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Excuse me if this has been asked before, but I wonder what the status of the new 156 meter tall dam at Zipingpu is.

The dam at Zipingpu is a controversial hydroelectic facility build 9KM upsteam from the ancient Dujiangyan Irrigation System (which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site) on the Min(Jiang) River.

I ask because the dam is literally only 20KM from the quake's epicenter, and right upsteam from the city of Chengdu.

Here is a pic I found from above the dam looking east, down the Min, towards the Chengdu plain:

Here is a Google Map with the green arrow being the epicenter, and the dam being dead center:

View Larger Map

Zipingpu Hydropower plant stopped by quake

According to the Sichuan provincial government on Tuesday morning, the Wenchuan earthquake has caused severe cracks in the dam of the Zipingpu Hydropower Station. The plant and associated buildings have collapsed, and some are partly sunk. The whole installation is out of commission.

Located at the junction of Dujiangyan City and Wenchuan County on the upper Minjiang River, the Zipingpu Hydropower Plant was one of the first 10 landmark projects of the Western Development plan. It is also the principal project in the province’s 10th five-year plan. The station was brought into service in 2006.

At 2:28 p.m. on Monday an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale pounded Wenchuan County in the Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, Sichuan Province, leveling some 500,000 homes in the affected areas and leaving at least 9,219 people dead in the eight affected provinces, the Ministry of Civil Affairs confirmed.

(China.org.cn May 13, 2008)

http://www.china.org.cn/china/wenchuan_earthquake/2008-05/13/content_15201601.htm

THANKS I WAS TRYING TO FIND A PICTURE OF IT AFTER I FOUND THIS STORY EARLIER

the dam at Zipingpu -— Seemingly in control because nothing about the dam burst is mentioned in recent news.
Fortunately, no flood..

but Statistics of up to 1900 aftershocks,
landslides,stormy weather
add difficulty to the rescue work.

Difficult to know exactly what is happening but the latest I have is that the Zipingpu facility has been inspected and is safe. My wife is currently in Chengdu and we have stayed in Dujiangyan so we try to keep up on some events. Liang’s father and grandfather were the engineers for Dujiangyan and other projects in Sichuan so we have some insight. They were not in favor of Zipingpu or Three Gorges citing some potential problems such as quakes and flooding. I do hope that all with be well there.