dambreaks

SAUGATUCK: VILLAGE OF VALLEY FORGE EMERGING (link at book cover)?
Norwich Public Utilities vies with private company for responsibilities tied to dam construction and maintenance; drought elsewhere; how about hurricane-related floods? World-wide problem. Indonesia flood caused by, among other things, poor dam maintenance. Dam in Greenwich September rains, 2011.

Dam News over the past years: why we got interested in this topic...

State: Byram River dam is safe despite water spurting through wall
Greenwic TIME
Frank MacEachern, Staff Writer
Updated 10:44 p.m., Friday, September 9, 2011

Town and state officials are keeping an eye on a Byram River dam after water spurting through its walls was noticed Thursday following an unusually high amount of rain this week. However, a state official says there is no danger to residents who live downriver of the dam, which is located just north of the Comly Avenue intersection with Pemberwick Road.

"We don't believe there are any safety issues there right now," said Dennis Schain, a spokesman for the state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection, which oversees dam safety in Connecticut. "It's a really solid and well constructed dam."

The dam has been inspected in the past, Schain said.

"We are aware of the situation and we have been in contact with officials down there," Schain said, referring to Greenwich. "It's not unusual after the weather we have had to have some seepage through the dam."

Dams, including this one, often will have what are termed "weep holes," to allow water to flow through the dam's walls to alleviate pressure on the structure, said Daniel Warzoha, the town's emergency management director.

"There has always been those weep holes," said Warzoha, who was first alerted Thursday morning of water pouring from the walls. "They have been there forever."

A dam has been at the location since the 1820s, but Warzoha didn't know when the current structure was built. On Friday afternoon, water could be seen coming through two areas near the top of the dam's western side. But Warzoha doesn't believe this water is passing through weep holes. He thinks some of the mortar that joins the dam's stone blocks together has given way, allowing water to get through.

"We don't believe there are cracks or fissures," Warzoha said. "It is water seeping through the blocks."

Even so, residents, including those downriver in the low-lying areas of Pemberwick and Byram, shouldn't be concerned about the dam, Warzoha said.

"We were working with state on the issue, and they shouldn't worry that the dam is in a state of collapse," he said. "The water has come down quite a bit."

Warzoha expects state officials, who have been busy with other dams across the state, to inspect the dam on Monday.

"They had so many dam calls up state where they actually had failures, they haven't been able to come here," he said. "They will have an inspection team on Monday."

The dam is privately owned, Warzoha said, but he doesn't know who the owner is.

"The responsibility rests entirely with the property owners," he said about repairs or actions that may need to be taken.

Most recent pictures top left; click on map to get data about what chemical composition of the sludge is.

Photo shows apparent leak before Hungary spill
YAHOO
By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer
12 October 2010

BUDAPEST, Hungary – An aerial photo taken months before a gigantic reservoir unleashed torrents of toxic sludge shows a faint red trail trickling through the container wall — part of a growing body of evidence that inspectors who gave the pit a clean bill of health may have missed warning signs.

Police were examining the photo Tuesday as part of an investigation into how part of the wall containing the 10 million cubic meters (350 million cubic feet) of caustic slurry could have given way without structural weaknesses being detected by a team of inspectors from the government environmental agency who inspected the container pond less then two weeks before the spill. Disaster commissioner Gyorgy Bakondi, appointed to the newly created post Monday night, said Tuesday the inspections were under investigation, including claims by environmental inspectors that "they had found everything in order."

As the police probe gathered steam, judicial authorities scheduled a court appearance for Zoltan Bakonyi, the managing director of MAL Rt., or the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company, the company that owned the reservoir, to decide whether he should be formally charged, if so, with what, and whether he should remain in custody. The photo showing an apparent leak of red sludge on the northern wall of the reservoir — the same wall that partially collapsed eight days ago — was taken by Interspect, a Hungarian company specializing in aerial photography that invests some of its profits on environmental projects, such as taking photos of locations in Hungary which could be at environmental risk.

Interspect director Gabor Bako said he shot the photo June 11, nearly 4 months before the spill. He said the company shared the photo with universities and environmental groups "but no further steps were taken in the matter" until the wall collapsed freeing the caustic muck that flooded three west Hungarian villages about 170 kilometers (just over 100 miles) from Budapest before being carried by local waterways into the Danube River.

Although Interspect found many suspicious sites around the country, "we're not construction engineers or specialists who could interpret what the picture showed," he told The Associated Press, still hoping to gather experts who could review the photos.

Bakonyi, the managing who was taken into police custody Monday, was scheduled to appear at a preliminary court hearing Wednesday convening at Veszprem, a western Hungarian city about 45 kilometers (27 miles) east of the partially collapsed containment pond. A police statement issued Tuesday suggested Bakonyi was guilty of negligence, saying he did not prepare an emergency warning and rescue plan to be implemented in case of an incident like the sludge spill.

There was no official information on what Bakonyi told police, with law enforcement officials declining to divulge details on the progress of their investigation a week after the start of their probe. By Tuesday night, police had not made promised return calls to the AP. But according to the daily Blikk, which is considered to have good police connections, a lead engineer at MAL Rt., told police that the firm's top management was aware — but kept quiet — about the risks of a breach of the reservoir for an unspecified period.

The tabloid also revealed that in the 1980s, before the fall of the Iron Curtain, Bakony's father, Arpad Bakonyi, was the head of the environmental department at the ministry of industry — a predecessor of the present-day inspectorate — and received several state awards for his work. In an initial reaction after the spill, Zoltan Bakonyi said the reservoir was patrolled daily and "did not show any physical signs that something of this nature could happen." But Prime Minister Viktor Orban suggested that preliminary investigations revealed negligence playing a part.

"We have well-founded reasons to believe that there were people who knew about the dangerous weakening of the reservoir wall, but for personal reasons they thought it wasn't worth repairing and hoped there'd be no trouble," Orban said.

Bakondi, the disaster commissioner, said that police had taken over security tasks at all premises belonging to the company and that production at the plant could restart during the weekend, although a final decision had yet to be made. Bakondi leads an 18-member supervisory committee, who will have to approve practically everything happening at MAL from now on. The government rejected claims that the it was using the disaster as an excuse for ruling by decree.

"This is not the nationalization of the company," government spokeswoman Anna Nagy said. "It is placing it under government supervision until the catastrophe is resolved."

Asked, however, what activities the company could carry out without the consent of the supervisory board, Bakondi answered, "Nothing."

A corner of the reservoir at the alumina plant in Ajka, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Budapest, the capital, collapsed last Monday, releasing an estimated 700,000 cubic meters (184 million gallons) of a highly caustic byproduct of alumina production, which is then used to make aluminum. The Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant, which began operating in 1943, was sold to private investors in the 1990s in the wake of the collapse of communism.

