Slashdot Mirror
Damming News From Washington State
Trax3001BBS writes "A 65-foot (20-meter) crack has been found in Wanapum Dam, one of the major dams along the Columbia River in southern Washington. Water levels are being lowered to both reduce water pressure and give the inspectors access to the area. 'Earlier this week, an engineer noticed a slight irregular "bowing" above the spillway gates near where cars can drive across the dam. When divers finally took a look under water they found a 2-inch-wide crack that stretched for 65 feet along the base of one of the dam's spillway piers.' The article goes on to say, 'Even if the dam doesn't fail, the significance of the damage is likely to require extensive repairs and that, too, could impact the entire Columbia River system. "All these dams coordinate to generate energy on a regional scope," Stedwick said. "If Wanapum is impacted, that has impacts on dams upstream as well as below." Upstream dams would be required to handle more water; there's only one lower dam (Priest Rapids). After that is the last free flowing section of the Columbia river. I've taken walks along that section, and I've seen it deviate (higher or lower) by amazing amount of water, so it can handle the changing flow rate. Making this situation more complex, a large group of people would like that particular dam removed, as well as the one above and below it (think of the fish!). On top of that, after the Priest Rapids dam (downstream from Wanapum Dam) is the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, once a site for Plutonium production. Either of these issues could generate a ton of attention. Personally, I'd like to give the engineer that noticed a slight irregular 'bowing' my congratulations."
I know this is going to kill my karma, but WTF?? That is the most poorly written article I've ever seen on here and I'd wager that most would find it completely off-topic for the site. Combined with the new commenting system, and I think my days here are over. It's been a fun ride, but adios Slashdot.
sharkyfour.com
If there is only one dam below Wanapum, this will be easy. But don't miss an opportunity to throw in a totally irrelevant mention of the Hanford nuclear weapons complex - you know, that place that itself gets irrelevantly dragged into any discussion of commercial nuclear power.
There is this crazy new idea called "wanting to deal with the excess water" should one "just open up the spillways".
The water goes somewhere, after all. Would probably piss off a bunch of home owners in Beverly should their riverfront homes quite suddenly become riverboat homes.
Thirty four characters live here.
I believe the biggest problem with cracked dam walls is that moisture gets into the interior of the wall and softens the material which is keeping it strong. Then the crack opens a little bit more, more water gets in and you have a nice exponential curve happening.
There was a rumour about this happening to the hume reservoir in Australia about 20 years ago.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
William Mulholland didn't take action when the St. Francis Dam performed similarly, and after his inspection, killed up to 600 people twelve hours after his inspection.
Kriston
Any pictures of the crack? Save the story for later.
I'm pretty sure it was established that the fish say, "blub blub blub".
bork bork bork!
That last free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River that the OP mentions is also the last stretch of Columbia River that maintains spawning habitat. It also accounts for a very large portion of the salmon that return through the Columbia River estuary every year. If removing this dam would open up more spawning habitat, this would not be a bad thing.
Not really. Anything upstream would have to take at least part of the load.
Meanwhile, the RAF categorically denies that an Avro Lancaster was seen near the dam earlier that day.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Actually, "bring it on". Bonneville (one of the five dams below it) generates a considerable amount of power for my area. On the other hand, we'll need that water this summer if we don't get more snowpack in the mountains.
Water levels are being lowered to both reduce water pressure and give the inspectors access to the area.
"This just shows how the government wastes your money. They've even got dam inspectors. We don't need no dam inspectors."
I'm sure glad they caught it. China has a similar series of hydroelectric dams. A failure caused a domino effect and when the Banquai dam failed it killed 200,000 people. I know TFA says the failure of this one dam wouldn't kill that many people, but that assumes the sudden tidal-wave-like flood doesn't effect the downstream dams. A domino failure on the Columbia river would be a catastrophe.
This is the problem with Hydro power. This is why we should go 100% solar and not use electricity at night. We can't safely use Hydro, it's too dangerous, the pressure levels and engineering is too dangerous and a single mistake could kill an entire ecosystem.
Think of the children down river from this dam!
If you have any incandescent bulbs, _YOU'RE_ to blame as well.
