It’s Probably Nothing

It's Probably Nothing 40 Comments

Then, there’s the earthquake.

#ThreeGorgesDam

Update: China announces ‘No. 1 Flood’ for Three Gorges Dam headwaters

40 Replies to “It’s Probably Nothing”

  1. Lets hope the damn holds together because we all know Skippy Mc Fuck Nuts will be there with billions in relief money for China if it does.

  2. How about, we send them Climate Barbie, and China’s Communist Party’s most fervent admirer, Canada’s little potato emperor, Justin Trudeau to consult on China’s Climate Crisis ?

    Who would have guessed that like a butterly wings, that of a gull-wing, classic Mercedes convertible emitting Carbon Dioxide would cause a break in the 3 Gorges Dam half-way around the world?

    The little mashed potato head of the first post-nation state, In-justin, he has a lot to apologize for… on bended knee, of course.

  3. So far the Dam seems to be intact. It sounds like the resevoir is getting very full. They are letting so much water out through the generators and discharge gates that they are flooding all the cities downstream. Hopefully the discharge rate is large enough and keeps the dam from overflowing. Bad things happen when dams overflow.

    Southern China is getting slammed with rain. Imagine what would happen in your town if you had 31 straight days of rain?

    But if this keeps up, President for Life Xi might find out how short that term of office can be.

  4. My father was assistant project manager on the Mica Dam circa 1970-74. Project manager on the Nipawin Hydroelectric Dam circa 1982-85.

    I’ll tell you why the 3 Gorges Dam is failing; the geology of the area is COMPLETELY WRONG for hydroelectric construction.

    How do I know this, you ask? I asked my father.

    My father was tapped to run the construction of this monstrosity; but he turned it down.
    He turned it down, because the Communist Party apparatchiks decided they knew more about hydro-electric dam construction than he did! The Communist Party apparatichiks decided the local area GEOLOGY report could be IGNORED!!!

    The main problem with the 3 Gorges area is siltation, the entire catchment area is subject to embankment collapse, which causes the the turbine bearings excessive wear; leading to frequent down time. Also not great when you are trying to relieve pressure on the dam due to rising floodwaters.

    He decided to use his time more wisely and took the project management job on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.
    A 2.5 billion gig funded through the World Bank.

    My 91 year old father his now laughing his head off in a GIGANTIC “I TOLD YOU SO!”
    Rule #1 don’t anger german engineers; they can actually build real sh*t that doesn’t break.

    God help the 500 million people in the downstream basin, they won’t be having a swell time should that beast fail.

    Of course they’re supposed to design to these infrastructure projects to be able to sustain the proverbial 100 year floods. So far they are up to the 80 year level…

    The typhoon Nina dropped so much rain in 1975 the Banqiao Reservoir Dam & Shimantan Reservoir Dam failed causing 11 million to be displaced with 171000 fatalities. Much as the Communist Party likes to toot it’s horn; they are not immune to the vagaries of nature, or idiotic decisions to ignore geology reports.

    Cheers

    Hans Rupprecht – Commander-in-Chief
    Army Group “True North”
    1st Saint Nicolaas Army

    1. I’ll tell you why the 3 Gorges Dam is failing; the geology of the area is COMPLETELY WRONG for hydroelectric construction.

      I heard rumours about that during the early stages of construction 20 years ago.

      1. When I took first year geology, the prof entertained us with examples of problems when engineers thought they could outwit geology provided they used enough cement. One of the examples given was the Vajont Dam in Italy, built with the latest technical expertise but without looking at the local geology: the area was known to the locals as “the mountains that move”. When a landslide did inevitably occur, the dam held but the wave over the top washed out all the downstream towns and killed over 2000 people.

        Another example given is Rogers Pass on the TransCanada Highway. The road is on the north side of the valley, no doubt chosen because it would get more sun than on the other side which would be beneficial. However, the engineers didn’t consider the geology; the dip of the rocks is to the south which encourages snow and rock slides. Hence all the snow sheds.

    2. I was wondering, Hans, if your father had any comments about the 1905 Prince Albert, Saskatchewan Dam Collapse?

    3. Thank you for posting – I had a similar experience in 1980 on a banquet hall for which I was the interior designer – so NOT on the hook. Both the architect and the structural engineer strongly recommended to the client to have various soil tests done as the site was on a former land fill in Mississauga. The clients decided to save money and NOT do the soil tests as they would have cost $ 11,000 (shocker – I know!). To date, 40 years later, the building and the surround parking lot still stands, but I often wonder if this is a case of “penny wise and pound foolish”.

    5. God help the 500 million people in the downstream basin, they won’t be having a swell time should that beast fail.

      It already looks awful and even as a slow motion disaster, if it does fail from this I doubt many have the information and the means to get out of the way. That said, if they dodge this bullet sounds like they can’t lower the level and fix the problem except to abandon the project. Is that accurate?

    6. “My father was…… project manager on the Nipawin Hydroelectric Dam circa 1982-85”
      What an interesting post. The dam, for now at least, is called the Francois-Finlay named for a pedlars post now at the bottom of Tobin Lake, the lake formed behind the dam.
      “The Francois-Finlay Post the first “pedlar” post on the Saskatchewan River was a combined effort of François Le Blanc, a veteran of the La Vérendrye family’s 1740’s expeditions, and James Finlay, a Scottish-born businessman”
      Thanks to your father’s dam Tobin Lake is today home to the best walleye fishing in North America.

      1. What does one do with a walleye? Other than nail it to a board and hang it on your office wall? Nasty looking business.

