8/29/2014

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Dams:

(The opposition hasn’t showed up yet!)Bixby dam presented to Arkansas River task forceTulsa City Council task force is told the project would cost $24.2 million.By Jarrel Wade World Staff Writer | m.tulsaworld.com, 8/15/14

The Tulsa City Council task force on river infrastructure got its first look at detailed plans for a Bixby low-water dam on Thursday.The dam would be one of four proposed construction and repair projects the Arkansas River Infrastructure Task Force is considering as ways to put water in the river.Overall, the task force is working on details of a funding package that would include some or all of the proposed projects, while preparing proposals for an authority to oversee future river infrastructure.The task force estimates that it would cost approximately $162 million to build low-water dams in Sand Springs and south Tulsa/Jenks and to overhaul Zink Dam.The Bixby low-water dam project, estimated to cost $24.2 million, would be cheaper than the other three proposed projects. The actual Bixby dam is estimated at $12.36 million, with the rest of the estimated costs going toward projects associated with the dam.

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

Some Dam – Hydro News TM

And Other Stuff

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Quote of Note: “Most people are selfish first, considerate second and generous last.” - Me

Some Dam - Hydro News Newsletter Archive for Back Issues and Search http://npdp.stanford.edu/Click on Link (Some Dam - Hydro News) Bottom Right - Under Perspectives

“Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas JeffersonRon’s wine pick of the week: 2012 Dominio Del Plata Malbec "Susana Balbo Signature" “ No nation was ever drunk when wine was cheap. ” - - Thomas Jefferson

The adjoining projects include a Bixby Landing RiverOverlook, which would cost about $4.46 million. Otherprojects include north-side and south-side access, and anaccess point near the Memorial Bridge, just west of the low-water dam.Gaylon Pinc with Program Management Group said the lakecreated by a low-water dam would fill the river for about a milewest of the dam location.Pinc said sand removal would be required, but localcompanies that produce and sell sand could be encouragedto do the dredging for free or at a low cost.Councilor G.T. Bynum, task force chairman, said the panel isstill preparing to decide which of the four proposed projectswould be in the final funding package.During task force and City Council meetings on Thursday,officials discussed creating the Arkansas River DevelopmentAuthority.Each task force representative was given template legislationon Thursday to bring back to their governing body to begindiscussing the authority. Bynum said he hopes the CityCouncil and the other legislative bodies will similarly vote insupport of exploring a joint authority.Beyond indicating support, no action is being considered todirectly create an authority. Bynum said the consensus justallows city legal counsel to begin drafting the framework tocreate an authority.

(It’s starting to hit the fan. Everyone is running for cover.)Imperial Metals Faces Scrutiny over Other Mines' SafetyCorner-cutting, cost savings a 'pattern of behaviour,' mining consultant alleges. By David Ball, 15 Aug 2014, TheTyee.ca

Imperial Metals Corporation isfacing fresh scrutiny of its othermajor mines across BritishColumbia in the wake of theMount Polley dam breach.Last Monday, the impoundmentdam near Likely, B.C. collapsed,dumping 14.5 million cubicmetres of tailings into thewatershed. Reports have sincerevealed the firm was warnedabout dam safety anddangerous tailings levels byemployees, their union,government inspectors and consultants.Now, sources allege that at two other Imperial projects -- Red Chris and Huckleberry mines -- the company cut corners on safety to save money. And Wednesday the B.C. government announced the opening of Red Chris would be delayed until an investigation of its safety is completed by First Nations who live in the area. Last year, The Tyee reported on concerns over the Red Chris mine's tailings storage facility. A blockade near the Red Chris site near Iskut, B.C. (roughly 500 kilometres northwest of Smithers) by members of Tahltan nation launched on Aug. 8. The Red Chris impoundment is contained by an earthen dam reportedly similar to the one at Mount Polley,

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu2

Fly-over view of aftermath of tailings pond breach at Mount Polley mine. The same owner, Imperial metals, owns Red Chris mine, where same contractor built tailings pond. Source: Cariboo Regional District. (Watch the video if your device supports it)

and is designed by the same United Kingdom-based company, AMEC, which took over engineering at the Mount Polley site in 2011 before the tailings dam was raised in height to accommodate rising levels of waste.

One mining consultant familiar with the design and plans for the company's Red Chris project said that the problems weren't just at the Mount Polley site, but asked that his identity not be published due to fears it could hurt his chances of being employed in the industry. At Red Chris mine, he alleged, the company resisted calls to install a protective lining material across the bottom of the tailings pond or some other measure to reduce tailings leaching from the pond, as recommended by local First Nations, and said the company has not done many of the tests recommended in a 2013 report on the risk of leaks. In addition, he alleged the company has tried to cut costs when it comes to modeling software around impoundment leaks, leading to inadequate data. He alleged there is pattern that boils down to a lack of "proven contingencies" at Red Chris, a term denoting the actions taken triggered by "undesirable outcomes at the mine site." "These are what would appear were missing at Mount Polley too," he said. "They don't want them because once you have a proven contingency, then you have a trigger, once you have a trigger then you need monitoring. It all costs them a lot of money." In addition, the consultant argued, "There's a pattern of behaviour around trying to achieve the least-cost monitoring... They want to get the least onerous monitoring conditions in their permit as possible." Combined, he argued, those factors raise questions about how safe the Red Chris mine's earthen tailings impoundment will be. Repeated requests for an interview with Imperial Metals Corp. or for comment on the consultant's allegations were not granted by press time. 'It was so mismanaged that it makes me sick': tailings dam foreman. Retired Mount Polley tailings dam foreman Gerald MacBurney has spent much of the past week in interviews with media outlets and provincial investigators about why he resigned after seven years, saying he repeatedly and unsuccessfully "fought" to get the large trucks he needed to add more rock to the impoundment as the tailings waters rose, and mine engineers raised flags. "I've been repeating my story here every day; I don't want to have to repeat it no more," he told The Tyee. "Everyone's very intelligent, they should be able to see through this whole thing and see who's lying." MacBurney has repeatedly claimed that he and engineers warned the company that water was getting too high, and even poured over the dam top once in May. But he alleged that dam safety seemed to have taken a backseat to extracting ore from the mine pit, and ore began to pile up needlessly around the site."Everyone was more concerned with the pit," he recalled. "I understand we need ore to run the whole mine, but when you start to see it stockpiled down in pit, you go, 'What the hell are we doing here?' "I was just following my directive from my engineers. If they can't make the pit do it, I sure as shit can't. It was so mismanaged that it makes me sick." Imperial Metals ramped up Mount Polley's ore production levels by 23 per cent in the previous three months ending on June 30, according to a company release, compared to the previous quarter.

