A memorable date for Nashville’s water department will be Memorial Day Weekend, when it expects to put back online the K.R. Harrington Water Treatment Plant, which was under water after the city’s May 1-2 flooding. Image: Nashville.gov City’s future biosolids facility site, rendered above, is adjacent to Central Wastewater Treatment Plant, which serves the downtown area hit by the flood. Northeast of downtown and near the Cumberland River, the plant has a rated capacity of 90 million gallons per day (mgd). Since the plant has been down, the city has been under a mandatory water conservation order because the only
As the consequences unfold of the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the flow of information has become as critical as the movement of the oil slick. One firm’s web-based information management system is having some success in crisis communication for those affected and is gaining wider play among infrastructure managers as an employee-management and business-continuity tool. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard U.S. Coast Guard was the first client of the PIER system. Related Links: Louisiana Starts Pushing Sand To Block Oil BP Considers Options To Plug Gusher, Investigates ‘Complex Accident’ BP Cleanup Subs Were Using Undocumented Workers
The Tennessee Valley Authority will permanently store on-site coal ash that is recovered during the second phase of its cleanup of a failed dredge cell at its Kingston powerplant in Harriman, Tenn. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the plan, which TVA announced on May 18. Photo: TVA Near the TVA powerplant site with a failed ash-disposal cell, dredging of the Emory River is almost complete after 18 months. The first phase of the cleanup, removing coal ash from the nearby Emory River, is wrapping up, with more than 3.32 million cu yd of ash removed from the river
With the rapid advance of work on a surge barrier on New Orleans� eastern flank, the city has substantially more protection against storm surge than it had just a year ago. Photo: Angelle Bergeron/ENR Vic Zillmer, USACE resident project manager atop the surge barrier stretching away toward its land tie-in to Chalmette levees. Photo: Angelle Bergeron/ENR New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu saluted the Corps for being �on task and on time� with the project and for building levees �better than before.� Left to right behind are Col. Robert Sinkler, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers� Hurricane Protection Office
A proposal to build “sand booms” to help keep the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico from fouling Louisiana wetlands may help jump-start long-dreamed-of schemes to re-nourish Louisiana’s barrier islands. Photo courtesy of Baggerwereld.com Van Oord’s 9-year-old hopper dredge Rotterdam has a 21,500 cubic meter capacity and can dredge in waters as deep as 60 m, and up to 120 m, with extensions. Van Oord has 100 vessels worldwide and claims its fleet is three times the size of the entire U.S. dredging fleet. Related Links: Oil-Spill Battlefront Spreads From Gulf to Washington, D.C. Setting Oil Spill Liability Limit:
While natural disasters may be inevitable, disastrous consequences are not, if policy-makers, designers and builders plan successfully. This theme was explored on May 12 at a one-day workshop in Washington, D.C., convened by the National Building Museum, which is laying the groundwork for a major exhibition in fall 2011 to examine how communities can improve planning to resist the consequences of natural disasters. Event planners looked for guidance from the museum’s Industry Council for the Built Environment, comprising about 60 owners and association representatives. BLUMENAUR “Disasters don’t have to be unmitigated disasters,” said U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenaur (D- Ore.), vice
Is $10 billion too much legal exposure for oil spills? While Obama administration officials work to encourage Congress to bolster the resources available for the oil disaster response and recovery efforts, one proposal that included a measure to raise the liability cap for oil companies, as the President also favors, has already taken a beating on the Senate floor. But Jeff Liebman, acting deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget says the administration should still find opportunities and a bill that can be used to attach its proposals to. Related Links: Oil-Spill Battlefront Spreads From Gulf to Washington,
The rig owner is claiming progress on capping a deepsea well gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, but, as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said on May 17, “We are nowhere close to the finish line. This disaster will not be over for Louisiana until our water and our shores are completely clean and our wildlife, our communities and our coastal industries are 100% restored.” + Image Illustration: Deepwater Horizon Recovery Team BP says it is managing to capture about 20% of the oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon well by inserting a new drill tube into the fallen
An ambitious project to bore a tunnel through the Continental Divide in the Andes of northern Peru has stalled after a powerful rock-burst severely damaged the tunnel-boring machine drilling the underground passage. Los Olmos tunnel workers dig out TBM damaged by shifting rock in April. Related Links: Odebrecht Pushes forward With Next Phase of Peruvian Irrigation Project On April 29, a large rock-burst struck the $14-million, 5-meter-dia, unshielded Robbins gripper TBM, damaging a cylinder connecting one of the grippers to the machine. Two workers suffered minor injuries when the operating cabin was partially crushed around them. Officials with Odebrecht Perú
As the works to complete the dam and tunnel that will divert water across the Andean Continental Divide in northern Peru struggle toward completion, the Brazilian company handling the job� is already preparing for the next phase of the project. La Concesionaria Trasvase Olmos S.A., a business entity created solely for the project by general contract Odebrecht Peru, is seeking the 20-year contract that will divert the waters from the Los Olmos project to irrigate 38,000 hectacres on the arid Pacific coast. On May 11, Peruvian President Alan Garcia signed the document clearing the way for the regional government of
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