MAL has a 12 percent market share in Europe of alumina production and 4 percent globally. It says it spent 30.3 billion forints ($153 million) in the past decade on maintenance and renovation work.

Media reports say it had revenues of nearly 29 billion forints ($147 million) in 2009 and 50 billion forints ($253 million) in 2007.

Officials: wall of Hungary sludge lake will fall
YAHOO
By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer
10 October 2010

KOLONTAR, Hungary – The wall of a reservoir filled with caustic red sludge will inevitably collapse and unleash a new deluge of red sludge that could flow about a half-mile (1 kilometer) to the north, a Hungarian official said Sunday.

That would flood parts of the town already hit by the industrial waste on Monday but stop short of the next town to the north.

Environmental State Secretary Zoltan Illes said recently discovered cracks on the northern wall of the reservoir at the alumina plant have temporarily stopped widening because of favorable weather conditions but will continue to expand, especially at night.

Disaster agency spokesman Tibor Dobson said engineers didn't detect any new cracks overnight, and the older cracks were being repaired, but that it was too soon to consider lowering the current state of alert. Protective walls were being built around the reservoir's damaged area to hold back any further spills and a 2,000-foot (620-meter) long dam was under construction to save the areas of the town of Kolontar not directly hit by Monday's disaster.

"I would describe the situation as hopeful, but nothing has really changed," Dobson told The Associated Press. "The wall to protect Kolontar is planned to be finished by tonight, but it will likely be several days before residents may be able to move back."

Nearly all of Kolontar's 800 residents were evacuated Saturday, when Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the north wall of the massive storage pool — which is 24.7 acres (10 hectares) in size — was expected to "very likely" collapse after cracks were detected at several points along the dam.

The roughly 6,000 residents of neighboring Devecser, just north of Kolontar, were told by police Saturday to pack a single bag and get ready to leave at a moment's notice.

"This hasn't changed," Dobson said. "We are still on guard in case of any more spills."

Red sludge is a byproduct of the refining of bauxite into alumina, the basic material for manufacturing aluminum. Treated sludge is often stored in ponds where the water eventually evaporates, leaving behind a largely safe red clay. Industry experts say the sludge in Hungary appears to have been insufficiently treated, if at all, meaning it remained highly caustic.

Illes, commenting to reporters during a tour of the affected villages and the damaged reservoir, confirmed that red sludge stored in Hungarian reservoirs was not treated to reduce its alkalinity.

On Monday, the sludge flooded three villages in less than an hour, burning people and animals. At least seven people were killed and at least 120 were injured. Several of those who were hospitalized were in serious condition. Around 184 million gallons (700,000 cubic meters) of the caustic red sludge was released.

The red sludge devastated creeks and rivers near the spill site and entered the Danube River on Thursday, moving downstream toward Croatia, Serbia and Romania. But the volume of water in the Danube appeared to be blunting the sludge's immediate impact.

Illes said that neutralizing chemicals poured into primary and secondary tributaries of the Danube, as well as efforts to remove as much red sludge as possible from the waterways, was able to prevent ecological damage to Europe's second-longest river.

In Romania, local authorities were testing the water Sunday every four hours in the village of Bazias where the Danube enters Romania from Serbia, and will continue to carry out tests all this week, said Adrian Draghici, director of Romanian water for Mehedinti county.

Romanian fishermen sailed out into the Danube and villagers fished on the banks of the river for pike, which is plentiful in the Danube. They seemed unperturbed by any potential hazards.

But local authorities warned residents about letting animals drink from the Danube and urged them to be careful with fishing, as a precautionary measure.

Hungary fears second toxic wave
9 October 2010 Last updated at 05:55 ET

The Hungarian village of Kolontar has been evacuated after new damage was discovered at a burst reservoir that spilled toxic sludge on Monday. Prime Minister Viktor Orban said it was "very likely" that an entire wall of the reservoir would collapse, releasing a fresh wave of chemical effluent. Mr Orban also said there would be "very severe" consequences for those to blame for the disaster.

At least seven people have died as a result of the accident. Around 150 people were injured by the spill of up to 700,000 cubic metres (24.7m cu ft) of red toxic sludge - many receiving burns. Most of those killed were drowned or swept away in Kolontar as the sludge hit on Monday. The village is the closest to the reservoir, and would be expected to bear the brunt if there were a second spill.

On Saturday morning, about 800 residents were taken to a sports hall and two schools in Ajka, 8km (five miles) away.

Rescue team spokesperson Gyorgyi Tottos said the new damage to the northern wall of the reservoir was relatively minor, but villagers were evacuated as a precaution. However the prime minister, in a press conference at the scene, painted a more serious picture.

"It's in very bad shape and our estimation is that the wall could fall down," he said. "It's very likely that it will happen... One consequence is that human lives could be in danger."

"Behind this tragedy some human errors and mistakes must exist. We will reveal all of that and the consequences will be very severe, tough, as much you can imagine," he added.

Mr Orban said another 500,000 cubic metres of waste could escape if the reservoir wall were breached again. This would be heavier and thicker than the first spill, and would move slower - but would be even more toxic, says the BBC's Duncan Kennedy at the scene.

Besides those evacuated from Kolontar, police were also telling residents of the neighbouring village of Devecser to pack a single suitcase so they could leave quickly if necessary. In the last few days, residents and emergency workers have worked round-the-clock to remove the worst of the sludge which damaged houses, streets and farmland, and polluted waterways.

All life in the Marcal river, which feeds the Danube, is said to have been extinguished.

The sludge reached the Danube on Thursday, but Hungarian officials said on Friday that the pH level in the river was "normal", easing fears that Europe's second longest river would be significantly polluted.

Emergency crews have been working to dilute the alkaline content of the spill, adding huge quantities of gypsum and chemical fertilisers to the waters of the Marcal and Raba rivers.

The disaster's confirmed death toll rose to seven on Friday, after an 81-year-old man died from injuries sustained in the torrent and two bodies were found on the outskirts of the village of Devecser. The victims were likely to be two of three Kolontar residents still missing, disaster unit chief Tibor Dobson said.

The company responsible for the alumina plant, MAL Hungarian Aluminium Production and Trade Company, has offered its condolences to the families of the bereaved but insists it did nothing wrong. It said it was devoting "all its energies and efforts" to tackling the spill, and had released 110,000 euros (£96,000) so far to help with the clean-up.