While the government said it will ensure mines across the province operate safely and future accidents are averted, Imperial Metals said that its Red Chris gold and copper mine is still scheduled to launch full operations. The firm's vice-president of corporate affairs said the Mount Polley failure would not delay that opening. "It's going to be human nature for people to think like that," Steve Robertson told Bloomberg News on Aug. 9. "We haven't received any indication from the government that there will be any change to our ability to go ahead and commission Red Chris." Despite the company's initial insistence Red Chris mine would proceed unhindered, on Wednesday the B.C. government announced that now the project would not launch until Tahltan nation could conduct an Imperial Metals-funded "independent engineering review" of the facility, according to an Aug. 13 email from a Ministry of Energy and Mines spokeswoman. "Government is committed to an independent review of all tailings ponds and an independent investigation into the breach at Mt Polley," she wrote. "Lessons learned from the investigation into the Mount Polley incident will be applied province-wide as appropriate." Imperial Metals Corp. has not responded to repeated Tyee interview requests since the dam broke. 'They hurry everything': consultantThe mining consultant for Red Chris mine who spoke anonymously said he believes Imperial Metals' fights over leaching prevention at that mine, and reports of ignored warnings at Mount

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu3

Polley, suggest a "pattern of behaviour" in the company of hurrying and overly aggressive cost-cutting on projects.

The local consultant believed that Mount Polley's repeated tailings dam warnings around rising water levels could have been addressed for as little as $3 million. The consultant also pointed to a 2007 pit wall collapse at the Huckleberry mine, an open-pit copper and molybdenum mine near Houston, B.C. that is 50 per cent-owned by Imperial Metals. First Nations in the area had previously expressed worries about the mine's authorized releases into the watershed. The firm listed as conducting "geotechnical investigation and tailings management facility design" for Huckleberry mine was AMEC, the same one that built up the existing Mount Polley dam.Be careful drawing conclusions: A different consultant with experience in tailings impoundment impacts warned The Tyee not to leap to judgment based on the apparent similarity of earthen dams designed by the same firm. "Just because it was done by the same designers or built by same mine, you cannot draw conclusions there," said the expert, who asked not to be identified. "Just because one dam failed, it doesn't mean it will fail as well.”Having been around the subject for some years, you have to be careful not to jump to conclusions about the safety of dams because of one failure unless they were the exact same design... The only way you can get solid information is to talk to people familiar with its design." Knight Piésold issued a statement following the Mount Polley incident distancing itself from that mine's tailings dam design at the time it collapsed, insisting that since it ceased being engineer of record for the tailings storage facility on Feb. 10, 2011, after which time the dam was significantly heightened. "The original engineering done by Knight Piésold Ltd. accommodated a significantly lower water volume than the tailings storage facility reportedly held at the time of the breach," the company's statement read. "Significant engineering and design changes were made subsequent to our involvement, such that the tailings storage facility can no longer be considered a Knight Piésold Ltd. design."By March 8, 2011, the new Engineer of Record for the tailings impoundment was British firm AMEC Earth and Environment, a company that had previously examined the earthen dam and given it passing grades.

AMEC is also the company that designed the earthen dam for Imperial Metals' Red Chris mine. Company spokeswoman Lauren Gallagher would not comment on similarities between the design of Red Chris and Mount Polley dams, but told The Tyee by email that a dam's safety is dependent on many factors, including how it was maintained, operated, constructed and designed. On top of those, "unforeseen conditions" are also a factor in performance, she said."Determining which of these factors contributed to the Mount Polley Dam breach requires a thorough investigation," Gallagher said in an email. "While AMEC serves as the Engineer of Record on the most recent raising of the dam, implementation of the AMEC design has not been completed and some construction activity was still taking place to complete our design. "AMEC is deeply saddened and concerned about the damage caused by the Mount Polley Dam breach. We are committed to working with Imperial Metals and the local authorities to assist in determining the cause of the breach and to offer guidance on how best to mitigate impacts to the surrounding communities and environment." 'Clearly somebody had concerns' at Mount Polley: engineer The energy and mines spokeswoman told The Tyee that its "comprehensive investigation" into the Likely, B.C. incident would examine "the failure to determine root causes around the incident at Mt Polley," including scrutinizing the design and engineering of the tailings impoundment that was still in process of being heightened by AMEC."The Province is aware Imperial Metals has contracted the same company at Red Chris mine and Mt. Polley mine," the spokeswoman added in an email. "The cause of the failure at Mount Polley is unknown at this time and will be the subject of a thorough investigation with independent oversight." Vancouver-based geotechnical engineer Jack Caldwell wrote on his website that examining videos and reports of the tailings spill at Mount Polley strongly suggest high water levels and engineering problems are to blame. He wrote on Aug. 9 that MacBurney's claims engineers advised using rocks to stabilize the embankments meant that "clearly somebody had concerns about the stability of the facility."

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu4

In another post from Aug. 6, Caldwell posited that the dam failed because "there was too much water in the dam, the corner gave way, an upstream slide occurred, and the disaster ensued."They are saying nobody could have anticipated this," he said. "Rubbish. It was entirely predictable given the facts. It is just nobody had the courage to speak. "The sad thing is that if indeed the dam was being operated in accordance with plans and permits, the consultants are to blame." Meanwhile, the local consultant familiar with Red Chris mines' plans who spoke anonymously to The Tyee insisted he does, in fact, know the tailings impoundment's design quite well at that site -- and expressed worries it may be even less stable than its counterpart at Mount Polley. "They're similar designs," he said. "There are some subtle differences, it's a different shape and it's deeper and in a valley. "But it's in a place prone to avalanches and landslides, geohazards that actually the impoundment in [Mount Polley] didn't have. Normally, you model failures on a catastrophic event, not 3 a.m. on a morning and the thing suddenly goes -- it just came too high and fell apart. The impoundment that's planned at Red Chris has a lot more geohazards than the Mount Polley site does." 'They're rushing forward' at Red Chris: Mining Watch Ramsey Hart, Canada program coordinator for MiningWatch Canada, said the Red Chris project has raised numerous questions not only about the safety of its tailings dam, but about Imperial Metals' practices overall. "They're rushing forward to get it built," he said, claiming that at an impoundment consultation he attended for the mine, operators boasted they'd started impoundment construction before getting permits. "I guess they're confident in the regulatory process going their way.”That raises some concerns that they're not following the best practices, or that they're not doing everything they could to address the issues -- about shortcuts or best practices not being met." If the allegations he's heard of corner-cutting are true, he added, they likely stem from a "drive for the bottom line, as there is in most mining companies, that's combined with a fairly permissive regulatory regime." According to Elections BC records, various divisions of AMEC donated $221,010 to the BC Liberals since 2000, and none to the BC New Democrats. (The Tyee previously reported that Imperial Metals and its mine subsidiaries also donated $233,710 to the Liberals and $43,410 to the NDP).

