Industry publication, December 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

tract, Barnard Construction, Bozeman, Mont., installed 5 miles of 60-in.-dia steel Air Quality pipeline,joining the aqueduct to a grid of lateral connectors and distribution lines. li LOS ANGELES TRIES UNIQUE SCHEME Water will saturate soil or induce shallow flooding to “stabilize particles that move on the surface,” says Coles. To speed TO MOISTEN DUSTY OWENS LAKE BED work, the department took the rare step of using design-build, says Harasick. The city was able to meet the initial deadline for flooding 10 sq miles and treat anoth­ er 3.5 sq miles one year early. On the project’s $44.3-miUion second phase, Barnard will install a system that will use salt grass, a native plant, rather than water to control emissions. “It will look like a commercial farm, except we’re not growing a commercial crop,” Hara­ sick says. A 4.5-sq-mile area will be divid­ ed into 644-acre units, each with its own fertilizer and dust control system. Barnard will install 2,500 ft of 60-in.-dia steel pipe and about 5.8 miles of pipe F under 3 ft of cover to connect a new spill­ way to the aqueduct Water will be dis­ tributed to the lake bed through a net­ work of 24-in.-dia polyvinyl chloride mains, lO-in.-dia submains, and 27 mil­ lion ft of Kin.-dia drip tube, Brady says. Four filtration stations using sand me­ Flow Pipe system will saturate soli while salt grass, planted later, will cut emissions. dia filters will remove small particles that could clog tubes. To prevent briny A UNIQUE BLEND OF A CONVENTIONAL ter and Power. The city is undertaking the groundwater from killing plant roots. Bar­ water project and agriculture is taking work to meet a 1998 consent decree re- nard will install about 127 miles of frin.- K' shape in central California this month as quiring it to eliminate plumes that can and 16-in.-dia perforated polyethelene 0’ part of an unprecedented air pollution “block the light of the sun,” says Richard collector pipe under 4 to 9 ft of cover in control effort. As a network of pipelines R. Coles, a vice president of CH2M Hill engineered grids. Saline groundwater col- i begins to soak 13.5 sq miles of the dry Cos. in Santa Ana, Calif., the city’s con- lected by pipes will be mixed with aque- Owens Lake bed, a contractor is starting struction manager and lead designer, duct water and sent to salt grass. Since I on the tightly scheduled second phase of The lake bed began drying out nearly 100 grass will need two growing seasons, a De- the program to control particulate storms years ago as the city diverted a key tribu- cember 2003 deadline leaves little room that afflict southern Inyo County. tary to supply the Los Angeles Aqueduct for error. “We’re charged with doing a sig- “Nobody’s ever done this before,” The storms threaten residents of nearby nificant amount more ofwork, in a small- claims Richard F. Harasick, an assistant Keeler, Calif., with respiratory problems. er area, in less time,” says Brady. □ * director of the Los Angeles Dept of Wa- Under a S62-miIIion design-build con- Paul Rosta

making decisions and be consulted on Dams resettlement and other issues related to new dams (ENR11/27/00 p. 12). INTERNATIONAL PANEL CRITIQUED Reactions to WCD’s report “signalled that expanding consensus.. .to the broad set of stakeholders would neither be AN OUTSIDE EVALUATION OF THE “eminent persons” by having “active prac­ automatic nor easy,” reviewers said. They ) World Commission on Dams, an ambi- titioners” from nongovernmental orga- added that WCD lacked “full industry t tious effort to bridge the divide between nizations, business and government, confidence” and showed the wariness of I

1 builders, environmentalists and people affected by dam construction, concludes that such multinational panels have ben- J efits but also limitations. Navroz K Dubash, a World Resources Institute senior associate, says that sort of lineup “can provide legitimacy” but “bal- ancing representatives and mantling a some governments. For example, an offi- cial from China’s Ministry of Water Re- sources resigned from WCD in early 2000. I Thecritique, released Nov. 21, was writ- credible process remain a challenge. ” Unsurprisingly, most NGOs liked the g ten by representatives from the World “The WCD passed one necessary con- WCD findings, though some wanted it to o Resources Institute, Washington, D.C., dition for success—it produced a consen- oppose big dams. But C.VJ. Varma, Pres- I Lokayan, a Delhi, India, research group, sus report,” the critique said. That report, ident of the Internationa Commission g and the Lawyers’ Environmental Action released in November 2000, called for a on Large Dams, says WCD’s report was g Team, Dar es Salaam. It says WCD dif- “rights and risks approach” to identify “unbalanced and contains insufficient fered from other blue-ribbon panels of stakeholders who should be involved in commentary on dam benefits....” □

18 ENR/december 3, 2001

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