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A pier created by the Marines of Combat Logistics Battalion 2, 1st Marine Logistics Group's Haditha Dam Forward Logistics Element stands in the Euphrates River, supporting two pumps that pull 20 thousand to 30 thousand gallons of water from the river daily. The pier was created to combat the fluctuating water levels of the Euphrates. Photo by Cpl. Sean McGinty. HADITHA DAM — It may not look like much, but a recent construction project has saved the occupants of Haditha Dam from drought and back-breaking labor.In June, the Marines of Haditha Dam’s Forward Logistics Element created a small pier to...

An earthen dam broke near the Grand Canyon following heavy rains, and officials are evacuating hundreds from the massive gorge. Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge says Redlands Dam broke at about 6 a.m. and is causing some flooding in the town of Supai at the bottom of the canyon. She says Supai is not under water. About 400 members of the Havasupai Tribe live there. Oltrogge says some campers and river runners in the canyon also are being evacuated by seven helicopters at the scene. She says evacuees are being taken to a Red Cross shelter in Peach...

Another Dam Threat July 16, 2008 http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/another_dam_threat By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart At the stroke of midnight July 8, the Denver Water Board closed the road over Dillon Dam in Summit County, Colorado, citing security concerns. The board’s decision, which was implemented without advance notice to local governments and citizens, has not been well-received. It has sparked protests by enraged residents and has even prompted officials from Summit County, three affected towns nearby and the local fire and rescue department to file suit in state district court in a bid to force Denver Water to reopen the road. The...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

China earthquake: 80,000 being evacuated from under dam By Richard Spencer in Beijing Last Updated: 1:24AM BST 28/05/2008 Attempts are being made to complete the evacuation of 80,000 Chinese below a natural dam formed by landslides in the Sichuan earthquake. Satellite images show how the Jian valley has filled with water after a landslide blocked the river's flow The blockage, on the Jian river above the devastated town of Beichuan, is one of many that formed when landslides were triggered by the quake two weeks ago. Almost 2,000 soldiers, armed with dynamite and using a mechanical digger landed by helicopter,...

SPOKANE — The era of massive dam construction in the West — which tamed rivers, swallowed towns and created irrigated agriculture, cheap hydropower and persistent environmental problems — effectively ended in 1966 with the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona. But a booming population and growing fears about climate change have governments once again studying dams, this time to create huge reservoirs to capture more winter rain and spring snowmelt for use in dry summer months. New dams are being studied in Washington, California, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada and other states, even as dams are being torn down across...

Still in Control Pervez Musharraf was calm, confident and—despite a flurry of rumors—not about to announce his resignation. Instead, the Pakistani president's "concession" to his troubled nation was an announcement that he would allow Britain's Scotland Yard to help local law enforcement agencies with their investigation into last week's assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Speaking in a nationally televised address two hours after Pakistan's election commission announced the postponement of the ballot to Feb. 18, six weeks later than had been scheduled, Musharraf was notably deferential in his remarks about Bhutto, often invoking her "martyrdom" and extolling...

Excavations reveal ancient Egyptians were master dam builders 2007-12-03 06:47:01 New Delhi, Dec 3 (ANI): Archaeologists have discovered the remains of an ancient dam, dating back to some 4,000 years, in Upper Egypt, proving theories that ancient Egyptians were master dam builders. Discovered by an Egyptian-French archaeological team, which has been working in Luxor since March, the ancient dam was found a few meters away from the Karnak Temple in the city, some 500 km south of Cairo. "The 230-meter long dam was built during the age of the Middle Kingdom (of ancient Egypt) to protect the temple from the...

Sceptics about the world's biggest hydroelectric dam are being vindicated (MIAOHE) -- Peasants in the village of Miaohe on the north bank of the Yangzi River say nothing like it had occurred in their lifetimes, nor those of their parents and grandparents. One afternoon in April, for a few grim seconds, the ground shook beneath them. The Wild Cat landslide, long at rest beneath the terraced maize fields, orange-tree groves and earth-brick houses perched on the steep slope, was stirring. Experts had long worried about the Wild Cat, 17km (10 miles) upstream from the Three Gorges dam in a narrow...

(BEIJING) — The world's earliest irrigation system is being threatened by a hydroelectric project to be built in southwest China, state press said Friday, citing critics of the project. A series of 10 small hydro plants to be built on the Botiao river in Sichuan province will destroy the natural ecology of the Dujiangyan irrigation system, a UNESCO World Heritage listed site, the China Daily reported. "It is irrational to build such stations as they will destroy the natural ecology along the river," Chen Qingheng, a expert at the China Academy of Sciences, was quoted by the paper as saying....

SACRAMENTO - A federal jury on Thursday found a 29-year-old environmental activist guilty of conspiring to burn down or blow up a northern California dam, a genetics lab, cell phone towers and other targets. Eric McDavid of Foresthill, Calif. faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for what FBI agents said was as an eco-terrorist plot in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, a shadowy, loose-knit group of environmentalists that has claimed credit for arsons throughout the West. McDavid and two others were arrested in January 2006 after purchasing bottles of bleach, a car battery,...