(A reminder of things past!)McKeon Seeks National Memorial for St. Francis Dam Victims By Leon Worden, SCVNews.com | Sunday, Aug 17, 2014 12:01 am

U.S. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon will hold apress conference Tuesday to announce hislegislative proposal to establish a nationalmemorial for the estimated 431 people whowere killed in the St. Francis Dam disaster of1928. “To honor the memory of all the soulsthat were tragically lost, I have introducedlegislation that will authorize a nationalmemorial to commemorate those killed by thecollapse of the St. Francis Dam,” McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, said in a statement. “While ourvalley has a rich history filled with tremendousaccomplishments and proud traditions, wecannot afford to forget the darker chapters.”Located 7 miles north of Copper Hill Drivealong San Francisquito Canyon Road, the dam broke just before midnight March 12, 1928, leaving a swath of death from Saugus to the sea. It took 5-1/2 hours for the 12.5 billion gallons of water to reach the Pacific Ocean, following a route which today would run past the Valencia Town Center Mall. Entire families were gone; among the dead was nearly the entire student body of three K-8 schools in Saugus. It was America’s deadliest civil engineering failure of the 20th Century and California’s second-deadliest disaster of any kind after the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. “What was once front-page news across the United States and around the world is now in danger of being washed away,” McKeon’s statement said. “Future generations and

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu5

outside visitors from around the globe will benefit from learning of this disaster and seeing first-hand the resiliency of our community.”

Locally, the disaster has been remembered each year on its anniversary through events hosted by the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society, and by historians in Ventura County where many of the deaths occurred. But it has been largely forgotten elsewhere and was scarcely mentioned last November when the city of Los Angeles celebrated the 100th anniversary of its DWP aqueduct. (The dam was part of L.A.’s water system, holding water piped to L.A. from the Owens Valley.)And yet, the St. Francis Dam Disaster had national and even worldwide implications. Lessons learned from the disaster changed the way dams were built afterward and even stopped the construction of a dam that was set to be built to similar specifications. Today the St. Francis Dam disaster is studied in engineering classes at universities as far away as Australia. Research into the dam disaster picked up some new steam in the last few years when California State University, Northridge professor James Snead launched the Forgotten Casualties project, an effort to identify each individual who died – rather than treat the victims as numbers, which with few exceptions had been the norm. The results were published earlier this month on SCVHistory.com by Ann Stansell, a CSUN graduate student whose master’s thesis centers around the manner in which the disaster has been remembered. Along the way, Stansell and her team identified each victim in a comprehensive manner for the first time. McKeon’s press conference will be held at 9 a.m. at Tesoro Adobe Historic Park at the bottom of San Francisquito Canyon (29350 Avenida Rancho Tesoro). The adobe is the former home of silent actor Harry Carey, who lost three resident employees in the disaster. For information and photos of the dam disaster, visit SaintFrancisDam.com.

(Ouch!)On Books Since 1988, Ohio River Dam Project Keeps Rolling AlongBy Keith Schneideraug, Aug. 18, 2014, nytimes.com

Olmsted, Ill. — The gargantuan marine construction project unfolding on the Ohio River here was first authorized by Congress in 1988 at a cost of $775 million. Assuming the future unfolds more smoothly than the past, it is now scheduled to be completed in 2020 at a cost approaching $3 billion. Everything about the Olmsted Locks and Dam, the largest and most expensive inland water navigation installation ever built in the United States, is outsize, from the 120-foot-long, 2,562-ton concrete block installed last week on the river bottom, to the nearly 30-year construction schedule, to the legislative gamesmanship that has somehow kept the project going. Presidents and congressional leaders reached a consensus long ago that the project, designed to replace two deteriorating locks on the busiest section of the Ohio River, was, in effect, too big and too economically important to fail. Itssurvival may have been ensured inJune when Congress approved, andPresident Obama signed, a new$12.3 billion water resources bill thatincludes funds to complete Olmstedconstruction while providing morethan $100 million more annually forother projects.

There is much less consensus onwhether the project is an outstandingexample of American technicalexcellence and persistence, or afolly of engineering overconfidencethat has put the country’s inland water transport network in peril. Supporters and critics agree that the project, being built by the Army Corps of Engineers on a heavily forested reach of the Ohio River, 17 miles from where it meets the Mississippi River, is a lot of both.

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu6

At the least, the project has been an enormously controversial epic of engineering. Completing Olmsted has involved solving daunting structural and assembly challenges prompted by its experimental design, and fabricating one-of-a-kind heavy-lift cranes that crawl on land and float on a barge,

In interviews, corps engineers described the sharp increase in Olmsted’s cost and schedule — it was scheduled to take about a decade to complete — as largely the result of a new dam construction technology that the agency might never use again. For over a century the corps built cofferdams, structures that hold back rivers and enable workers to construct dams on dry river bottoms. With Olmsted, the corps decided to build the dam with huge concrete sections fabricated on land and then lowered and fixed in place in the river’s current. Actually getting the work done took developing new construction practices, perfecting the capacity to measure precise tolerance in deep and muddy water and designing equipment to lift, carry and place in the water concrete pieces that weigh as much as 9.9 million pounds. The fourth of the 12 mammoth pieces that help support the dam in the river’s current was carefully submerged in an exacting two-week process that started Thursday. “There is no doubt that it’s taken longer than we thought,” said Mike Braden, the chief of the corps’ Olmsted division, who oversees the 550 people building the project. He added: “It’s never been done this way before.”

