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]
Available Resources
Corps of Engineers Planning Additiional Sheet-Piling and Deep Soil Mixing along New Orleans Levees
Project Related
Possible Seepage at Newly Constructed New Orleans Levee
Wet spots have been detected along a portion of a new levee being constructed by a US Army Corps of Engineers Contractor. The levee is approximately 95% complete, but the Levee Board wants to establish what is causing the apparent seepage before accepting the levee. More after the break. (Photo of Katrina levee failure from greenmannowar)
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Geologic Hazards
New Orleans Levees Need to be Raised 11-ft
The US Army Corps of Engineers has issued a report that indicates the eastern portion of the levee system that protects Bernard Parrish will need to be raised by 11-ft to 29-ft to protect against the 100-year hurricane. Levees along Lake Pontchartrain were designed in the 1960s for what was then considered to be 200-yr and 300-yr hurricanes. Now they are judged sufficient for the 100-yr event. More at NOLA.COM.
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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?