Concrete envy: size does matter when it comes to 15 billion-gallon reservoirs
July 14th, 2008 by Kelly Cornelius in Environment, What you can doI know we have 10 categories to choose from in Fix it Now and usually my posts fit nicely under transportation or suburban sprawl but this one really needs another category, WTF will probably do it.
Boy, just a few short days to celebrate the death of the Bypass/ Green Swath of Death and then I read the July 1 front page of the Trib showing the cracks in the reservoir. Great, so I won’t have a road destroying my community but now I might need to don my scuba gear to get out to the barn. Tampa Bay Water (who look to me like the TBARTA of water with their regional board) are saying that the reservoir is safe (yeah and their inspectors said they had 12 inches of cement when it turns out there is only actually 3 in some places). Hmmm, claiming to have 12 inches while really only sporting 3…………. seems to me that overestimating how well-endowed the reservoir is could be disastrous. When it comes to holding back 15 billion gallons of water, I think size probably does matter and oh yeah, taxpayers paid for 12 inches! This photo is from last year’s report that I found on their website, so they have known about this for some time.
When we first heard these rumblings last year we were told everything is fine, and not to worry our pretty heads about it. I was busy fighting a road at the time and Ronda Storms said in the paper she would take care of it. (hey, give me some credit here for not making a comment about Storms). After reading the most recent article about the cracks, I contacted some of our BOCC (Commissioners Higginbotham and Sharpe are on TBW). Mr. Johnson, Higginbotham’s aide, replied promptly via e-mail and gave me some information about the reservoir. Mr. Johnson explained that the soil-cement was a less expensive alternative than other options such as rip-rap. He also made me aware that it was “essentially recycled material” since the native soil from the excavation was used. (Not a good case for recycling but I give him an A for effort on that one). He also provided parts of David Carrier’s June 20th report and describes Carrier as the state expert from FDEP on dams and reservoirs. Carrier reports his findings from the consultants Black and Veatch who are excavating the test pits. Here are the parts of his report that scare me: the B and V folks found seepage/erosion conduits in the soil beneath the geotextile. The diameter of the conduits varies from several about 8 inches; and they “evidently meander beneath the soil cement.”
Evidently meander? Hey, I am not a scientist or engineer but evidently meandering past the layer that of geotextile that is supposed to be keeping the water out of my neighborhood does not make me feel safe. It gets worse he is later quoted in the report: “In one of the conduits a tape measure could be pushed to a length of 12 feet, but presumably it extends even farther.” Presumably? How much money does this guy get paid to presumably inspect the reservoir that evidently has some meandering holes underneath the cracking surface? These types of descriptions from an expert beg the question………… Is he inspecting crack or smoking it? As you can probably tell, I wasn’t feeling too confident about this guy when I read the end of his report “In particular, the geomembrane deep in the embankment has not been breached and the safety of the dam has not been compromised.” Um……Mr. Expert, how long before those 12 ft (but presumably farther) conduits extending beneath the geotextile meander even farther? What happens when the dam has 15 billion gallons of water in it instead of just under the 4 billion gallons that it is holding now?
Why should you care especially if you don’t happen to live in rural Lithia? Because your tax dollars built this cracking mess and it is costing a fortune to fix it. After reading Wayne’s recent article on Ralph Hughes, concrete mogul, and his ties to 6 of our 7 current county commissioners I am surprised they couldn’t at least get us a deal on real concrete.
My question is how far does 15 billion gallons spread if the reservoir is completely breached? Can anybody presumably guess just how far that water will meander if it breaks through the rest of the barriers? TBW is proposing to put another reservoir out here. I say NO. Why should one little corner of the region assume so much of the risk for all the counties (Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas) that TBW supplies to? The land surrounding the current reservoir will be for hiking, biking and horse trails and it is scheduled to be opened next spring. This sounds great but adding another reservoir would decrease the land available for this and certainly increase the risk they have already imposed on our community.
TBW needs to FIX IT NOW but the question is how? The pictures in the Trib show them patching up the visible cracks where the reservoir is dry but I wonder how they patch those cracks underwater and how do they fix that tunneling that is described outside the cracks and in the mound itself? You can contact TBW here and ask them. You can contact our BOCC here and let them know if you have concerns. Mr. Johnson assured me that Commissioner Higginbotham will continue to monitor the reservoir very closely and remains committed to ensuring the safety and continued operation of the reservoir. I do hope that is the case but if living in rural Lithia has taught me anything it is that citizens need to pay attention and look out for ourselves.