Completing Olmsted has involved solving daunting structural and assembly challenges prompted by its experimental design, and fabricating one-of-a-kind heavy-lift cranes that crawl on land and float on a barge. The delays have been a source of enormous frustration for businesses on the river. “Because of cost escalation, because of the experimental technology it used, Olmsted hurt us,” said Michael Toohey, president and chief executive of the Waterways Council Inc., a trade association for shippers and carriers based in Arlington, Va. “We used to be able to finish projects like this in seven years. Olmsted should have been finished in 1999. As a result of all the money spent on Olmsted we have not been able to modernize the rest of the system.” Mickey Awbrey, the project’s construction manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the project remains essential. The two locks that Olmsted will replace are well-recognized sources of frustration for towboat operators. When the locks are down for repair, tows back up and delays often last for days. If either Lock 52 or Lock 53 fails totally before Olmsted opens, the lower Ohio River will be shut down during the dry summer months when water levels are low. “Ninety million tons of material is shipped through those locks annually,” Mr. Awbrey said. “You can see why our project is so important.” The political challenge has been to build the project, at a time of severe budget constraints, in a way that does not suck up most of the revenues from a diesel fuels tax that supports inland waterway projects. Backers hope they have finally achieved that. The project’s clout was never more apparent than in October, when Mr. Obama and Congress authorized more than $1 billion to be spent on the Olmsted project as part of the deal to end the government shutdown and with the legislation passed in June. The new legislation included two essential provisions. The first ensures the corps has at least $150 million annually to complete Olmsted. The second changes the formula for funding navigation projects with the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, and provides much more money to replace other old locks and dams. Revenues to the trust fund, derived from marine fuel taxes, typically amount to $75 million to $80 million a year, which the Treasury matches. Before the adjustment, almost all proceeds of the trust fund and the federal match — $150 million annually — was absorbed by construction expenses at Olmsted. That left little to address the $8 billion in backlogged projects to modernize the country’s aging inland water transport infrastructure. On the Ohio River, all but a handful of the 20 major locks and dams, which enable towboats and barges to navigate a river that starts in Pittsburgh 450 feet higher than where it ends 981 miles downstream in Cairo, Ill., have exceeded their 50-year design life. The new legislation means the federal match should add $105 million annually to enlarge, modernize and build locks and dams, Mr. Toohey said. The June agreement, negotiated with the help of towboat operators and inland waterway shippers, could not have come too soon, said Marty Hettel, chairman of the Inland Waterways Users Board, a congressionally authorized advisory group, and senior manager of waterway regulatory programs at AEP River Operations, one the

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu7

country’s largest shippers. “You have to remember that when this project started it was supposed to cost $775 million,” Mr. Hettel said. “That isn’t quite the way things turned out. We’ve got other locks that are failing and hurting the efficiency of the water transport system. We really haven’t been able to do much about it until this new bill. The quicker the other projects get started and completed the better for the nation. It lowers transportation costs.”

(The fan is on high speed.)British Columbia orders independent reviews of all province’s tailings damsAugust 18, 2014

Toronto (miningweekly.com) – In the wake of Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley mining disaster, the British Columbia government on Monday ordered independent third-party reviews of 98 permitted tailings impoundments at 60 operating and closed metal and coal mines in the province.Under the Health, Safety and Reclamation Code for Mines in British Columbia, the deadline for a normal yearly dam safety inspection would have been March 31, 2015, and would not have required an independent third-party review. However, the chief inspector of mines accelerated the date for inspections to December 1 and added the requirement for an independent review by a qualified, third-party professional engineer from a firm not associated with the tailings facility.The chief inspector’s order also included a requirement for a third-party review of the dam consequence classifications by December 1. A dam’s consequence classification was based on the potential impact on population, the environment, cultural values and infrastructure should it fail, and was set according to the Canadian Dam Association Dam Safety Guidelines. Under the order, mines with high, very high or extreme consequence classifications would be required to have their emergency preparedness and response plans reviewed by an independent third party.

Independent InvestigationFurther, the provincial government, with the support of the Soda Creek Indian Band and Williams Lake Indian Band, also ordered an independent engineering investigation and inquiry into the Mount Polley tailings pond breach two weeks ago, which sent billions of litres of mine waste and fine sand into the pristine environment. The investigation would be undertaken by a panel of three experts that would examine the cause of the Mount Polley tailings dam failure, including geotechnical standards, design of the dam, maintenance, regulations, inspection regimes and other matters the panel deemed appropriate. This panel had been given the ability to compel evidence and Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett had been given permission to require Imperial Metals to cover costs of the inquiry. The independent engineering investigation and inquiry would be the first step of a two-step process, the government said. The independent panel would first conduct an investigation and provide recommendations through a final report by January 31, 2015, which would determine why the tailings dam failed, after which the government and First Nations would receive recommendations. The report’s findings would only then be shared with the public, while its recommendations would be implemented by government as needed and where appropriate to ensure such an incident “never” happened again.

Environmental ConcernThe environmental disaster came in the face of several government and industry-backed energy and resource developments that were already coming under closer examination from Aboriginal groups and environmentalists, who worried that the risks might overshadow the rewards.British Columbia’s Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) revealed on Monday that officials investigated an incident on May 24, which had found the height of the Mount Polley tailings pond was above regulation. This occurred in a different area of the tailings pond than the recent dam failure. The MEM issued Mount Polley with an advisory, stating that the distance between the water elevation and the crest of the dam (freeboard) was less than 1 m. The tailings pond level was subsequently returned to authorised levels and freeboard was about 2.4 m when last measured. The MEM said mine records showed that the operation was carrying out visual dam inspections and measuring freeboard at an acceptable frequency, including daily measurements after the incident. On August 30, 2012, the MEM issued a warning to Mount Polley Mining Corporation for failure to report exceeding the height of effluent for the perimeter pond. This

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu8

perimeter pond overflowed, releasing about 150 m3 of effluent into the environment over 13 hours. Meanwhile, provincial Environment Minister Mary Polak said in a separate statement on Monday that she had suspended the environmental assessment of Pacific Booker Minerals' proposed Morrison copper/gold mine, pending the outcome of the independent expert engineering investigation and review panel in relation to the tailings dam breach at the Mount Polley mine. Under the Environmental Assessment Act, the Environment Minister could suspend an assessment until the outcome of any investigation, inquiry, hearing or other process that is being conducted by the British Columbia government and was material to the assessment.The proposed C$517-million Morrison mine is located 65 km north-east of Smithers. The project is a conventional open pit mine with a planned extraction rate of about 30 000 t/d and a mine life of 21 years.