Toxic sludge almost the size of Gulf Oil spill
YAHOO
By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer
8 October 2010

KOLONTAR, Hungary – The mighty Danube was apparently absorbing Hungary's massive toxic red sludge spill with little immediate harm, officials reported Friday — even though the amount of caustic slurry spewed over the western part of the country was nearly as great as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Revising even higher earlier estimates, government officials said the reservoir break at an alumina plant Monday dumped 600,000 to 700,000 cubic meters (158 million to 184 million gallons) of sludge onto three villages — not much less in a few hours than the 200 million gallons the blown-out BP oil well gushed into the Gulf over several months starting in April.

"The consequences do not seem to be that dramatic," said Philip Weller, who heads the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube, by telephone from Vienna, when asked about harm to the waterway's ecosystem up to now.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the threat to the Danube had been eliminated.

"We managed to take control of the situation in time," the state MTI news agency quoted him as saying.

But the risk of pervasive and lasting environmental damage remained, with laboratory analyses organized by Greenpeace showing high concentrations of toxic substances in samples of the sludge.

Greenpeace told reporters in Vienna Friday that the samples taken a day after the spill showed "surprisingly high" levels of arsenic and mercury. The analysis suggested that roughly 50 tons of arsenic, 300 tons of chrome and half a ton of mercury was set free by the spill, Greenpeace officials said.

Greenpeace officials said the detected arsenic concentration is twice the amount normally found in so-called red mud. Analysis of water in a canal near the spill also found arsenic levels 25 times the limit for drinking water.

With rain giving way to dry, warmer weather over the past two days, the caustic mud is increasingly turning to airborne dust, which can cause respiratory problems, said Hungary's state secretary for the environment, Zoltan Illes.

"Wind can blow ... that heavy metal contamination through the respiratory system," he said.

Government emergency services officials on Friday urged residents near the toxic flood area to wear face masks.

The warnings conflicted with the view of the prestigious Hungarian Academy of Sciences which said that while the material remained hazardous, its heavy metal concentrations were not considered dangerous for the environment.

"The academy can say whatever it wants," fumed Barbara Szalai Szita, who lives in Devecser, one of the hardest-hit villages. "All I know is that if I spend 30 minutes outside I get a foul taste in my mouth and my tongue feels strange."

Officials with Hungary's national disaster relief service, meanwhile, told The Associated Press that a fifth person — an 81-year-old man — died Friday morning from unspecified injuries sustained in the flooding.

Free access to Kolontar, closest to the leak, was shut off to media Friday, with officials saying the crush of reporters and TV crews was interfering with cleanup work. Media members were being allowed in only three times a day and assigned minders.

The red sludge devastated creeks and rivers near the spill site, and entered the Danube on Thursday, moving downstream Friday toward Hungary's immediate neighbors, Croatia, Serbia and Romania. Monitors were taking samples every few hours Friday to measure damage from the spill but Europe's second largest river, appeared to be absorbing the blow due to its huge volume of water.

The pH level of the water where the slurry entered the Danube was 9 — well below the 13.5 measured in local waterways, Hungarian rescue agency spokesman Tibor Dobson told the state MTI news agency on Friday.

Dobson added that such amounts posed no damage to the environment.

A neutral pH level for water is 7, with normal readings ranging from 6.5 to 8.5. Each pH number is 10 times the previous level, so a pH of 13 is 1,000 times more alkaline than a pH of 10.

Emergency crews, meanwhile, drained a second industrial reservoir at the spill site Friday to prevent a new disaster.

Dobson told MTI that 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet) of fluid from a storage pond close to the burst reservoir was being gradually released into a local river already declared dead in the wake of Monday's environmental catastrophe. Gypsum was being dropped into the Marcal River from helicopters to neutralize the alkaline effect of the fluid, he said.

It is still not known what caused a section of the reservoir to collapse, unleashing a torrent of sludge. Three people are still missing. More than 150 were treated for burns and other injuries, and 10 were still in serious condition.

Crews looking for the missing drained a pond swollen by the muck Friday but no bodies were found.

Toxic Sludge Engulfs Several Hungarian Towns
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 4, 2010
Filed at 10:09 a.m. ET

DEVECSER, Hungary (AP) — Hungary declared a state of emergency in three counties Tuesday after a flood of toxic red sludge from an alumina plant engulfed several towns and burned people through their clothes. One official called it "an ecological disaster" that may threaten the Danube and other key rivers.

The toll rose to four dead, six missing and at least 120 people injured after a reservoir failed Monday at the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in Ajka, a town 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Budapest, the capital.

Several hundred tons of plaster were being poured into the Marcal River to bind the toxic sludge and prevent it from flowing on, the National Disaster Management Directorate said.

So far, about 35.3 million cubic feet (1 million cubic meters) of sludge has leaked from the reservoir, affecting an estimated 15.4 square miles (40 square kilometers), Environmental Affairs State Secretary Zoltan Illes told the state news wire MTI.

Illes called the flood an "ecological catastrophe" and said the sludge could reach the Raba and Danube rivers. He suspended activity at the plant and ordered the company to repair the damaged reservoir.

The disaster agency said 390 residents had to be temporarily relocated and 110 were rescued from the flooded towns, including Kolontal, Devecser and Somlovasarhely. Firefighters and soldiers swept through the region Tuesday carrying out cleanup tasks with bulldozers.

The sludge, a waste product in aluminum production, contains heavy metals and is toxic if ingested. Many of the injured sustained burns as the sludge seeped through their clothes, and two faced life-threatening conditions. Two women, a young man and a 3-year-old child were killed in the flooding.

The injured were being monitored because the chemical burns caused by the sludge could take days to emerge and what may seem like superficial injuries could later cause damage to deeper tissue, Dr. Peter Jakabos of Gyor hospital, where several of the injured were taken, told state television.

In Devecser, the sludge in Tunde Erdelyi's house was still five feet (1.5 meters) high Tuesday and rescue workers had to use an ax to cut through her living room door to let the red liquid flow out.

"When I heard the rumble of the flood, all the time I had was to jump out the window and run to higher ground," said a tearful Erdelyi, still shocked by the events but grateful that the family rabbit and cat were safe.

Robert Kis, Erdelyi's husband, said his uncle had been taken to Budapest by helicopter after the sludge "burned him to the bone." The toxic flood overturned Erdelyi's car and pushed it 30 yards (meters) to the back of the garden while her husband's van was lifted up onto a fence.

Erdelyi, a seamstress, was hoping the flood spared the shop in town where she worked, her family's main source of income.

In neighboring Kolontal, the town closest to the aluminum plant, 61-year old widow Erzsebet Veingartner was in her kitchen when the sludge flood hit Monday afternoon.

"I looked outside and all I saw was the stream swelling like a huge wave," said Veingartner, who lives on a monthly disability pension of 70,000 forints ($350). "Thank God I had the presence of mind to turn off the gas and run up to the attic."