        3. The best fish I’ve ever had, bar none, was a wall-eyed pike, prepared and served at the Rapid City Hilton sometime in the 1980s. It was so good that a week later, when I got to Minneapolis, I went out of my way to order it at the Minneapolis Hilton. Big disappointment. With most fish, salmon being a possible exception, the chef is everything.

          1. Nope, salmon is not the exception. Bad cooking makes salmon into cardboard. With less flavour.

        4. Eat them, they are delicious! A larger member of the perch family..
          it’s Ling Cod or Burbot that are disgusting looking, but again, delicious to eat, if you can stomach cleaning them; nail the tail to a tree, skin and filet out the meat, don’t Knick the entrails, throw the rest away, for the wildlife!

    7. Thanx, Hans

      Last year, we visited Revelstoke with family and all went to tour the Revelstoke Dam (Mica too far away). Tour was good until spouse, a geologist, started asking too many questions about the geology. Realized we weren’t getting the full story, though guide did say that the little huts dotted along the shore above the dam were to monitor any movement. We came home and spouse did as any good geologist would: on to the internet for any and all information related to the geology. Discovered that there were some issues, including a fracture zone or fault which was very heavily cemented up as well as a slide zone upstream which is being continuously monitored. Of most interest was that spouse knew the authors as had attended the same uni where they were now doing post-grad work or professors.

      The one comment about the Mica Dam that I remember was that the reservoir was not cleared properly. It was logged off, to be sure, but the stumps were left in situ and so ended up under water. Apparently the roots totally rot over time and the stumps shoot to the surface unpredictably. At Revelstoke, the stumps were removed.

      1. @Frances
        True enough on the stumps issue; one of the reasons they keep booms well enough away from the intake tubes.
        This doesn’t in itself make the project unfeasible, more of a maintenance issue.

        My father always affectionately referred to the geologists on his crew as “Dr. Mud”; knowing full well that dam site location was job #1 for a successful project. Failure in hydro-electric projects is not an option; for many obvious reasons!! In any case, one of the leading reasons he never wanted to leave his name on the 3 Gorges project.

        On the Grand Rapids, Manitoba project (1961-64) he cut his teeth on the now standard operating procedure, on less than purely stable geology, the implementation of grout curtain walls. Then followed up on the Red River Valley Floodway in Winnipeg, Manitoba (1964-67). This incidentally is why the spillway failed on the Oroville Dam in California recently. The grout curtain wall remediation has been epic if you follow the “blancolirio” youtube channel; where he followed the near catastrophe.

        As many learn the hard way, Mother Nature can give you a GOD ALMIGHTY kick in the ass when you disrespect her…

        Cheers

        Hans Rupprecht – Commander-in-Chief
        Army Group “True North”
        1st Saint Nicolaas Army

        1. Thanx for the response. I understand there is a really good photo from the lake behind the Mica Dam. Fisherman in boat concentrating on trying to catch something; stump exploding out of water behind him.

    8. I’ve heard similar comments from an acquaintance with family involved in the engineering field in Taiwan i.e. that the CCP government was told that the dam as projected, could not be built with any certainty that it would hold. For the sake of the people downstream, I pray that it does, or at least will allow sufficient warning to get the people to safety before it fails.

    2. The reason China builds crap isn’t China, or Chinese, it’s communism. Communism is lies. Lies only work for a while, then reality proves the lies are lies. The longer the lies are sustained, and the harsher the control measures used to coerce the subject population to pretend they believe the lies, the more spectacular the blow out when it comes.

        1. Yes. I love this place, in terms of geography, terrain, climate, but it isn’t magic dirt. How people decide to live makes the nation, we’ve been making more bad decisions of late.

    3. “has China produced anything of lasting value?”

      I thought – instant noodles but that was the Japanese.

      1. “Wonder what the fecal coliform count is?”

        In China they measure feces as a percentage, not parts per million. That’s why I run when I see food that says “Product of China.”

  7. And who performed the heavily criticized CIDA(Canadian International Development Agency) financed Three Gorges dam feasibility study in 1988?
    SNC Lavalin. Of course it was just Lavilin back then.

    Nice to know our tax dollars helped rubber stamp a project with the words “OH Yeah, Totally Doable” that other engineering firms claimed was a disaster just waiting to happen if it was ever built.

  8. If you look closely at the 3 GD on Google Earth you will see that it is an artists rendering of the dam and not the real thing. I suspect the real picture would show that it is no longer straight and is in fact moving as reported in 2018.

    Sum Ting Wong

  9. Here is another big story about China.

    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/07/02/chinas-brutal-crackdown-on-hong-kong-exposes-the-communist-partys-greatest-weakness-n600266

    Communist China abrogrates their Hong Kong treaty promises for 50 years of “One China, Two Systems.” Anyone that invests or builds their factories in China should expect they will be screwed over when the Chinese Communist Party decides they are no longer useful. These Communists have shown how much respect they have for treaties and agreements. Absolutely None, just in case you haven’t been listening to them.

    1. As a wise person once told me, “Never expect more than an oink from a pig and you’ll never be disappointed.”

  10. So whats a few million chinamen.
    Hell, they lost more in the Wuhan CCP Covid-19 coronavirus.

    1. Duly noted.

      Cheers

      Hans Rupprecht – Commander-in-Chief
      Army Group “True North”
      1st Saint Nicolaas Army

  12. Feast, O Water Dragon.

    Tear through the towns and cities of China. Spare not one morsel, big or little. Feast till your belly might burst.

    Then give praise to the God of Israel Who made you for His bounty.

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