(The drought is a dose of reality!)Guest Column: Dam distraction delays real water solutionsSiskiyou County Supervisors Michael Kobseff and Brandon Criss recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress and their staffs to reinforce Siskiyou County’s opposition to the proposals to remove the four dams on the Klamath River.Crowdynews• By Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors, Aug. 19, 2014

Siskiyou County Supervisors Michael Kobseff and Brandon Criss recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress and their staffs to reinforce Siskiyou County’s opposition to the proposals to remove the four dams on the Klamath River. We are optimistic in reporting that there is strong congressional opposition to these proposals for a wide range of reasons. In late 2011, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley introduced legislation to authorize the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement and the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement. These are intertwined agreements that would have state and federal taxpayers and PacifiCorp’s California and Oregon ratepayers foot the bill to let PacifiCorp walk away from the Klamath River. The bill met its deserved fate when it died at the end of the 112th Congress in December 2012 with no action being taken.

Earlier this year, Oregon’s other Senator, Ron Wyden, reintroduced a version of the Merkley bill with the addition of a new agreement on water and land management in the Upper Basin. California senators Feinstein and Boxer agreed to support this new bill as cosponsors.One large problem with moving this legislation any further is that it is not scientifically justified. The Secretary of Interior’s own expert panels have concluded that the benefits for salmon would be “minimal” and “unlikely.” Elected representatives from other states are now seeing the Klamath agreements for what they are: supposed “stakeholders” wanting to spend vast amounts of other peoples’ money. These self-selected “stakeholders” would also form their own regional government under the KBRA composed of unelected leaders. These stakeholders are authorized under Senator Wyden’s legislation to amend the Klamath agreements without congressional approval. Also, although a handful of senators are trying to advance the Klamath agreements, the proposed legislation would be dead on arrival if it reaches the House of Representatives.California Congressman Tom McClintock is the chair of the Water and Power Subcommittee. His district includes the long-stalled Auburn Dam, and he is an ardent supporter of that project. He is also adamantly opposed to the Klamath agreements, as is Washington’s Doc Hastings, the chairman of the committee with jurisdiction over any bill. We are witnessing the agonizingly slow death of the Klamath agreements. Klamath County has rescinded its 2010 approval. A number of parties to the new Upper Basin Agreement are already questioning it. The recent referendum in the Klamath Tribes demonstrated a surprising internal divide. The questions are getting louder about how long the Public Utilities Commission will continue a surcharge to fund a proposed project with one unmet milestone after another, a timetable that is now years behind, and no forward progress on its central element of dam removal.

(Dam history. There’s probably enough grout in this dam limestone foundation to pave a road from LA to NY.)

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu9

A Salute to Logan Martin Damabamapowernews.com, 8/21/14

There was no fanfare at all on Monday,Aug. 10, 1964, the day 50 years agowhen Alabama Power officially putLogan Martin Dam into service and anew era for the company and thecommunity was under way.There were no live look-ins by nationalcable news networks or satellite radioreports hailing the event. No emails,texts or tweets encouraging folks tovisit Facebook, Integra or a website tosee a video of the coverage. The DailyHome not only didn’t have a front-pagestory on the event, it had no story at all.In fact, a search of this paper’s boundarchives for a month before and afterLogan Martin’s startup date found nomention of the occasion at all. Therewas a full-page pictorial essay on a moving project on the Nile one day, but no mention at the entire massive construction project that had reached its culmination mere miles down the road.

Logan Martin Dam media coverageA further search of those archives, by no means completely exhaustive, didn’t reveal any real significant mention of Logan Martin Dam until almost three years later, when Alabama Power finally dedicated the facility. And even then it was not banner headline news. On Saturday, June 24, 1967, in a small two-column hole near the bottom of The Daily Home’s front page, readers learned that then-Gov. Lurleen B. Wallace would have to cancel her scheduled appearance at the dedication because of a delay in completing medical tests. She was to have been the featured speaker, but after entering a Montgomery hospital the previous Tuesday, she agreed to remain until her test results were available, and it was uncertain when that would be. The brief story did not mention who would replace Gov. Wallace and, as almost an afterthought, told readers that the ceremony was scheduled for “2 p.m. on the St. Clair County side of the lake.” It also mentioned that Congressmen Bill Nichols, John Buchanan Jr., Armistead T. Selden Jr. and Tom Bevill were expected for the occasion, and that was all. Coverage of the event in the Monday, June 26, 1967, Daily Home was only slightly more substantive. A three-column by 5-inch photo appeared in the upper right-hand corner over a caption that simply said, “Logan Martin Dedication – See Page 10.” When you flipped over to page 10, which was the back page of that day’s edition, there were two more three-column by 5-inch photos that showed, you guessed it, national, state and local politicians in attendance. There was an eight-column headline that read “Alabama Power Dedicates Logan Martin Dam” and there was about a 15-inch story by Johnnie Pender. Pretty much just the facts, folks, and that was it.Taking precedence on the front page that 1967 day was the U.S. Senate voting to censure Sen. Tom Dodd, a second summit meeting being scheduled for world leaders to discuss their problems and a local story under the headline “Multitude of Candidates Means Folks Unhappy?”

An historical perspectiveAll this historical background is provided as proof that everyone involved back then, from Alabama Power to the politicians to the people in the community whose lives had been changed forever for a variety of reasons, had no idea of the impact a 6,706-foot-long, 97-foot-high structure would have on our area for generations to come. How could they? To them it was probably only a structure with a 612-foot concrete section, 5,464 feet of earthen dikes which initially required the moving of 1.34 million cubic yards of earth and took over four years to build. They had no way of

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knowing at the time that the Logan Martin Dam, and the 15,263-acre reservoir it creates, would become not just a landmark, but a way of life. For 50 years now, people have lived on and loved Logan Martin Lake. They’ve announced engagements, gone to weddings, welcomed newborns and said goodbye to loved ones on Logan Martin Lake. They’ve fished; water skied, sunbathed and snorkeled on Logan Martin Lake. In short, many have now lived a lifetime on Logan Martin Lake’s waters, and can’t imagine it any other way. There’s also the economic impact the dam and the lake have had on our area, the jobs created, the businesses born, the countless tourists drawn to these parts. But this is not a day to talk dollars and cents. This is a day to talk of milestones and memories, of grand achievements past and more to come, of an amazing feat back then and even more amazing feats to come. Its startup might have gone unnoticed 50 years ago, but rest assured that as Logan Martin Dam celebrates its Golden Anniversary, it certainly does not go unnoticed today in so many ways. So here’s to Logan Martin Dam, its first 50 good years, and many, many more to come. *Story reprinted with permission from the Daily Home

Largest projects at dams since 1940s on schedule By Steve Marion – Staff Writer , August 20, 2014, standardbanner.com

