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]
Press Releases
USACE Blasts Time Magazine Article
USACE responds to TIME magazine’s August 13, 2007, cover story, "The Threatening Storm"
WASHINGTON (August 13, 2007) – TIME magazine’s August 13, 2007, cover story, "The Threatening Storm," contains many errors and misrepresentations of facts with respect to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Hurricane Katrina, and ongoing efforts to improve hurricane and storm damage reduction for southeast Louisiana.
Comings and Goings
Dataforensics and USACE are Bentley Award Finalists for Subsurface Modeling
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has partnered with Dataforensics to implement an enterprise subsurface data management system that will provide a myriad of benefits across their organization. The project involved the digitization of millions […]
Geologic Hazards
National Geographic Article on New Orleans Levees
National Geographic has published an article on the New Orleans levee system entitled "New Orleans Levees, Are They Safe?". The article indicates, as has been reported from other sources, that the levees are now back […]
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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?