Veingartner, devastated by her losses, looked out at her backyard still covered by some three yards (meters) of red sludge.

"I have a winter's worth of firewood in the basement and it's all useless now," she said. "I lost all my chickens, my ducks, my Rottweiler, and my potato patch. My late husband's tools and machinery were in the shed and it's all gone."

Local environmentalists say they have tried to call the government's attention to the risks of red sludge for years, pointing to a 2003 report in which they estimated the waste at 30 million tons.

"Accumulated during decades ... red sludge is, by volume, the largest amount of toxic waste in Hungary," the Clear Air Action Group said, adding that producing one ton of alumina resulted in two tons of toxic waste.

MAL Rt., the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company that owns the Ajka plant, said that according to European Union standards, the red sludge was not considered toxic waste. The company also denied that it should have taken more precautions to shore up the reservoir.

"According to the current evaluation, company management could not have noticed the signs of the natural catastrophe nor done anything to prevent it even while carefully respecting technological procedures," MAL said in a statement.

Samuel Senior Dam in Weston not a levee, fortunately. Being "down stream" has its disadvantages.

Residents flee homes as Wis. levee starts to fail
YAHOO
Monday, September 27, 2010

PORTAGE, Wis. – Some residents in the central Wisconsin town of Portage fled their homes after a levee started to fail, sending water from the rain-swollen Wisconsin River onto a major roadway in one neighborhood and threatening to leave some people stranded in their houses.

It wasn't clear how many of the roughly 300 residents remained in the Blackhawk Park area after the only road into and out of the neighborhood was closed. Officials said part of the levee south of Highway 33 had eroded Sunday and water was leaking out, although the levee had not completely collapsed.

Kathy Matavka said she was taken from her home by boat after she received a second call urging her to evacuate.

"If I didn't sit there and take the boat, I would be stuck. I would not be able to get groceries. I would not be able to get medications I need to take," Matavka told WISC-TV in Madison.

The levee is part of the Caledonia-Lewiston Levee System — several dikes built mainly out of sand during the 1890s by homeowners living near the river, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Kevin Remus told the Portage Daily Register that he and his wife decided to leave their home with their 17-month-old daughter because they were concerned about being cut off from the outside word. Their house wasn't likely to flood because it's on a hill, but the access road was already covered in 6 inches of water by the time the family was ready to leave.

His wife, Lindsay, said the family planned to stay in a motel for a few days.

"It's kind of a feeling of hopelessness," she said. "The water is out of control."

The Wisconsin River is swollen from thunderstorms last week that dumped several inches of rain in southern Minnesota and central Wisconsin.

The Columbia County Emergency Management Office warned residents in the Blackhawk Park area that emergency vehicles, including police, fire and ambulances, would not be able to reach those who stayed behind.

"The residents down there are used to having high water and dealing with high water a lot but this could be something that they've never seen, with this amount of water," said Kathy Johnson, deputy director of the Columbia County Emergency Management Office.

Johnson said those who evacuated might be out of their homes for up to a week, and the Red Cross opened a shelter at a local church.

Elsewhere, in the small South Dakota town of Renner, just north of Sioux Falls, thousands of sandbags were being filled to deal with any unexpected rise of the Big Sioux River.

The National Weather Service expects the river to crest Monday morning about 4 feet over flood stage.

Scores Missing After Indonesia Dam Bursts; 77 Dead
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:12 a.m. ET
March 28, 2009

CIRENDEU, Indonesia (AP) -- Soldiers and police dug through piles of mud and debris Saturday in a desperate search for survivors after a flood from a burst dam killed at least 77 people outside Indonesia's capital. But they were losing hope the 100 still missing would be found alive.

Days of torrential downpours filled a large lake bordering the low-lying residential area of Cirendeu to flood level. A huge section of the Dutch colonial-era dike tore away before dawn Friday, sending more than 70 million cubic feet (2 million cubic meters) of water gushing through the gaping hole.

Some residents said it felt like they'd been hit by a tsunami. They accused authorities of ignoring warning signs and failing to repair damage to the dam, claiming it had been weakened in several places over the years because of prior flooding caused by blocked spillways.

Hundreds gathered at nearby Muhammadiyah University, pressed into service as a makeshift morgue, with bodies lined up in a row under batik sheets. Mothers wailed as they identified their dead children. Four field hospitals were set up to accommodate more than 180 wounded, some with broken bones, head wounds and severe cuts, said Rustam Pakaya, an official with the government crisis center. The death toll kept climbing as soldiers, police and volunteers dug in with excavators, hoes or their bare hands, reaching 77 by nightfall.

''We've evacuated almost all of the survivors from their houses,'' said National Disaster Coordinating Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono. ''We fear most of the 102 reported missing have been killed.''

Family members were desperate, unwilling to believe the worst.

''Where is she? Where is she?'' cried Mulyani, 50, who was searching for her missing daughter, Pungky Andela.

The 21-year-old student went to a Quran recital at a house at the foot of the dam the night of the disaster and decided to sleep there because of the violent weather.

''How can she be missing?'' lamented Mulyani, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name.

Most of the water had receded Saturday, leaving behind streets covered in mud and debris. Cars that had been parked in driveways were swept hundreds of feet (meters) away, landing in parks. Sidewalks were strewn with sandals, cooking pans and old photographs. Some left homeless stayed in a local university hall on high ground.

''What we urgently need are mattresses, blankets, clothes,'' said Abdul Hamid. ''I don't have anything anymore, all I had was swept away by the water. I don't have clothes for my children and my grandchildren.''

It was not immediately clear what caused the accident. But many alleged the 76-year-old dam, like much Indonesian infrastructure, was poorly maintained.

''We need to find a way to take better care of these Dutch-era dams,'' said Wahyu Hartono, a former Ministry of Public Works official, blaming budget shortfalls for the disaster. ''Otherwise, there will be more problems like this.''

Aldi Rojadi, 34, whose house was damaged, said there have been reports of leaks for years and that someone should be held accountable. The Ministry of Public Works promised to investigate. But 30-year-old Rohmat, mopping the muddy floor of his house, said he wasn't expecting much.

''Whenever these thing happens, officials throw around blame,'' he said. ''But really, what can we do about it? Nothing. We just have to accept it.''

Seasonal downpours cause dozens of landslides and flash floods each year in Indonesia, a nation of 235 million.

Dam Bursts in Indonesia, Killing 50
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:00 a.m. ET
March 27, 2009

CIRENDEU, Indonesia (AP) -- Torrential rain caused a colonial-era dam to burst its banks outside the Indonesian capital early Friday, sending a wall of muddy water crashing into a densely packed neighborhood and killing at least 58 people.