Two major construction projects at CherokeeDam are on schedule to be complete nextyear, and most public recreation facilitiescontinue to be open as usual. Massiveequipment is being used to bolt bothCherokee and Douglas dams into thebedrock below, and a separate project isincreasing the height of Cherokee and threeother dams to render them impervious to adeluge of almost Biblical proportions. Totalcost of the projects at the two local dams ismore than $40 million. TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said Tuesdaythat the “post-tensioning” work is about 75 percent complete and on schedule to be done by the year’s end. Replacement of current “Hesco” barriers with a permanent structure to increase the dam height at Cherokee is on schedule to be complete next May. Hydro-turbines were updated several years ago, but the current project represents the largest project involving the structure of the dams since the World War II era structures were put in place to provide power for an aluminum plant 50 miles away — and another secret project that would result in the first atomic bomb. At Cherokee, the picnic area and swimming beach are accessible by a new paved walkway leading from the boat ramp parking lot area. The campground is open as usual, and the swimming/picnic area is served by a portable restroom trailer. Ingress/egress has changed to the campground entrance just south of the former main entrance. Huge cranes, one of them 435 feet tall, are gathered around Cherokee installing 84 huge “bolts,” torquing them in the bedrock, and grouting them in with concrete. A similar project is putting in a total of 20 bolts at Douglas.The anchors help update the 70-plus-year-old dams to current standards. The anchors, between 150 and 235 feet long, are being placed in 15-inch bores that extend from the top of the dam deep into bedrock in non-spillway areas of the dam. Where spillways are located, anchors are placed in at an angle from the front of the dam. Once installed, the so-called “post-tension anchors” will be “grouted” with concrete and fastened on top with massive bolts — each torqued with more than a million pounds of pressure. Several years ago, engineers discovered that several dams in the TVA system could be overspilled in the event of a historic rainfall event. TVA installed lines of “Hesco” baskets filled with fine gravel as a temporary measure, but the long-term solution will be an increase in the height of four dams, including Cherokee. Workers are removing the baskets, recycling the gravel inside to line walkways, and applying roller-compacted concrete to increase the height of all structures associated with the dams. Roadways and walkways atop

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the structures will have new asphalt, as well as a two-foot concrete wall on the downstream side and guardrails where necessary. A total of 19,000 feet of Hesco baskets will be replaced, including 8,000 feet at Cherokee. Other dams receiving the work include Ft. Loudon, Tellico, and Watts Bar. Dam height will be increased about four feet. Some of the work will take place at night, especially this month when it’s too hot to pour concrete during the day.

(Here’s frightening bit of news.)Unstable Mosul Dam Could Collapse at Any Minutebocktherobber.com, August 22, 2014

Even if a highly organised army ofreligious fanatics wasn’t planning todestroy it, the Mosul dam willeventually collapse anyway due to afundamental design flaw that wasknown when the HochtiefAktiengesellschaft consortium beganconstruction in 1980. It’s built on asoluble foundation. Undergroundrivers develop and grow, continuallywashing away the stone, much asthey do in the Burren and other karstregions around the world, but withtwo big differences. Firstly, unlike most other karst strata, some of the Iraqi bed is submerged beneath 300 metres of pent-up water. That’s 1,000 feet of vertical weight, giving rise to a vast unrelenting driving force that tears away at the underground caverns and channels, removing huge amounts of material from the dam’s foundations. Secondly, the material under the Mosul dam is not only limestone but also marl, gypsum and anhydrite, which are highly soluble. Of course, gypsum karst is not unusual. It occurs all over the world, from the Black Hills of Dakota to the Canadian Maritimes, from Andalusia to Lower Saxony, but what is unusual is the idea that anyone would be insane enough to build a dam on it, especially a dam holding back 11.1 cubic kilometres of water, with several major cities in its path if the dam should happen to fail. Unusual, that is, unless you happen to be a despotic tyrant like Saddam Hussein, more intent on solidifying your own power than listening to boring scientists and engineers. As this excellent analysis http://el.erdc.usace.army.mil/elpubs/pdf/tr07-10.pdf) from the US Army Corps of Engineers laconically puts it, The site was chosen for reasons other than geologic or engineering merit.

One study (http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=42697) has estimated that if the dam collapsed, Mosul, a city of 2 million people, would be inundated by the melt-waters of the Turkish mountains to the height of a six-storey building and that after 72 hours, Baghdad would be submerged beneath 4 metres of water. These are apocalyptic figures, and yet, that’s precisely what the Mosul dam threatens unless something is done. But what exactly can be done? In the case of the dam itself, the answer is nothing. Right from the start, it was part of the design to continuously pump concrete into the foundations in the hope that it would somehow plug the gaps caused by the rushing waters eating away at the soft, soluble under-layer, but that isn’t working. The amazing thing is that the German-Italian consortium who built the dam ever thought such a measure had a long-term future, but perhaps that reflects their assessment of the political situation in Iraq. And besides, they did make €2 billion out of it, so there are some winners.

Even though the grouting goes on six days out of every seven, pumping thousands of tons of concrete into the dam’s base, the waters just wash it away or else find new paths through the soft, soluble stone. It’s unsustainable. It can’t go on and it won’t go on. This dam will collapse sooner

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or later. Some estimates suggest that the dam would begin to crumble within two weeks if grouting stopped, which explains why ISIS brought in their own engineers to keep the process going. All around the site, sink-holes continue to open, just as they have done from the outset, proving that the bed of this dam is disappearing. Eventually, the whole thing will be washed away by the 11 cubic kilometres of water it holds back, and then there will be Armageddon, unless something else happens. That something else is the Badush dam, downstream of the Mosul dam, designed with two purposes: to generate electricity and to prevent utter catastrophe when the Mosul dam inevitably collapses. It was started when Saddam realised the folly of his decision on the Mosul dam, but unfortunately, construction was halted just before the 2003 invasion, and the dam remains unfinished.

There’s another snag.In order to completely neutralise the consequences of a collapse upstream, the Iraqis would need to widen and deepen the Badush dam but that would cost another $10 billion, a sum they might have regarded as chickenfeed before their country was invaded, but which they now are unable to afford. Hence, Mosul is now the most dangerous unstable dam in the world, while at the same time being attacked by the most dangerous, unstable political movement in the world.