UPDATE: Since this was submitted I heard back from Eric Larson, Commissioner Mark Sharpe’s aide. I have found him to be accommodating and helpful anytime I have a question or request. He provided me with more information (in the linked .pdf) regarding the structure itself and assures me that the safety of the dam has not been compromised. He provided contact information to TBW and suggested I attend the next TBW Board Meeting on August 18 in Clearwater and put my concerns on the record. I did email TBW on July 3 regarding this issue and have yet to hear back from them. I also questioned what they were filling the cracks in with since it looked like real concrete and not soil-cement to me in the pictures. Mr. Larson informed me it was grout cement.
I also heard back from Mr. Johnson who expressed confidence in the state inspector. They both harped on the fact that the soil-cement is not what is holding back the water it is just a wave-attenuation (so I could have been surfing in Lithia if not for this wave-attenuation device?) and that the cracks have nothing to do with the integrity of the structure. It is the “evidently meanders beneath the geotextile” part that is scary to me. I am glad that I am a good swimmer just in case that meandering continues.
Send to a friend:
July 14th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Excellent article! Can your horses swim, too? Do we need flood insurance or will TBW get us a government bail out?
July 14th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Thanks for making a fun read of this serious topic, Kelly — love the running joke about how size matters.
Even though all the paid experts are saying 3 inches is a good as 12 inches, and the cracks and the meandering conduits are no big deal, this is not how this project was designed, and it’s not what we paid for. There are just too many surprises turning up to have confidence in this thing, especially since a bad mistake here could have dire consequences.
When TBW’s desal plant didn’t work like the paid experts said it would, it cost us a lot of money; but the consequences were nothing compared to what could happen if this reservoir doesn’t work the way they said it would.
July 14th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I declare…it’s always something out here in rural SE county. If they’re not putting in landfills, or prisons, or sewage treatment plants, or borrow pits or pushing beltways — it’s a fatally flawed humongous resevoir! This tears the rag right off the bush!
And really scares me — if that baby blows, it’s Noah city in Balm and us with no time to build an ark. I hate to ask, but just exactly HOW HIGH would the water be, say 6 miles out from the break? 10 miles out? Are we talking waders or bass boats? A girl needs to prepare, so I need to know.
As far as fixing this — I’m not an engineer, but I have watched a lot of home improvement shows on the teevee and I feel pretty sure that PATCHING THE SURFACE is not going to get it. Seems to me they would have to drain that baby out and fix it from the ground up — and where would they drain the water to?
What we have here…is a SCREW UP of major proportions. And the commissioners and engineers and TBW will all be trying to keep the lid on the PANIC that could well spread like a brush fire out here if people really begin to pay attention to this deal.
Meanwhile, I’m pumping up our inner tubes and keeping them handy.
July 14th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Thanks for the comments. You know I was thinking…….recall last year’s attack on the wetlands led by Commissioner Blair……. I recall him stating at some meeting or another that we have actually had a gain of wetlands and I believe he credited mitigation for that. Before he asks …..I think the answer is NO, wetlands created if the reservoir is breached will not be considered MITIGATION…. I could just see him asking that.
Speaking of wetlands if you are concerned about the natural ones that we have left the developers are at it again. You can learn about it here http://sticksoffire.com/2008/07/10/developers-attempt-to-weaken-epc-yet-again/
July 14th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
I’ve got a canoe, but I think getting the horses to swim behind it might be a problem. I’m still thinking about that flood insurance.
July 14th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Kelly, so now our BOCC recommends that you start attending TBW meetings? That takes the cake!!!
It’s bad enough that average citizens have to monitor everything that goes on with the BOCC, the EPC, PGM, TBARTA, the MPO, the Planning Commission to name just a few, in order to force them to put citizens interests first, and now you have to attend TBW meetings to make sure that the reservoir gets fixed and we get our money’s worth and our land doesn’t suddenly become beachfront property???
Next they’ll want us to wake them in the morning, pack their lunch and drive them to county center!!!
July 15th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Here is another update from a memo to TBW Board Members from Gerald Seeber, General Manager….He states that monitoring and investigation activities continue and that work continues to fill cracks and repair surface depressions in the soil-cement. He states that the reservoir remains safe. He lists some noteworthy items and I won’t list them all but a few that caught my attention were:
*With the onset of the rainy season, portions of the soil-cement in the southwest and northeast corner that were previously noted as severely cracked, and repaired this year, have re-cracked;
*No new areas of cracking (outside of the southwest and northeast areas) have been identified;
*The frequency of soil-cement inspections was changed from weekly to daily;
He also noted that they will inspect the reservoir tower and the 84 inch transmission main that is used to fill and drain the reservoir. I am happy to report that I did not see the terms evidently meandering used at all in this memo.