-Francis Candlemaker
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
There are 5 dams down stream of wanapum, 1 above the free flowing hanford reach and 4 dams below that. River "operations" involve a complicated coordination of all the dams and reservoirs to provide adequate flow for fish and year-round power generation. It is an interesting engineering problem - hacking a river. There is also a computer angle here in that several data centers are located in Grant County (which owns the generation rights) to take advantage of the cheap reliable power. Presumably those data centers are watching this closely. Power rates for everyone in the county will rise if they have less power to sell or if they have to buy power from outside the county. The system is dependent upon storage for of moving water down stream the river is very interesting in that water flowing through one dam
WTF.. I goggled flesh light thinking it was something I should know but never heard of before. Surprisingly, it's a masturbation product. So why do you think only males who masturbate with a flashlight looking thing will be sent into the depths of the earth and what makes you think there are millions of them?
I mean hell, I can deal with the dinosaurs.. I just don't know about the flesh light things.
Sure congratulate him for doing his job. ... Dam's are monitored for these issues. Routine and annual inspections are made.
I think that is why so many people above are disliking the story.
Inspector does job, discovers the exact issue he is paid to find. Repair crews dispatched. Disaster averted. SUCCESS!
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
All I see is Beavis asking, "Is this a God dam?"
Not if the upstream dams slow down their output. That would lower the levels downstream.
The data centers in Quincy are quite large. Microsoft has a major facility, which is undergoing expansion. So does Yahoo, Intuit, Dell, and Sabey. These are major components of the tax base for the town of Quincy and elsewhere in Grant County. The data centers are highly resilient to power loss, with on-site diesel generators, 24x7 staffing, and all the other protections you'd expect. But prolonged use of the generators, if it becomes necessary, could exceed the permitted run time and accompanying pollution the facilities are allowed. Most likely, power from the other dams the Grant County PUD operates (or elsewhere on the regional power grid) could be routed to the data centers.
There are some other huge electricity consumers in the county. It's the world headquarters of a company that makes photovoltaic components, and also several food processors (all those potatoes from eastern Washington gotta be processed and cooked!). Industrial users might be able to turn down their power usage if there is a regional shortage, but data centers tend to operate at fairly stable 24x7 consumption levels. Major companies like those listed above have redundant facilities, and can shunt processing to other centers if required.
Site selection for major electricity consumers, including data centers, is a fascinating topic. The State of Washington has had various tax incentives to help businesses to choose to build facilities there. Electricity costs are among the lowest in the nation (under 3 cents/kWh for industrial customers). Plus, it makes extensive use of renewable sources, particularly hydroelectric (i.e., dams) and wind energy. Oregon has a similar story to tell, with their own rivers, dams, tax breaks, etc., and is part of why Amazon elected to put a huge facility there.
You have to be hung like a tapestry to understand fleshlights.
Noah, you won't.
Don't worry - the only thing downstream from this dam is Portland.
#DeleteChrome
Personally, I'd like to give the engineer that noticed a slight irregular 'bowing'...
I first read that as: "Personally, I'd like to give the engineer a slight irregular bowing."
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
okay have somebody throw a bottle of water at you kind of hurts right?? Now have somebody do that with say ten thousand bottles??
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
Unless you count the 582 miles of cooling pipes.
I come here for the love
> huge electricity consumers in the county. It's the world headquarters of a company that makes photovoltaic
The company making solar panels buys huge amounts of electricity rather than using their own product? Why?
> (under 3 cents/kWh for industrial customers)
Oh, that's why. Using their own solar panels would cost them 35 / kWh, twelve times as much.
... much of the region is suffering from drought conditions. While eastern drainages to the Colombia have a fairly robust snow pack, many to west and south of the river are suffering. This would normally suggest the Army Corps of Engineers would want to hold back more water in the reservoirs, but this news impacts such actions. In the mixed new category, storms are currently lining up to dump on the region. Snow pack data is available, here: http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/snow/ 10-day weather forecast maps, here: http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/weather/10_day.cgi
Dam . . . There's a wall there . . .
We are Dead Stars looking back Up at the Sky
Louie, Louie
Have gnu, will travel.
I'd like some more information on how these dams' structures are monitored. Embedded sensor networks? Or do they just hope some vigilant employee will notice "something odd"? That would be news for nerds.
Have gnu, will travel.
this exceeds the excessive inaccuracy ratings for slashdot. It helps if you actually read the links you include in your article. this page: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Pacific_Northwest_River_System.png, linked in the article, shows there are 5 dams below the wanapum. apparently the change in color was too confusing for you? The Columbia is only free-flowing below the Bonneville dam which is just upriver from Portland/Vancouver.
Disasters do happen between inspections from more sudden and rapid failures.