Hydro: (From the UK. We could learn something from them.)Herefordshire farmer installs hydro-electric scheme at his farm near Ross-on-Wye19th August 2014 in News By Paul Rogers

MANY people are starting to use solar or wind power tomake their homes sustainable and energy efficient. But one county man believes that water is the wayforward. Geoffrey Jordan has set up a hydro-electricscheme at his Trebandy Farm in Marstow, near Ross-on-Wye. Using a water wheel over Garron Brook, a tributaryof the River Wye, the scheme can generate more than30,000kw hours a year – enough to power six or sevenhomes. "The purpose is to harness the power on thefarm and generate the farming and housing needs tomake it more self-sufficient," said Mr. Jordan. "I have got salmon and trout in the weir, but the wheel isproperly sufficient to work. "There are thousands of watermills in the UK, but very few of them are harnessed forgenerating electricity.

"This could provide a renewable source of energy to thefarm for the next 100 years." The 70-acre farm rearsHighland cattle and Hebrridean sheep, with several of theold farm buildings being converted into holiday lets. Much of the land is under Natural England's higher levelstewardship because it contains a unique feature of a'false ox-bow lake' that is fed from the brook. Thebuilding of a weir allowed a paddle pump to supply water to the farm and a length of the brook to be stocked with trout. A feasibility study showed that a breastshot water wheel – made of stainless steel – was the most suitable hydroelectric generating installation.

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Greg McCormick, consultant and project manager at Micro Hydroelectric Installations, believes that many other people should go down the same route as Mr. Jordan. "The great thing about hydro is that can produce power for many years, so is a long-term investment," said Mr. McCormick. "It is an incredibly feasible way of producing power. "It does not harm the environment and can run 24 hours a day. "Whereas, solar only works in daylight hours and wind turbines work when the wind blows. "There are 10,000 unused weirs in the country that can use hydro power." Councillor Jenny Hyde, ward member for Llangarron, said she supports the scheme because it enhances the countryside. "It is innovative and shows what can do be done with the co-operation of planners," said Cllr Hyde.

Water: (Click on the link to see CA vanishing reservoirs.)http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2731091/California-s-vanishing-lakes-Before-photos-reveal-shocking-shriveling-effect-state-s-devastating-drought-decades.html

Severe Drought Conditions in western US Causing Ground Level to RiseSubmitted by Felix Balthasar on 2014, August 22 - newsmaine.net

With the help of hundreds of GPS sensors, researchershave concluded that parched conditions in the westernUnited States are pushing the ground level to gradual rise.Loss of snowpack, water from lakes and groundwater hasincreased the earth's crust up to 0.15 of an inch across thewestern US. Researchers from the Scripps Institution ofOceanography at the University of California at San Diegoconducted the study. Due to the year-and-a-half ofdrought, 63 trillion gallons of water has already depletedacross the western United States. The maximum loss hasbeen seen in grounds of the snow-starved mountains ofCalifornia. At this place, earth has increased three-fifths ofan inch.

Lead researcher Adrian Borsa, Assistant Researcher at Scripps, was of the view that for now this drought may not be counted as one of the biggest droughts that have happened in the past. But, Borsa added that the drought has brought alarming changes in landscape. Being weighed down by water, earth's crust sinks in winter and spring, but it rises in dry season in summer and fall, said Borsa. These seasonal factors were not considered while the data was studied from GPS stations within the National Science Foundation's Plate Boundary Observatory. Researchers noted that this time, the condition was different that previous years where certain pockets of the area would go up and others went down. This time, maximum brunt was seen in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and California coastal regions and was spread in the entire region also. On the whole, ground level has increased in the entire western United States. Co-author Dan Cayan said the study's findings now provide new way to further study the severe drought conditions of the western United States. "These results quantify the amount of water mass lost in the past few years. It also represents a powerful new way to track water resources over a very large landscape", said Cayan, research meteorologist.

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Environment: (The benefits of hydro.)Long Lake Dam pays dividends to boaters, campers, wildlife Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review, August 17, 2014 in Outdoors, spokesman.com

The 10 boat-in campsites completed this month at LakeSpokane are the most recent recreational benefitsgenerated by the largest of six hydropower projects on theSpokane River. Anglers, campers and water skiers as wellas hundreds of lakeside households take advantage of thedeep pockets of Avista Utilities, which owns the dam andthe largest share of the shoreline. “The dam slows thewater. It’s no longer free-flowing. We’re responsible for that,”said Speed Fitzhugh, Avista’s Spokane River licensemanager. For seven years he was involved in negotiationsthat culminated in 2009 with relicensing Spokane Riverdams with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission foranother 50 years.

Fulfilling FERC criteria for resources influenced by LongLake Dam requires Avista to invest energy in programsaround the reservoir. The company plans to spend about $1 million this year forenvironmental and natural resource management related toLake Spokane and Nine Mile Reservoir as part of the FERClicense, said Mary Tyrie, Avista marketing manager. “Capital improvements projects, primarily for recreation and water quality, are also budgeted at about $1 million for this year,” she said, noting that most of the FERC-required capital projects will be completed within a few years. The company has partnered with state agencies, the Lake Spokane Association and other groups involved with the reservoir. The most obvious public benefits involve Avista’s commitments to fund recreation projects through Washington State Parks.

In the 1980s, Avista purchased Nine Mile Resort to protect public access, said Tim Vore, the company’s Spokane River fisheries specialist. “Otherwise the site almost surely would have been subdivided and developed and closed off to public access, which is precious,” he said. Avista gave state parks a 30-year lease on the property in 2007. The lake’s other once-thriving resorts – Forsheens and Willow Bay – have been closed to the public. Nine Mile is popular with groups ranging from families to fishing clubs, with a launch, sandy beach, RV campground and concession that rents stand-up paddle boards and kayaks. Riverside State Park, with help from Avista, provides the only public boating access to the reservoir through sites at Nine Mile as well as the mouth of the Little Spokane River and Lake Spokane Campground. During a recent boat tour of the reservoir, Avista staffers pointed out that no-wake buoys installed upstream from the Nine Mile launch help protect Western grebes that incubate eggs in July. Dozens of the fish-eating waterfowl hunker in the middle of the lake on nests floating in mats of lily pads. Avista helps monitor the grebes as well as the nesting bald eagles – up to 10 to 12 pairs along the lake in recent years. Avista is involved in aquatic weed control with property owner groups as well as at public access sites. The company also sponsors a shoreline rehabilitation program that helps willing property owners soften their impact. “The way homeowners live affects water quality,” Fitzhugh said. “We try to get them to buy in, but when you boat down the lake you can see that everyone has a different idea of how to landscape.” The program emphasizes natural vegetation buffers along the shore and eliminating as much as possible manicured lawns and all the fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides to go with them. “That all ends up in the water to some degree, and collectively it’s significant,” Fitzhugh said. The company works in several ways with the Lake Spokane Association, which united in 2010 after a rare water temperature change killed thousands of carp as they were spawning in shallow water. Avista donated $2,000 to the clean-up.

