Potash, Utah - That Sinkhole Feeling, Again - 2009

 

Potash, Utah - That Sinkhole Feeling, Again

During a 2009 visit to the Intrepid Potash - Moab, Utah website we were pleased to see new safety related information regarding the mining and processing of potash (potassium chloride) and salt (sodium chloride) crystals at their Cane Creek potash plant. In an earlier article, we had criticized the company for not providing holding ponds designed to catch leaks or overflow from settling ponds at a higher elevation.

 

Their website now states that, “the solar ponds are lined with heavy vinyl to prevent valuable brine from leaking into the ground and the Colorado River. A series of holding ponds have been constructed to catch any spills and return potassium-rich brine to the ponds.” Whether these safety features existed all along, or are recent additions, we do not know. Either way, Intrepid's release of more information about their operation, rather than less is laudable.

 

In the event of a catastrophic failure at the upper ponds, what percentage of the brine might the holding ponds catch and retain? With the continued absence of information regarding holding pond capacity, we can only guess and hope that it is adequate. “Adequate for what?” you might ask. We can think of at least two scenarios in which a catastrophic failure might test Intrepid's holding pond design and capacity.

 

First is weather. What is the expected level of water flow into the settling ponds during a “one hundred year flood”? What about the "one thousand year flood"? In order to determine the size of a one hundred or one thousand year flood within the Shafer Basin and Potash, researchers must consider both historical data and paleoflood records.

 

Now that a drier climate in the Four Corners region is an established fact, we can expect storm and flood activities to increase in intensity, if not in number. Lack of an historical record does not preclude the formation of larger storms there in the future. In that regard, we would not be happy with a holding pond system that provides less than full containment of all settling pond brine.

 

A second threat at the Cane Creek Plant and its ponds results from the solution mining of potash itself. The Intrepid Potash - Moab Utah website indicates that, “water from the nearby Colorado River is pumped through injection wells into the underground mine. The water dissolves the potash from layers buried approximately 3,000 feet below the surface.” Missing from the company’s website is information on injection well locations, and their proximity to the fragile holding ponds.

 

In order to understand the importance of proximity, we need look no further than the City of Carlsbad, New Mexico. According to a recent Los Angeles Times article, New Mexico mines used a solution-mining technique similar to that of Intrepid, at Moab. Over the years, six million cubic feet of brine solution mining has been extracted from a salt deposit located directly beneath Carlsbad.

 

Although there has not yet been a collapse at the Carlsbad mine, in 2008 two similar mines north of the city experienced catastrophic failures. With the collapse of the overlying rock, each of those mines became a sinkhole four hundred feet across and one hundred feet deep. Since the mines operated within state and federal guidelines, there does not appear to be easy recourse against them. The state and the mine operators can simply call these unexpected events “Acts of God” and then proceed to disown any further liability.

 

In the case of Carlsbad, New Mexico, a collapse under the busiest intersection in town is a real possibility. Rail lines, an irrigation ditch and a mobile home park are now under threat of collapse. In the case of Intrepid Potash – Moab, Utah, no one knows how likely a catastrophic mine collapse might be. In an event similar to the Carlsbad scenario, might the solar ponds disappear into a sinkhole? Worse yet, could gravity cause the brine to cascade downhill towards the holding ponds and the Colorado River below?

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By James McGillis at 06:36 PM | Colorado River | Comments (0) | Link

Colorado River - Perfect Flood - 2009

 

Hey, what's that Sound? Is it the "Perfect Flood"? 

On June 22, 2009, the first full day of summer, we drove the Potash Road (Utah Route 279), beginning at its junction with U.S. Highway 191 North, near Moab, Utah. A paved highway, Potash Road parallels Kane Creek Access Road, on the opposite bank of the Colorado River. Both roads meander downstream from Moab and the Spanish Valley.

 

Watch the Action - The Potash Road Moab, Utah 2009

 

On the west bank, Potash Road skirts the Moab Pile, which occupies most of the floodplain along the outside radius of the river bend. When we stopped downstream of the pile and looked across, we saw charred evidence of the October 22, 2008 Matheson Wetlands fire. The high water table there has encouraged new growth in that unique and vital wetland habitat, but years will pass before nature erases the scar.

 

The Matheson Wetlands occupy a floodplain along the inside radius of this unique Colorado River bend. Its uniqueness as a riparian environment stems from the lack of canyon walls on either side of the bend. From the east, Spanish Valley descends gradually, until it meets the wetlands within the ancient flood plain. Despite a setback from the fire, The Nature Conservancy's ecologists are midway through a plan to bring back a natural flow of water throughout the Matheson Wetlands.

 

Water use planning in the Four Corner states, Nevada and Southern California depends on the stability and ultimate removal of the radioactive landfill, known as the Moab Pile. The fragile position of the Moab Pile is what most concerns downstream water planners in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. They know that documented paleofloods of enormous size periodically scour the flood plain of the Colorado in that location. At least two megafloods occurred in the past several thousand years. In such a flood, the broken megaliths that line the canyon upstream of the pile could be set loose, battering the vulnerable pile and washing it into the Colorado River channel. If it happened that recently, it could happen again.

 

In a “Perfect Flood” scenario, there would be heavy snowfall during a cold winter in the Colorado Plateau watershed. With an entire winter’s snowpack still in place, dust storms of enormous size could arise from the over-grazed Navajo Indian Reservation, to the South. Contemporary dust storms create weather vortices that are orders of magnitude larger than the largest firestorms. As the storms move across Southeastern Utah, land long overgrazed by ranchers and more recently overrun by off-road vehicles ads to the problem. If a series of such storms carried sufficient airborne soil, followed by rain, a blanket of dust could melt the Colorado Plateau snowpack in short order. At its peak, the subsequent flood could engulf the Moab Pile and wash its toxic and radioactive material downstream towards Lake Powell.

 

Currently, there is an active effort to relocate the Moab Pile to the new Moab Mountain, location at Crescent Junction, Utah. According to current Department of Energy (DOE) estimates, the removal project will take until 2022-2025. Depending on materials and conditions found in the core of the pile, those estimates are subject to change. As of this writing, the most optimistic estimates are for a thirteen-year project. Meanwhile, engineers and planners have done little to protect the pile from the potential of a Perfect Flood, as described above. The only observable difference at the site is the widening of a dry watercourse adjacent to the upstream side of the pile. The widening and deepening of that arroyo is all that stands between the river and the safety of the Lower Colorado Basin water supply and its seventeen million users.

 

If a Perfect Flood were to hit the pile before its complete removal, life in the West would never be the same. Communities and individuals whose water sources are upstream of the pile would be safe. Those living downstream of the potential washout could find Colorado River water unfit for home, industrial or agricultural consumption. If our water supply experienced a dramatic spike in chemicals, heavy metals and radioactive waste, we would immediately seek a different water source.

 

If seventeen million residents had to find new water supplies or perish, the Southwestern U.S. would face depopulation far greater than the Anasazi Disappearance, around 1200 CE. Financially, the Perfect Flood would make the estimated $150 billion cost of Hurricane Katrina look diminutive, by comparison. From Moab, Utah, to its dry and neglected delta, at the Sea of Cortez, Mexico, the Colorado River would become a river of death.

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By James McGillis at 11:45 AM | | Comments (0) | Link