SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss and Other Stuff i 2/01/2008 Quote of Note: "It's useless to hold a person to anything they say while they are in love, drunk, or running for office." - - Shirley MacLaine Other Stuff: (This may be trivia, but it’s not trivial! Some things never change. One of those things is pork- barrel politics.) Did you know that Congress put into the current budget 9,000 earmarks for pork-barrel projects costing $ 7.4 billion? That boils down to 14.2 projects per Senator or Congressman/woman or a cost for pork barrel of $ 11,653,543 for each Senator or Congressman/woman. As old Senator Dirksen of IL once said – “A million here, a million there, first thing you know we’re talking real money.”) Recent research by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on ocean temperature and land- falling hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean seems to indicate that global warming may warm ocean temperatures and may actually produce fewer killer storms: http://www.dailytech.com/NOAA+Warmed+Global+Oceans+Produce+Less+Atlantic+Hurricanes/a rticle10473.htm Dams Dam demo: Work to dismantle Milltown hydropower site gets under way By JOHN CRAMER of the Missoulian, January 19 2008 MILLTOWN - One hundred years after producing their first power, Milltown's hydroelectric works - and the dam that made them possible - are being dismantled. Workers at the Milltown Reservoir Superfund cleanup site have started demolishing the dam's abutment wall and removing the powerhouse's historic generators. “There's no turning back now,” said Bill Thompson, senior engineer for NorthWestern Energy, as the first of the generators left Milltown's trademark brick powerhouse late Thursday afternoon. The start of the dam's demolition and removal of its generators are another milestone in the $100 million Superfund project, and the culmination of decades of scientific review, political debate and environmental advocacy. The project is intended to remove mining wastes from the reservoir bottom, protect and purify the aquifer below, and restore native fisheries and the confluence of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers. The cleanup started in Copy obtained from the National Performance1 of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu 2006, more than two decades after arsenic and heavy metals were found in Milltown's drinking water and federal authorities designated the reservoir and upper Clark Fork River as Superfund sites. Combined, they form the largest such cleanup site in the nation. Milltown Reservoir's cleanup is scheduled to be completed in 2011. Demolition of the dam's abutment wall started Tuesday and should be complete in about two weeks, said Diana Hammer, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The powerhouse's Workers with NorthWestern Energy began removing the workshop was dismantled last week and a five generators from the Milltown Dam powerhouse this large steel-reinforced opening was created in week. One of the generators will eventually be on display the north wall to allow removal of the in Bonner. The other four will find homes in other generators, which were assembled inside the hydroelectric plants. powerhouse in 1906. Workers started removing the generators Thursday afternoon and should be finished in several days. The heaviest generator weighs 25 tons. The others weigh about 20 tons. The generators are being jacked up and rolled outside on rails before a crane lifts them onto trucks, said Bill Scarbrough, NorthWestern Energy's Milltown plant manager. One of the generators is to become part of a history display about the century-old reservoir, which generated electricity for the Missoula area until the plant was shut down in 2006 for the cleanup and dam removal. The other four generators will be sold for reuse in hydroelectric plants. Demolition of the powerhouse could start by late January. It should be completed in March or April when the next drawdown in the reservoir occurs - before the spring runoff. A small temporary dam will divert water over the spillway while the powerhouse is razed. The dam's spillway is to be demolished next year, removing the last part of the dam and clearing the way for the rivers to eventually follow their natural channels, and a public park to be developed in the area. “Everything's pretty much on schedule,” said Russ Forba, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Milltown project manager. Workers also are continuing to demolish the Highway 200 bridge and the pedestrian bridge over the Blackfoot River. Both bridges are to be replaced by fall. Workers also have finished stabilizing the Interstate 90 bridges and will remove construction barges and concrete forms over the next several weeks, Forba said. Meanwhile, nearly 306,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment has been removed from the reservoir. A total of 2.2 million cubic yards is to be removed and redeposited upriver, in the huge settling ponds at Opportunity. Work on a bypass channel, where the Clark Fork River will be diverted temporarily, should be completed in the next few weeks. The reservoir has been drawn down about 12 feet since June 2006 and will be lowered a total of 29 feet from historic levels over the next few years. The next drawdown of 12 to 14 feet in March is expected to further lower the levels in drinking wells in the area, especially in those closer to the reservoir. To date, the EPA has paid to check 222 wells and for 68 service calls, lowering 11 well pumps, replacing five well pumps, installing 15 filtration systems and drilling 33 new wells. A group of Marshall Grade and East Missoula residents has asked the Missoula County commissioners to stop the dam's removal and further drawdowns until more studies assess the effect on the aquifer's quantity and quality. State lawmakers looking into Texas dams 1/23/2008, News8, Austin, TX, By: Veronica Castelo The Texas House Committee on Natural Resources met Wednesday in Austin. They are studying issues that could turn into future bills. State Rep. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, said dams are on their radar. The committee is expected to discuss aging infrastructure, liability issues, and the legal authority and financing needed to make repairs during future meetings. "It's not a glamorous subject but it's infrastructure that's crucial to the needs of not only adequate water supply but safety in general," Creighton said. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) oversees dams. In early January, the Chevron owned Rhine Lake dam in Van, Texas failed. The failure inconvenienced local livestock owners and drained a popular lake. TCEQ hadn't inspected the dam since 1984.Rhine Lake Copy obtained from the National Performance2 of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu drained when the dam failed in early January, which was caused by poor piping. The dam was in fair to good condition when TCEQ inspected it in 1984 though the TCEQ never followed up. In fact, TCEQ didn't visit the dam again until it failed more then 20 years after their initial visit. Warren Samuelson, head of the Dam Safety Program said that the problem could have been fixed if it was found in time. "We just don't have the staff to take care of it and do the follow- ups and do everything we need," Samuelson said. Rhine Lake dam is one of more than 7,644 known dams in Texas. Half of them have never been inspected by TCEQ. Creighton wants that to change. "As we see bridges collapse or dams collapse we see the safety of others and the property of others threatened," he said. Jack Furlong with the American Society of Civil Engineers said lawmakers should also be working to help the owners of dams who are responsible for paying for repairs. TCEQ said there are currently no grants available for private owners of dams. "It should be promulgated at the state level, and also at a federal level so there's some seed money to motivate owners of dams and levees to go out and make those types of improvements," Furlong said. Creighton said he will continue to work toward getting more money pumped into the problem. "I think we'll see an effort during budget to make sure we can address some of these issues that are lacking. That would be a goal of mine," Creighton said. The state auditor's office is currently conducting an audit of TCEQ expected to be available in April. Chevron said they will decide by early March weather to rebuild the dam. State: Dams NOT Likely Factors in April Floods Independent evaluation is ongoing By Peter Bragdon, Milford Observer Publisher, January 24, 2008 A preliminary investigation by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) indicates that last spring's flooding along the Souhegan River was "due to intense rainfall and rapid snowmelt on ground that was already saturated." The operations at several privately-owned dams in Greenville and Wilton, suspected by some of contributing to the high water levels, "were not likely to have been important factors in the extent of flooding along the river," said the January 7 report. The DES investigation was initiated as a result of concerns expressed by Milford state Rep. Peter Leishman about the operations of one of the Greenville dams, and how water released from that dam may have contributed to flooding downstream in Wilton, Milford, and Amherst. The investigation indicated, however, that all the dams along the river "likely had gates opened prior to the flood or early in the event," and were thus not likely to have been contributors to the high water levels.