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That big stink hasn’t been forgotten. In June, Avista captured 625 spawning carp and inserted tiny transmitters for a study on the species movements and managing oxygen levels to avoid a similar event in the future.

Farming operators along the lake have not been interested in the company’s offers to purchase their lakeside land to reduce the impacts of agricultural chemicals and fertilizers on the lake, “but we keep trying,” Fitzhugh said. To satisfy federal dam licensing requirements, Avista purchased 54 acres of wetlands as far upstream as Sacheen Lake. “Protecting wetlands enhances water quality downstream,” he said. While fishermen have long prized the lake for catches of bass and panfish, Avista paid the way for trout to make a bigger splash on the angling scene this year. About 155,000 catchable-size sterile rainbow trout were released in the lake in June. “It’s the first year we’ve done it,” Vore said. Creel surveys are planned to see if anglers are catching enough of the fish to continue the stocking. The complexion of the reservoir changes dramatically about halfway down and around a big bend at Tumtum. The water gets deeper, the shoreline wilder. Cell phone coverage is lost. Our boat continued past anglers fishing along the McLellan Conservation Area, which is managed in a natural state by the Spokane County Conservation Futures Program. Most of the shoreline in the lower half of the reservoir is owned by Avista, the Department of Natural Resources or a few large property owners. Avista, the largest landowner on the lake, wants to be a leader at protecting it, Fitzhugh said. Avista owns 1,100 acres of uplands and about 330 acres along seven miles of shoreline on both sides of the reservoir to provide a buffer for at least 200 feet up from the water between some private properties. “We want to protect our shoreline areas in a natural state,” Fitzhugh said, noting projects to thin timberlands for forest health and fire resistance. “You can feel like you’re miles from anywhere in some portions of this lake,” Vore said. A limited number of hunting access permits are issued on a first-come, first-served basis for three separate areas totaling 960 acres along the reservoir. Avista headquarters in Spokane starts offering the permits two weeks before a hunting season. Before reaching the Lake Spokane Campground, the boat passes some eye-catching rock outcroppings on river left. The 663 acres acquired by Riverside State Park in the 1990s, including 1.8 miles of shoreline, is a prime candidate for a state park-Avista partnership to develop another campground, Fitzhugh said. The hottest improvement to the “wild” lower end of the lake this year is the development of boat-in campgrounds. Avista has installed docks to serve 10 boat-in campsites the company has enhanced with concrete tables, fire pits, sitting rocks, graded areas and toilets. Timber at the sites has been thinned to reduce fire hazard.Some of the sites, such as Muley Canyon, have been used informally for years, but had become degraded by lack of facilities. One vault toilet was damaged by fire and graffiti within a week after it was installed in July. “There are challenges to managing these lands,” Fitzhugh said.“Some locals have used these sites for years and they don’t like the idea of more people coming here,” said René Wiley, Avista’s recreation, land use and cultural resources specialist. The sites have been cleaned up, junk has been hauled out and gates installed to prevent vehicle access from main roads. At the Woody Slough campsites, more than 300 willows and dogwood have been planted for shoreline habitat.

The campgrounds are being managed by the Riverside State Park. “We have already seen a lot of use at the new sites,” Riverside State Park manager Chris Guidotti said. ”We plan to charge $12 per night once everything is completed, signed, and pay stations are in place, but that may not happen this season. “I have a feeling we may have to go to a reservation system at some point,” he said. Boaters who launch at Lake Spokane Campground or Nine Mile Recreation Area must pay a $10 overnight fee for leaving a vehicle and trailer when they head to a boat-in campsite. Several other projects are on Avista’s list for the Lake Spokane area, such as:

• Developing a boat take-out just above Nine Mile Dam. • Extending the Centennial Trail to Nine Mile Recreation Area. • Developing a campground on the Fisk Property.

“It’s a choice piece of undeveloped land that’s being trashed and abused by partiers,” Guidotti said. “With Avista’s help, we could make it a neat place the public would appreciate and enjoy.”

(Ugly little creatures, but necessary.)

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Endangered Bats Roost In Vermont Hydro PlantBy Brian Stallard, Aug 20, 2014, natureworldnews.com Employees of Vermont's largest powercompany were surprised to find thatthey have become a bunch of batminders, after a group of veryendangered bats decided that the OtterCreek hydroelectric station inMiddlebury was an ideal roostingground. Amazingly, the companydoesn't mind one bit. [Pictured: Tinybrown bats suffering from white nosesyndrome, the disease that theMiddelbury bats will hopefully avoidthanks to their new home.] (Photo : BatConservation Trust )

Employees of Vermont's largest power company were surprised to find that they have become a bunch of bat minders, after a group of very endangered bats decided that the Otter Creek hydroelectric station in Middlebury was an ideal roosting ground. Amazingly, the company doesn't mind one bit. Bats were first seen flying to and from the hydro power plant - which provides energy for about 1,200 homes in the immediate area - not too long ago. A pedestrian who noticed the unusual traffic one night reportedly notified the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department (FWD), who subsequently sent a team to investigate. Not long after, Green Mountain Power was called by state biologists, who told them that their plant was now home to nearly 200 endangered small brow bats, Kristin Carlson, a spokeswoman for the company, told the Rutland Herald. Carlson told media Monday that the company isn't worried about the bats, who are roosting in the building's overhang. In fact, she said she thinks it's fun. According to the Associated Press, the power company says it's proud to add bats to the list of wildlife it takes pains to help preserve, noting that the colony of more than 170 bats at the plant is only one of about 12 such colonies left in the entire state of Vermont. So what happened to the others? According to Alyssa Bennett, a biologist from the FWD, these are the same mouse-eared brown bats that have declined by nearly 90 percent in the Northeastern United States. A fungal infection called white nose syndrome (WNS) has been sweeping across the species for the last few years, and is leaving traditional roosts like caves dangerous and uninhabitable for the bats. "They're few and far between now, so we're doing everything we can to keep an eye on them," Bennett told the Herald. "Because the little brown bat uses buildings, I think we're in a very unique position for people to get involved in the recovery of this species." Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the fungus behind WNS, won't be found in the hydroplant, making the area an ideal new roosting ground for the bats. However, things are looking good even for bats who still choose to roost in natural habitats.

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