The Southern Nevada Water Authority has had a very bad week. Last week, a piece of their equipment started a huge fire near Moapa and burned down at least 6 houses, burned more than 100 acres of land and still have not accepted responsibility.
The water authority also has been digging a tunnel underneath Lake Mead to put in a water pipeline that will reach further into the lake so that it will ensure Las Vegas and the Valley will continue to recieve water from Lake Mead.
Well, it turns out that the huge pipeline hole filled up with water after theyhit a big pocket of water.
From the LVRJ: "He called the incident "unexpected," but said it was not a life-threatening emergency that required a hasty evacuation.
McDonald said the fault was breached on June 28 and the cavern gradually filled over the next four days.
By Friday morning, workers could no longer access the site, where they were building a mansion-sized assembly area and a 100-foot-long starter shaft for the massive machine that eventually will be used to mine a 3-mile tunnel beneath Lake Mead.
The water eventually filled the entire space and climbed partway up the 600-foot access shaft before the flow was brought under control by pumps removing 300 to 400 gallons per minute." http://www.lvrj.com/news/water-halts-lake-tunnel-work-98008644.html
McDonald said the fault was breached on June 28 and the cavern gradually filled over the next four days.
By Friday morning, workers could no longer access the site, where they were building a mansion-sized assembly area and a 100-foot-long starter shaft for the massive machine that eventually will be used to mine a 3-mile tunnel beneath Lake Mead.
The water eventually filled the entire space and climbed partway up the 600-foot access shaft before the flow was brought under control by pumps removing 300 to 400 gallons per minute." http://www.lvrj.com/news/water-halts-lake-tunnel-work-98008644.html
Some very expensive mining equipment was left behind and this will delay the project for a significant amount of time. Of course, I am not a miner, but I can just cannot imagine, with all the technology available such as sonar, x-ray and other technology, that they could not tell that water was behind some rocks. Maybe they needed a divining stick.
It's not every day a water authority can claim a large flood and a large fire in one week. Well, in fact, this may be the first time in U.S. history, a government agency can claim such an honor.
But will anyone be held responsible? Somehow, I doubt it.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete