Cog wrote:This is an engineering consultant's wet dream. CAD guys doing 3D drawings, engineers coming up with fixes, surveyors taking shots to verify quantities, concrete testers, meetings with other firms, etc ad. nauseum. Give me this contract and I'll make a fortune and hand out year end bonuses that would choke an elephant. Show me the emergency contract, I'll show you how to make money on it. Everyone in my firm would be charging time to it. Even HR and the secretaries who do billing.
The words you want to hear from your client: "We don't care what it costs, we just need it done by this date". Its a license to print money for your firm.
Cog wrote:LOL Sorry hvacman. I'm retired and its showing. What I meant to say is that the consultants will do an excellent job, in an expeditious and thorough manner, and save our clients(taxpayers) as much money as possible.
vtsnowedin wrote:jedrider wrote:Well, the drought emergency is certainly not behind us:
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/San-Joaquin-Valley-is-sinking-fast-rains-won-t-10989670.php?ipid=articlerecirc#photo-12513555But won't the winter's near-record rainfall replenish parched aquifers?
No, says Steven McQuinn, former water conservation writer for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
"There has to be standing water on the floodplain that can seep down and reach the aquifer," McQuinn says. "But such conditions are exactly what the entire flood control system is designed to prevent. Only an emergency release will make the Central Valley the immense floodplain it used to be in the era of uncontrolled rivers, such as the accelerated drawdown of Oroville Lake that flooded the area around Sutter Buttes. Natural flooding is a thing of the past in California."
Hence the need to pump (or at least allow water to run into) the wells that are now too shallow to reach the aquifer level. Some of these wells are 400 feet deep so letting them fill to the top with runoff water would put pressures of 173 pounds per square inch at their bottoms and recharge the aquifer as much as possible. As long as the water being allowed to flow down the hole isn't oil contaminated it is a good way to store it for the next drought.
While DWR’s crews have shored up the spillway with quick-setting concrete and other materials, the water releases might cause new damage on the 3,000-foot chute. But DWR Acting Director Bill Croyle said it was important to push water out of Lake Oroville as water levels have crept up.
“We’re going to be watching to see what happens, and we believe the measures we’ve taken have really been proactive to try to mitigate the concerns of losing additional concrete off the spillway,” Croyle told reporters Friday. “We may see some of that (concrete) move, but at the moment, I need to get some water out of this reservoir. So, as long as you don’t see catastrophic loss of a lot of concrete, then we’re going to roll through this.”
Oroville – Naturally-occurring asbestos has been found in the rock formations and in the air near the damaged Oroville Dam main spillway, according to a press release.
Although California Department of Water Resources said risk to workers and the surrounding community is minimal, dust-control operations are being increased. Air quality will continue to be monitored at the work site and nearby neighborhoods.
Cog wrote:This horror show just gets more surreal. Good catch on the serpentine. In reality the real risk is moving the rock around and getting the asbestos fibers airborne. There is a lessor risk due to asbestos in the drinking water. I wonder if any of those dozer and backhoe operators were wearing PPE for asbestos exposure. I'm betting no.
Cog wrote:If I recall from my classes on hazardous materials correctly, their in a multiplicative effect if you are a smoker and also inhale asbestos regularly.
Serpentinite has a unique association with California for many reasons including: its association with gold deposits and the resulting California Gold Rush history, many plants unique to California grow on serpentinite-rich soils, the fact that serpentinite is thought to promote slow (and less hazardous) ‘creep’ along faults, and others.
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