De-authorizing navigation on the Missouri River would do wonders to ensure a robust water supply for irrigation and recreation in the Midwest—although at a cost to certain interest groups, many of them downstream. Photo: Harry Weddington, Omaha District, USACE Some call for de-authorizing navigation to relieve restrictions on water for crops. Photo: Harry Weddington, Omaha District, USACE Spillway is at Gavins Point Dam, near Yankton, S.D. Every option is on the table as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers launches a study to challenge whether the “eight purposes” enshrined in a 66-year-old federal act that governs water management policy on
A joint U.S.-European group has presented the low bid to analyze the options for a vehicular crossing at the Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal, officials said on Monday. Photo: C.J. Schexnayder The Third Lane Expansion project will be built roughly at the site of a previous excavation by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, visible to the left of the Gatun Locks. San Francisco-based URS Corp. and the Danish firm COWI A/S submitted a bid of $895,000—the lowest of five tendered—to examine the possibilities of a permanent crossing at the historic waterway’s Atlantic entrance that will allow uninterrupted traffic
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared on March 2 that the Gowanus Canal will be added to the list of federal Superfund cleanup sites. The heavily polluted canal runs through an old industrial sector in the New York City borough of Brooklyn and empties into New York harbor. EPA’s decision will set in motion a $500-million, decade-long effort to clean up the former industrial canal, which EPA says is contaminated with PCBs, coal-tar waste, heavy metals and volatile organics. Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) had opposed the EPA designation, fearing it would endanger real estate developement plans for the area. EPA
Hours after Chile was hammered on Feb. 27 by one of the most powerful earthquakes in its history, President Michelle Bachelet made it clear the country already is preparing for recovery. Photo: AFP/Getty Images The naval port city of Talcahuano, about 20 km from Concepción, was devastated by a tsunami about an hour after the quake, catching unwarned residents by surprise. No tsunami warnings were issued for Chile’s coastal towns. Related Links: Chile’s Quake Damage Mitigated by Past Lessons “We are facing a catastrophe of unforeseen magnitude which caused damage that will require enormous efforts of all sectors of the
The most powerful earthquake to strike Chile in a generation may have left hundreds dead and the South American nation’s infrastructure in tatters, yet the fact the destruction was not far worse is being cited as a testament to Chile’s application of improved building codes and decades of efforts to prepare. Slide Show Photo: AP/Wideworld Nine died and seven were missing—with some believed trapped alive behind a wall that took the load—when the 70-unit Alto Rio Apartment complex in Concepción rolled off its foundations in the Feb. 27 quake. Investigators likely will study the structure’s perfomance for what worked and
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and levee districts throughout Mississippi River Watershed are preparing for potentially imminent floods by drawing on a battery of strategies, the first of which is keeping a close watch on weather patterns, water levels and soil conditions. Photo: USACE Ringing sand boils with sandbags raises the head, lowers velocity and prevents erosion of internal levee material + Image Photo: USACE/New Orleans District Related Links: Saturated Watersheds and Stormy Forecast Worry Flood-Control Officials in the Heartland The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and levee districts throughout Mississippi River Watershed are preparing for potentially imminent floods
As spring approaches, officials from Minnesota to New Orleans are eyeing Mississippi River levees—already lapped by higher-than-normal water levels—and bracing for likely floods. Photo: USACE Sandbag rings (above) keep levees from eroding from within. Control structures like the Bonnet Carré Spillway (below) can relieve pressure. Photo: Angelle Bergeron Related Links: Flood Strategy Taps Proven Tools, But Will Rivers Play By The Rules? “There is an above-normal probability of major flooding on the Mississippi River this year, all the way up to Minnesota, but especially north of St. Louis,” says Bill Frederick, National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist and liaison with the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson fleshed out details of the administration’s five-year, $2.2-billion Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action plan at a Feb. 21 news conference at the National Governors’ Association’s winter meeting in Washington. The plan, which covers fiscal years 2010-2014, was developed by 16 federal agencies. It calls for cleaning up some of the most heavily polluted hot spots, including remediation of 9.4 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment; restoring wetlands and other habitats; establishing total maximum daily loads for phosphorus; and taking steps to keep invasive species such as Asian carp out of the lakes. President
The United Nations now estimates that 3 million Haitians—a third of the population—were “badly affected” by the magnitude-7 earthquake that ravaged the island nation on Jan. 12. Providing shelter, sanitation and preventing cholera in Port-au-Prince are critical challenges, but so are food shortages in rural areas. An estimated 500,000 former residents of the badly damaged capital have migrated to the countryside. Photo: Odebrecht Construction At Work Odebrecht retrained 30 local airport service employees in basic construction skills and hired them to work on refurbishing airport-terminal passenger and cargo facilities in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for American Airlines, which assisted with procurement and
Engineers are finalizing design for a 17-mile-long pipeline that will deliver methane gas from a landfill in Muskego, Wis., to fuel a wastewater treatment plant in Milwaukee. The pipeline is the first step in an $80-million investment that will save the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) at least $148 million over the next 20 years by enabling its Jones Island plant to generate its own heat and electricity by burning landfill-generated methane instead of natural gas. In addition to saving money, the plant will also cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 500,000 tons a year. MMSD tentatively plans to seek bids from