The flood left scores missing and submerged hundreds of homes. Rescuers used rubber rafts to pluck bodies from streets that were transformed into rivers littered with motorcycles, chairs and other debris. Officials predicted that the death toll would rise, delivering more than 100 body bags to the scene.

''I'm devastated,'' said Cholik, 21, crying as he sat next to the body of his 54-year-old mother. His brother-in-law also was killed and his 1-year-old niece was missing.

''I wasn't home last night. ... I should have been there to save them,'' he said.

The earthen dam, built in the early 1900s when Indonesia was still under Dutch rule, surrounded a man-made lake in Cirendeu on the southwestern edge of Jakarta. It collapsed just after 2 a.m. when most people were sleeping, sending 70 million cubic feet (2 million cubic meters) of water cascading into homes.

Several survivors said it felt like they'd been hit by a ''mini-tsunami.''

Water levels were so high in some places that people waited on rooftops for rescuers. Telephone lines were toppled and cars swept away, some ending up hundreds of feet (meters) from where they'd been parked.
By mid-afternoon, hundreds of victims gathered at nearby Muhammadiyah University, which was transformed into a makeshift morgue. Many were wailing as soldiers and police brought in bodies, covering them in white sheets of plastic. Cecep Rahman, 63, lost his wife, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter in the disaster.

''I heard a crashing sound and looked out my window,'' he choked. ''The tide was so strong, like a tsunami. They were swept away. ... There was nothing I could do.''

Health Ministry Crisis Center chief Rustam Pakaya and rescue teams at the scene said at least 58 people were killed and more than 400 houses submerged, some in water 10-feet (nearly three meters) deep. A 9-year-old girl was found unconscious on one rooftop after the water receded, but she died on the way to the hospital, said rescuer Toni Suhartono, adding the child's parents and sister were among dozens still missing.

An investigation by the Ministry of Public Works will be carried out to see what caused the disaster, it said. But Wahyu Hartono, a former official at the ministry, said the 40-foot-high (nearly 15-meter-high) dam has been poorly maintained in recent years because of budget shortfalls. After four hours of heavy rain the spillway overflowed and the base gave way.

''We need to find a way to take better care of these Dutch-era dams and dikes,'' he said. ''Otherwise, there will be more problems like this in the future.''

Seasonal downpours cause dozens of landslides and flash floods each year in Indonesia, a nation of 235 million, where many live in mountainous areas or near fertile plains. More than 40 people were killed in the capital after rivers burst their banks two years ago. Critics said rampant overdevelopment, poor city planning and clogged drainage canals were partly to blame.

Towns eye dams as new power source to cut electric costs; Canton hopes project will turn a profit in five years
DAY
Published on 7/7/2008

Canton - Dams that once were used to power Connecticut industry are now being eyed by town officials as a resource to cut municipal energy bills.

Canton First Selectman Dick Barlow, for example, wants to use an old dam on the Farmington River to generate hydroelectric power. The dam, and another down river, were built by Collins Co., a manufacturer of axes, machetes and other tools.

The generators were scrapped when the factory closed in the 1960s.

The dam is a fixture in the town of a little less than 9,000 in the Farmington River Valley where the river has become an attraction to enthusiasts in kayaks and canoes.

Interest in using the dam as an energy resource resurfaced a few years ago when a company received a federal license to install new generators and use the dam. However, the company failed to deliver last year and Barlow got involved.

His plan calls for the town of Canton to take over the license, re-establish hydroelectric power and sell the energy to the power grid.

”It's a shame to have this sitting here with nothing but a pigeon roost right now,” Barlow said. “Even if it makes a modest profit, it's clean energy. Why wouldn't you try?”

Canton has approved $20,000 for a feasibility study of the dams. Barlow plans to hire a consultant and if all goes well, he hopes to produce energy within the next few years.

Each dam would cost about $3 million to refurbish, including installing fish ladders to allow fish to move upstream, he said. The project could turn a profit in just five years.

Ownership of the dam is a question. The town says the dam is owned by the state Department of Environmental Protection, but a spokesman for the state agency, said it's privately owned.

Mark Quinlan, a supervisor at the state Department of Public Utility Control, said that with rising electricity costs, there is “definitely potential now” to use dams to produce power and towns should examine what's possible.

A WATERSHED DECISION:
Making The Call On Dual Dam-License Applications Is 'New Territory' For FERC
DAY
By Claire Bessette
Published on 11/22/2007

THE FEDERAL ENERGY Regulatory Commission spent two days in the region this week to begin an unprecedented process of handling two competing license applications for the 2-megawatt hydropower dam at Scotland Dam on the Scotland-Windham border.

The current dam owner, FirstLight Hydro Generating Co., and Norwich Public Utilities both have submitted plans to seek the hydropower license from the federal agency when it comes due for renewal in 2012. The long process started this week with a two-day visit by FERC officials to see the dam and hear comments and concerns from the public and environmental agencies about the two competing proposals.

It turned out that more questions were posed to FERC on just how this process of evaluating competing proposals from different companies would be conducted. During a public meeting Tuesday at the Windham Town Hall, Jim Gibson, a manager and regulatory specialist at a New York engineering firm not connected with the project, fired several questions that gave FERC officials pause.

The FERC process is precise and driven by strict deadlines. What if one of the competing applicants misses a deadline? Would that firm be kicked out? FERC normally requires numerous environmental studies for hydropower projects. Could the two companies collaborate to use the same study data? If they refuse to collaborate, would one company's study be made public and thus available to the competing firm?

How would FERC make a company prove its claims to operate the dam at a much more efficient and more environmental friendly manner? For example, Gibson said, Norwich Public Utilities proposed adding a second turbine to improve the energy output while also operating at a so-called “run of the river” method using the natural flow rather than holding water back for a time and then releasing it.

Allan Creamer, a fisheries biologist and senior technical analyst with FERC, fielded most of the questions, adding apologies for the several times he was forced to say “we don't know yet.”

This is the first time under the current licensing process that FERC has had to handle competing license applications for the same hydropower facility. According to federal law, the agency has the authority to award a license to someone other than the owner of the dam if the energy commission deems that to be a better application.

“We're in new territory here,” Creamer said repeatedly while attempting to answer Gibson's questions.

Creamer said the entire licensing process is driven by timelines, and normally companies adhere to the set schedule. In the agency's limited experience with competing proposals, the agency has found them reluctant to share data. Companies often claim the information is proprietary, but once documents are submitted to FERC, they become public.

And given the competing claims that each company is expected to make on its proposal, FERC would require concrete plans and feasibility studies to prove proposed energy outputs and environmental protections on the river, Creamer said.

