The Corps is proposing to use the fly ash as part of a lime slurry mixture for some kind of grouting to stabilize the levees according to the article. Environmentalists are concerned about the potential impacts of residual toxins in the fly ash. However, they are drawing comparisons to the TVA coal ash dam failure. From my perspective, this is an unfair comparison since this fly ash would be mixed with lime and in theory any toxins would be bound up in the grout matrix. But it never hurts to be cautious regarding potential contaminants that close to such an important waterway. [Source: bnd.com via ASCE SmartBrief]
Miscellaneous
New Corps Study Suggests Geoprofessionals Will Be Busy for Years
The GBA posted recently about a study from the US Army Corps that suggest geoprofessionals will be kept busy for years to come. The study is in the same vein as other infrastructure studies that […]
Failures
TVA Coal Ash Disaster
On December 22 of 2008, there was a massive failure of a fly ash landfill (tailings dam?) at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Kingston power plant. The failure caused a torrent of coal ash sludge […]
Press Releases
DFI Announces 2020-2021 Traveling Lecturer: David B. Paul, P.E.
Hawthorne, N.J. (August 26, 2020): In 2018, DFI introduced the DFI Traveling Lecturer program to promote the field of geotechnical engineering and deep foundation construction by encouraging students to explore a career in the deep […]
Comments are closed.
I agree that the toxins will be chemically bound into the grout. There may be some leachate but nothing that compares to TVA coal ash dam failure, a dam that was built to hold back a toxic sludge. It was the sludge that caused the contamination not the dam. It would be like comparing a drip of oil from my truck to the Horizon debacle in the Gulf of Mexico. I guess the ACOE could just do nothing, will the environmentalists be there when the levees fail?