Learn to love Alaska
http://www.merriam-webster.com...
Pick your dictionary. Do any not list it as a verb?
Learn to love Alaska
Don't worry - the only thing downstream from this dam is Portland.
Crap. The resulting sludge will just be coffee with a bunch of knit hats floating on top.
Does the U.S. even have the engineering prowess, industry, money, and political will to perform a major dam repair/construction at this point?
And Biggs Junction! If that is gone where am I going to pee after driving over Satus?
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
infrastructure gobbles up a lot of money and its maintenance (or lack thereof) is a major issue in this country
You've nailed it. Infrastructure has become invisible, unlauded, boring. Infrastructure is the original stuff that matters.
Aside from entering some engineering field, there are ways that nerds can make a difference. Take this dam for example, clearly a certain level of routine surveillance had not been performed . If divers discover a 2 inch crack, could there have been a half inch or hairline crack some time ago? And could a more thorough use of remote imaging or even acoustic technology have spotted it? What if someone who reads Slashdot has an idea for some economical and effective way to inspect dams should contact Thomas Stredwick at PUD and offer expertise and propose such a method? At times history favors those who make those phone calls.
I define a 'nerd' as someone technologically aware who is capable, by the multidisciplinary nature of technology, of useful insight. The biggest problem with nerd-culture today in my opinion is that they tend to be observers who are not out there looking for problems to solve.
If you consider yourself to be tech-savvy in some field or are just interested in what problems are out there, check out the InnoCentive Challenges. These are a collection of problems to solve, big and little, that someone has documented and put up cash money to solve. Some of the challenges are interesting and very specific. For example, if you can propose a good way to Detect Protruding Nails in a Wooden Pallet that is going past on a conveyor belt, there might be $20,000 in it for you. Also lots of chemistry, medical materials science challenges.
Infrastructure should be a part of your child's exploration of the modern world. Underground by David Macaulay gives readers an introduction to utilities by presenting awesome ink drawings of incredible perspective and detail. As they start reading. Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape is the kind of book you want your children to grow up with and browse long before they understand all the words. Because great books about interesting things deliver the words to them.
I am an infrastructure maniac.
___
Obligatory bump to the Thorium Alliance and my own letters on energy,
To The Honorable James M. Inhofe, United States Senate
To whom it may concern, Halliburton Corporate
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
The title says it all.
Most of the Columbia River dams were built in the 1950s after Harry Truman strong-armed Congress into passing the Flood Control Act of 1950 due to the second largest city in Oregon being wiped off the map when a levy broke in 1948.
Unfortunately we don't build things anymore. We barely maintain them.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
It's more about being able to still have agriculture in the hundreds of thousands of acres that get irrigated from the reservoirs behind the dams. These hydropower projects had three objectives, all wildly successful for the last 50 years:
1. Flood control
2. Electricity generation
3. Irrigation of the high plains surrounding the Columbia River
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
The Wanapum dam holds back 796,000 acre feet of water. The next dam on the river has a capacity that is a fraction of that (237,100 acre feet), but the one after that is bigger than both of those combined, but not much.
All told, if we had a domino action of Wanapum and the 4 downriver dams failing, we'd be talking about 5,780,100 acre feet of water flowing past Portland, which would be a devastating event indeed.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
It's unlikely that there are any types of embedded sensors in dams built in the 1940s and 1950s. You know, back when we used to actually give a shit about building infrastructure in the US.
This is likely good old fashioned visual inspection either by drawing down the reservoir, or with divers.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
An embedded sensor wouldn't do you any good anyway. A dam failure that happened in my state about 20 years (the last) involved water seeping through unknown cracks in the bed rock under the dam that allowed the water to erode a hole in the face of the dam.
For earthen dams they monitor with visual inspections and survey of the top and sides of the dam. Long before the dam fails there will be erosion visible either directly or through sagging surface elevations. Concrete is far more straightforward, beyond cracks in the concrete or foundation seepage the only other major failure mechanism is erosion around the edges.
Most people don't realize that dams leak like a sieve under perfectly normal conditions, so the only effective way to monitor them is directly by trained professionals. Someone that can look at a dam, see a sag starting in the middle and realize something is really really wrong like the guy credited in the article. This trained professional then calls in other professional like divers and surveyors that can do a full analysis of what's wrong so that plans can be devised to repair the damage or in an emergency situation the reservoir can be drained in a controlled fashion. Dam engineering is one of the oldest branches of civil engineering (the oldest branch of engineering).