After the meeting, Creamer said FERC has had several competing situations, but most are resolved before they reach the formal licensing process. Only once, under now-defunct licensing regulations, did FERC have to make a decision between two competing firms.

In 1999, Holyoke Water Power, a private firm that owned the Holyoke Dam and the city of Holyoke both sought the license for that dam. FERC awarded the license to the incumbent owner, but then the private company ended up selling the dam and the hydropower rights to the city a year later.

“It would have saved us a lot of headaches if they had just done that at the start,” he said.

In the Scotland Dam situation, NPU General Manager John Bilda said NPU tried to negotiate with FirstLight to buy Scotland Dam and two other hydropower units, Taftville Dam and Tunnel Dam at the Lisbon-Preston border, which the company had purchased from a Northeast Utilities subsidiary in July 2006.

Bilda said FirstLight rejected negotiations, and the municipal utility decided instead to try to seize control of all three dams through the FERC licensing process.

On Monday, FirstLight Scotland Dam Station Manager Robert Gates led a tour and open house at the dam. Several FERC officials, along with representatives from the state Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, attended the tour, took photographs and noted conditions.

With the river at low levels, the dam was not operating, Gates said. The dam currently runs on a store-and-release system. During low water times, the dam shuts down except for minimum flow to sustain the river. Newly installed trash rakes capture everything from branches and leaves to car tires. When water in the 134-acre reservoir upstream of the dam rises 2 feet, the dam resumes operation.

The existing turbine cannot operate at water flows below 500 cubic feet per second, Gates said.

FirstLight's license application calls for keeping the current system, but the company has said it also is considering installing a new turbine that could operate on the run-of-the-river system, eliminating the need to store water until it reaches the height needed to generate power.

That proposal would be very similar to NPU's plan to install two turbines with capacity to run at very low levels, even less than 100 cubic feet per second, Bilda said. The dam currently does not have a fish passage. NPU proposed adding fish passage facilities, while FirstLight said it would study the need and may propose fish passage systems in new applications.

Melissa Grader, a fish and wildlife biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, attended the dam tour Monday. Grader said the agency prefers run-of-the-river hydropower operations to stabilize the river height upstream of the dam. The 2-foot fluctuations now may be significant to wildlife and plants along the riverbank, she said.

Connecticut Going High-tech With Dam Safety
DAY
By Susan Haigh, Associated Press Writer
Published on 11/26/2007

Hartford — If a major rainstorm soaks Connecticut, Wes Marsh will soon know with a click of a mouse or a text message on his cell phone whether any of the 234 dams owned by the Department of Environmental Protection are in trouble.

After spending 26 years with the state's dam safety division, often trekking through the woods and climbing around dams to look for problems, Marsh will be able to use a new high-tech system to help him quickly identify which dams pose the greatest public safety threat.

“There's actual alarms that will be tripped when rainfall amounts or stream fall are exceeded,” Marsh said. “You will know what dams will not need to be looked at.”

Connecticut is the first state in the country to use DamWatch, a system invented by USEngineering Solutions Corp. in Hartford, to monitor the DEP-owned dams. The system is expected to be fully operational by early 2008.

Joseph Scannell, president of USEngineering and a former senior project engineer for Connecticut's Department of Transportation, said there is a growing interest nationally to better monitor dams for safety and rehabilitate aging dams — which he considers the nation's forgotten infrastructure.

Scannell recently demonstrated the technology at the National Association of State Dam Safety Officials meeting in Texas. He plans to meet with a Homeland Security official next week to discuss the system and how it can help save lives nationwide.

“If I lose a bridge, I've got to close it down. That's a disruption of traffic. There's a cost associated with closing an artery,” Scannell said. “If I lose a dam, I could lose 50 lives, I could take out a town. The risk is extremely high.”

A 2005 investigation by The Associated Press found many dams in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut were not inspected as often as they should have been, and some went years without repairs. In many cases, private owners were reluctant to shoulder repair costs or couldn't afford to. In others, the government was unable to act or unwilling to spend the money.

If dams fail — as nearly happened in 2005 when heavy rains threatened the 173-year-old Whittenton Pond Dam in Taunton, Mass., and forced the evacuation of 2,000 residents — homes, businesses and lives are in jeopardy.

Connecticut has spent more than $45 million to upgrade its state-owned dams and beef up inspections since 1982, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reviewed the state's dams.

DEP is also spending $80,000 over two years for DamWatch. The money is coming from a federal grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The state will then pay Scannell's company an ongoing fee to use the system.

The DamWatch computer software program essentially monitors the dams and alerts state officials, using real-time data, by e-mail, cell phones, fax machines and pagers about the changing weather and rising water levels. That information can be checked against existing data about problem dams, flood zones and watershed areas.

In an instant, a user can also call up photos of the dam, maps and inspection reports.

“I think it's unique the way he's put those components together to give you a real-time look at what's happening to structures during a rainfall event,” said Ann Kuzyk, a civil engineer in Connecticut's dam safety group.

Besides the DEP-owned dams, DamWatch will be able to help officials track potential problems at other dams across the state.

There are about 4,400 dams in Connecticut, most privately owned. Of those, 503 could cause loss of life and serious property damage if they fail. Many of those structures are in the same watersheds as the DEP-owned dams and therefore can still be monitored even though they won't officially be part of the system.

Scannell first designed a similar program called ScourWatch, a service that helps officials proactively monitor the safety of bridges. Tennessee, Connecticut, Iowa and Georgia are using the system.

While a DOT engineer, he grew concerned that foundations of bridges often erode due to a phenomena called “scouring.” That's when the water flowing under the bridge carries away the material around the bridge abutment or piers. The problem can be exacerbated during a storm.

The problem is the same for dams — 85 percent of which are earthen in the U.S. and more susceptible to erosion.

“What I envision is the agencies themselves can adopt the DamWatch technology quite quickly and implement quite painlessly,” said Scannell. “Right now, they go around chasing phone calls and problems and they send their team wherever their crisis is calling them. It's kind of a chaotic response. It's the best they can do at this time.”

Aquarion and Nature Conservancy in Joint Venture
Westport NEWS
By Frank Luongo
Article Launched: 11/14/2007 01:21:39 PM EST

In what is being described as a one-of-a-kind model for water-supply management, the Aquarion Water Company and the Nature Conservancy (TNC) have established a water-management partnership that will attempt to hold sufficient water in reserve for human needs without denying an area watershed the flow of water necessary for ecological health and vitality.

