levels a total of 20 feet because they fear the structure otherwise could endanger inspectors trying to get a better handle on how seriously the dam is damaged.
“At this point we already know there’s a serious problem,” said Thomas Stredwick, spokesman for the Grant County Public Utility District (PUD). “We want to make sure the spillway is stable enough that inspectors are safe when inspecting it.”
Earlier this week, an engineer noticed a slight irregular “bowing” above the spillway gates near where cars can drive across the dam.
[...]
Wanapum, just below the Gorge amphitheater and the tiny hamlet of Vantage, is in a rural area. Failure would primarily impact fisherman, orchardists, farmers, boaters — and, of course, power generation. Wanapum currently can generate more than 1,000 megawatts of power.
PUD officials have lowered the water 6 feet behind the dam since discovering the problem earlier in the week, leaving many boat ramps above the dam inaccessible
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
I have often wondered how these dams would react to when the big 9.0 quake hits the coast.
Government is condeming (due to co2 emmisions)the coal power plant in the region.
I felt the Seattle Nisqually earthquake (M6.8) quite plainly, although an offshore megaquake would be much further away.
If 0bama tries to stop the Russians in the Ukraine, maybe Putin will nuke the dam and thus, solve the problem altogether.
I’ve always wondered how long these dams we built (back when America actually built things) would last. God forbid we ever need to repair Hoover Dam, the environmental morons will never let them fix it.
I hope not, but then again we would end up having river frontage instead of the mile-away access we have now.
Shelter in place. Right?/s
What does Hillary have to do with it?
Some of the highways around here have settled more than the engineers thought they would ("dips" in the road) and I wonder if riverbed settling is a factor with the crack.
A trillion dollars on stimulus and this?
Portland could be the surfing capitol of the world for one day
Sounds like your near the Tri Cities. If their lowering 20 feet that’s going raise the pool behind McNary quite a bit. And Pasco has been trying to the corp of engineers to lower all the levies for years!
For those out there, this dam was built and owned by Grant County PUD and loosing it would kill Grant County as that’s where Microsoft, Google and a bunch of others built their data storage centers because of the cheap power from the dam.
Hey, if you could catch that wave you’re a better surfer than ‘I’.
Good comment.
Ha! Well done.
I’m over here in the Yakima Valley but I’ve lived mostly in the Tri Cities since 78.
With water that high they should bring in the hydros in March!
I’ll head down to the river first thing in the morning and check the water level. Sounds like a little snow and/or freezing rain the next few days around here.
Probably full of tumbleweeds by now
An Executive Order won't be enough to fix this one.This calls for a candlelight vigil complete with a few verses of Kumbaya.
Relax, you are overlooking the other solution in the Obama household. All that is need is for moochelle to back he booty up to the damn, problem solved.
He didn’t build it, but he can damn sure fix it with a few good people earning $15hr!!
LOL!
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