At the water company's Aspetuck Environmental Center in Easton last Thursday, Charles Firlotte, Aquarion president and chief executive officer, and Lise Hanners, TNC state director, signed an agreement to put together a team of freshwater experts for the purpose of developing such a water-management plan for the Saugatuck River watershed.

According to information distributed at the signing, the watershed covers more than 37,000 acres in southwest Connecticut and provides drinking water for 300,000 residents of Fairfield County.

Eighty percent of the watershed is located in Westport, Weston, Easton and Redding. The balance of the watershed is in Bethel, Danbury, Fairfield, Newtown, Norwalk, Ridgefield and Wilton.

Those 11 towns and cities teamed up in 2004 with the conservancy to form another partnership to reduce the stress on the river system, resulting from such problems as pollution, invasive plant species and excessive extraction of water from the Saugatuck River for commercial use. Downstream from two of the water company's reservoirs, the Saugatuck in Redding and the Aspetuck in Easton, the watershed is home to diverse animals, plants and fish that rely on a natural flow of water to flourish.

At the signing of the agreement, Firlotte said that his company would be expanding its role as an "environmental steward" by using a computer model to "determine the impact of water releases" and more closely mimic the natural process.

This is the first time that the conservancy, which has a worldwide membership of 1 million and has been responsible for the conservation and protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States, will be collaborating with a private water company to re-examine reservoir practices to promote freshwater ecology, according to Hanners.

"We hope that Aquarion's progressive thinking will set the stage for similar efforts by other private and public water suppliers," Hanners said in a press release issued jointly with Aquarion.

Firlotte said that his company "understands that sound management of freshwater resources is the key to maintaining the quality of life in our region," and expressed confidence that the partnership would "create a flow-management plan for the Saugatuck River basin that will achieve both public water supply and river ecosystem health goals."

Stressing the need to follow nature's lead in monitoring the release of water from reservoirs, Hanners said during the signing ceremony that "creatures take their cues from the natural rising or falling levels of river water."

She said, for example, that the seasonal changing of water levels in rivers signals the time for fish to move to spawning areas for laying their eggs.

On that point, Mark Smith, the director of TNC's Eastern U.S. Freshwater Program, is quoted in the press release as saying, "Seasonal high waters trigger spawning migrations in fish and provide them access to upstream habitat. When these flows are reduced or stopped, fish lose habitat essential to their life cycles."

He added that such reductions in river flows can also have a "dramatic effect on wading birds, waterfowl and the diversity of plant life along the river."

An added benefit of developing a successful water-management plan for the watershed, according to Lee Dunbar of the state Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Water Protection and Land Reuse, would be less intrusion by state government in local water management.

"If we are successful with a good plan, the state will not have to throw its weight around. If a local agreement balances water needs with ecological needs on this scale, it will be the plan. This could manage stream flow for years and years to come," Dunbar said in remarks at the signing.

Officials: Development adds to water woes
Greenwich TIME
By Hoa Nguyen, Staff Writer
Published March 3 2007

Bigger houses and larger paved surfaces might have had something to do with the way many areas typically not known to flood were left inundated yesterday by the 3.6 inches of rain that fell in just 12 hours, some land-use officials said.

"The highest concentration of calls we received were in areas where development is ongoing," said Michael Chambers, the acting executive director of the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency. "They remove trees, they create larger homes, tennis courts and other amenities. The end result is what happened today. When you replace natural ground cover, natural vegetation with impervious surface, the end result is flooding."

Two compliance officers from the wetlands agency were busy yesterday fielding calls and making visits to residents who believe wetlands violations might have led to flooding problems.

"Most of the calls we received today were in areas in the center of town, just above the Post Road, 1-acre zones where development is fairly clustered," Chambers said.

When developers build houses, the land is replaced with pavement and other impervious surfaces that do not absorb stormwater. To make sure this water does not flood the surrounding area, engineered stormwater systems are built to carry off the water. Sometimes those systems fail or are deluged with more stormwater than they can handle, causing the water to back up and flood the surrounding area.

"People who develop their property now are understanding the importance of stormwater management," Chambers said.

Another factor that might have contributed to the flooding was the frozen topsoil that prevented the rainwater from soaking in, allowing the water to accumulate on lawns as if the surface were asphalt pavement, said Conservation Director Denise Savageau.

"In places where there are lawns, we are just seeing complete runoff," she said, adding that is one of the reasons she advocates for the preservation of meadows, which have crevices capable of holding stormwater, rather than turning them into flat lawn areas more susceptible to this problem.

Certainly the amount of water that fell within the short period of time also was a factor. At the peak of the storm, nearly an inch fell between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.

"It just came in so fast," Savageau said. "It was the sheer volume in the amount of time, it's one of those things you really don't have any control of."

Both Chambers and Savageau said this is not the first time the town has seen development exacerbate flooding conditions. In fact, the situation could get worse as the area continues to be developed.

"We actually could see more occurrence of it if we have more development of our watershed," Savageau said. "Even though we have frozen ground conditions that are problematic, we still could see how bad it would be if we had full development."

Officials keep tabs on dams in town
Greenwich TIME
By Hoa Nguyen,Staff Writer
Published January 3 2006

Out of the 96 Greenwich dams registered with the state, only a handful are large enough to pose a danger to downstream homeowners, town officials said.

"We're very aware of those dams and we've been looking at them," Conservation Director Denise Savageau said.

Flooding is a perennial problem in Greenwich, although municipal officials said it is more of a problem in low-lying or coastal spots vulnerable to storm surges than just areas downstream of dams.

Still, steady rain coupled with storm surges had officials on edge earlier this year about a particular dam in Glenville, after October's heavy rains. State inspectors were dispatched to town and Greenwich officials opened their Emergency Operations Center to monitor the flooding potential had the dam failed.

In the aftermath of that potential disaster, Greenwich officials said that their system of alarms and notifications worked to warn the town and surrounding residents of a possible dam failure.

"That's the way it should be," said Daniel Warzoha, the town's emergency management operations coordinator.

In October, officials declared a state of emergency when water from the Byram River came close to flooding houses downstream of a dam at the Mill in Glenville. Officials learned of the potential danger from the dam's operator, who was monitoring the river's rising level and contacted the town when it became time to open up the dam's emergency bypass system.

That decision, which had the potential to flood several downstream properties had river levels continued to rise, kicked off a series of notifications, including to state dam inspectors, who arrived to monitor the situation, as well as to various emergency management officials.

Had the dam been overwhelmed, flooding would have inundated less than a dozen homes. Still, a failure may have had far-reaching implications for another downstream dam in Pemberwick as well as communities in nearby New York, Warzoha said.

Greenwich was not the only municipality worried about dams failing. The rain prompted Gov. M. Jodi Rell to order state authorities to inspect rivers, streams and dams for potential flooding. This order was in addition to the Department of Environmental Protection's annual inspection of more than 600 of the largest dams in the state.

In addition to the privately owned dams in Glenville and Pemberwick, the town also is home to several large dams owned by the Aquarion Water Co. along the Mianus River. The rest of the dams are smaller structures that do not pose a threat to downstream properties, officials said.

Dam owners are required to publish emergency action plans that detail what they will do if rising water levels come close to overwhelming the dams. They also are in charge of regularly maintaining their dams, including keeping spillways clear of debris and watching for any cracks in the dam structure.

"It's being looked at pretty aggressively," Savageau said of dam safety. "DEP really has a good inventory of all the dams. When they do the inspection, they send copies to the town, which we have on file."

While Greenwich officials said they keep regular tabs on dams, they are more concerned about the general flood dangers that exist in town. That is because while there are several houses downstream of dams, most of the complaints they receive about flooding occur in densely settled and built-up areas along the coast and near rivers and streams. Heavy storms and surges of rain from events, such as hurricanes, inundate these areas with so much water, while measures that keep flood waters at bay, such as trees, have been cleared from the land.

Savageau said the town is identifying the conditions that exacerbate flooding, from land-use patterns to meteorological data, to help them understand how to address the larger problem.

"Our biggest concern isn't about dams, it's about storm surges from storm events like hurricanes," Savageau said. "It's just a matter of, there's so much water."

China landslide kills 128, hopes fade for missing
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 10, 2008
Filed at 12:51 p.m. ET

BEIJING (AP) -- At least 128 people were killed and many more were feared dead in north China after a huge reservoir of iron ore waste, illegally maintained and turned to sludge by heavy rain, buried a bustling marketplace in tons of suffocating mud.

Two thousand rescuers shoveled and hammered through the debris Wednesday searching for those buried under the three-story wave of mud and mining waste that inundated a valley in Shanxi province's Xiangfen county Monday. State media put the official death toll at 128 people with 34 more injured.

Authorities have declined to provide a figure for the number of missing people, saying an investigation is ongoing.

But the Shanghai Morning Post reported that hundreds may have been buried in the mud. The paper said the landslide occurred in the morning just as business at a busy outdoor market was getting under way with shoppers haggling at roadside stalls for food and daily necessities.

When the dam broke, a wave of gray sludge inundated the valley washing out homes, cars and a building where more than 100 people from a local mining company were holding their weekly meeting, the paper said.

A relative of one of the company's employees told the Shanghai paper that only three of those at the meeting were believed to have survived.

More than a hundred people kept vigil behind a security cordon, waiting anxiously for news of their loved ones, state media reported but local officials acknowledged that the chances of finding any more survivors was slim.

''There were survivors on the first day and on the second day, but from day three, it's very likely that anyone we find in the future will be dead already,'' said a woman surnamed Dong who heads the propaganda department of Xiangfen county.

Dong told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that more than 2,000 police, firefighters and villagers were mobilized in the search, but conditions were difficult.

''There is mud everywhere,'' said Dong, who was speaking from the site where excavators and front loaders were lifting earth and debris. ''It is very hard for the machines to drive through the mud.''

Also hampering rescue efforts were the rough terrain, poor telecommunications and heavy rainfall, which finally let up on Wednesday, Dong said. Like many Chinese officials, she refused to give her full name.

The accident underscores two major public safety concerns in China: the failure to enforce protective measures in the country's notoriously deadly mines, and the unsound state of many of its bridges, dams and other aging infrastructure.

A preliminary investigation showed that the landslide was caused by the collapse of an abandoned dump which had been turned into a holding pond for mining waste by the illegally run Tashan Mine, said Wang Dexue, deputy head of the State Administration of Work Safety.

''It is an illegal company that was using the abandoned dump to get rid of its production waste,'' Wang said in an interview broadcast on state television.

Heavy rains caused the already overloaded dump to breach its retaining wall, Wang said.

''It was terrible,'' Wei Guanghui, a migrant worker who witnessed the disaster, told the official Xinhua News Agency. ''The mud-rock flow looked about seven meters (23 feet) high. It roared down the valley and washed away the market and the houses in a few minutes.''

Nine people suspected of being responsible for the incident, including the owner of the Tashan mine, were detained. Xinhua said several officials, including the local head of the work safety administration, the village Party secretary and village chief have already been fired for negligence.

Dam Bursts In Grand Canyon
Residents, campers uninjured as hundreds are evacuated after days of heavy rains
DAY
By Amanda Lee Myers
Published on 8/18/2008

Phoenix - Days of heavy rains around the Grand Canyon caused an earthen dam to fail Sunday and created flooding that forced helicopters to pluck hundreds of residents and campers from the gorge. No injuries were immediately reported.

The failure of the Redlands Dam caused some flooding in Supai, a village on a canyon floor where about 400 members of the Havasupai tribe live, said Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge. The current floods and potential for more required the evacuations, she said.

No structures were damaged after the dam failed about 45 miles upstream from Supai, but some hiking trails and footbridges were washed out, she said. Trees were uprooted, the National Weather Service said.

Nearly 80 people had evacuated as of early Sunday evening, said Red Cross spokeswoman Tracey Kiest. Evacuations were still in progress.

As much as 8 inches of rain since Friday caused trouble even before the dam burst. A private boating party of 16 people was stranded on a ledge at the confluence of Havasu Creek and the Colorado River on Saturday night after flood waters carried their rafts away, Oltrogge said.

The boaters were found uninjured and were being rescued from the Grand Canyon, whose floor is unreachable in many places except by helicopter.

Rescuers were trying to find visitors staying at the Supai Campground and escort them to safety, Oltrogge said.

Evacuees were being flown to a parking area 8 miles from Supai and then, if needed, bused to a Red Cross shelter in Peach Springs, about 60 miles southwest of Supai, the spokeswoman said.

The area got 3 to 6 inches of ran Friday and Saturday and got about 2 more on Sunday, said Daryl Onton, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Flagstaff.

”That's all it took - just a few days of very heavy thunderstorms,” he said.

Supai is on Havasu and Cataract creeks about 30 miles northwest of Grand Canyon Village, a popular tourist area on the south rim. Havasu Creek feeds the Colorado, which runs the length of the canyon.

The flooding came on a weekend during the busy summer tourist season, when thousands of visitors a day flock to the canyon for spectacular views, hikes or to raft its whitewater.

The helicopters lifting residents out were from the National Park Service, the National Guard and the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Oltrogge said.

In 2001, flooding near Supai swept a 2-year-old boy and his parents to their deaths while they were hiking.

The Grand Canyon has been the traditional home of the Havasupai for centuries.