It was hailed as one of the engineering feats of the 20th century. Now the Three Gorges Dam across China’s mighty Yangtze River threatens to become an environmental catastrophe. In an unprecedented admission of blame, Communist Party officials gave a stark warning yesterday of impending disaster in the vast area around the dam if preventive measures are not urgently introduced. For more than a decade China has promoted the world’s biggest hydro-electric project as the best way to end centuries of floods along the basin of the Yangtze and to provide energy to fuel the country’s economic boom. The Government...

It was hailed as one of the engineering feats of the 20th century. Now the Three Gorges Dam across China’s mighty Yangtze River threatens to become an environmental catastrophe. In an unprecedented admission of blame, Communist Party officials gave a stark warning yesterday of impending disaster in the vast area around the dam if preventive measures are not urgently introduced. For more than a decade China has promoted the world’s biggest hydro-electric project as the best way to end centuries of floods along the basin of the Yangtze and to provide energy to fuel the country’s economic boom. An aerial...

Charting the Mekong's Changes The nets yield almost no fish today, the same as yesterday and the day before that. For generations, Bun Neang's family has depended on the bounty of Cambodia's Tonle Sap, a vast lake fed by one of the world's greatest rivers, the Mekong. Two decades ago, his father could rely on a daily catch totaling about 65 lbs. (30 kg). When the water gods were feeling particularly charitable, he would land a Mekong catfish, a massive bottom-feeder that can weigh as much as a tiger. But today, when Bun Neang dips his net into the caramel-hued...

This newspaper, which cannot be excerpted or linked, has an interesting article today about shoddy dam construction by Saddam Hussein that threatens Mosul.

Fifty Six Pre-Islamic Graves Discovered behind Salman-e Farsi Dam 03 July 2007 LONDON, (CAIS) -- The first season of archaeological excavations in the Parto-Sasanian city behind Salman-e Farsi dam in Iranian Fars province has been wrapped up with unearthing fifty six graves belonging to post Achaemenid period (333-248 BCE), Parthian (248 BCE-224 CE) and Sasanian (224-651 CE) dynastic eras, as well as a number of Sasanian industrial centres in the eastern side of the city. Announcing this Alireza Jafari Zand, head of excavation team behind Salman-e Farsi Dam told Persian service of CHN: “A number of these graves have already...

Two years before its completion, the world’s largest dam is already changing the local weather, say scientists studying the Three Gorges Dam on China’s Yangtze River. Both modeling and actual meteorological data suggest that the reservoir is cooling its valley, which is causing changes in rainfall. "In China there are a lot of people who complain because of the construction of the dam" and specifically about changes in local weather, said climate modeler Liguang Wu of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland in College Park. To find out if the dam was really to blame, Wu...

Dam to empower villagers and strengthen community. KHOST PROVINCE, Afghanistan, June 22, 2007 — Through a $1.5 million project launched earlier this year, the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Khost is finding that providing water for drinking and irrigation can be an effective weapon against terrorism. U.S. Navy Cmdr. David Adams, who took over command of the 120-member joint team in April, said that by providing the funding and oversight necessary to empower local governments throughout Khost to decide where and how diversion dams will be built, the Provincial Reconstruction Team helps connect the people to their government -- which is...

Warming threat fails to sway foes of dam (Auburn, CA)AuburnJournal.com By: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer Tying global warming and the possibility of increased flooding into efforts to build a multipurpose Auburn dam, a California State University, Sacramento survey indicates that the more people fear the threat of a shrinking ozone layer, the less they want the controversial flood-control project. The poll of 1,100 adult residents, including nearly about 200 from Placer County, indicated that 74 percent of those taking the survey think the threat of global warming is a serious one. Forty-eight percent said it was very serious while...

Thousands of China's dams are 'time bombs' waiting to burst Fri Apr 20, 4:25 AM ET Thousands of reservoirs in China are "time bombs" waiting to burst, an official was quoted as saying Friday, a day after a dam collapse forced the evacuation of 1,700 people. "The problematic reservoirs are like time bombs, seriously threatening the lives and property of people living downstream," said Jiao Yong, deputy minister of water resources, according to the official Xinhua news agency. On Thursday, 1,700 people had to be evacuated from four villages after a dam in northwest China's Gansu province was breached, causing...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian engineers began filling a new dam Thursday as archaeologists warned that its reservoir will flood newly discovered antiquities and could damage Iran's grandest site, the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis. At the inauguration ceremony, attended by Energy Ministry officials, pipes were opened for water to start flowing into an artificial lake created by the dam spanning the Sivand River, 520 miles south of the capital, Tehran. The lake's waters will be used to irrigate the area's farms. Iranian state-run television said the dam was opened "on the order of the President" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the hard-line...

Sadly, the legacy of one of the world's greatest civilizations is in peril, as vandals control the territory once ruled by giants. If there were a debate among historians of ancient civilizations with topic being the relative greatness of Greek and Persian civilizations, it would without any doubt be a very heated contest. On the one side, pro-Greek scholars could claim that Alexander was a heroic leader who conquered and invaded foreign lands to rescue them from what he thought were "barbarians". Another major assertion might be that ancient Greece was an example of enlightened democracy for those times. On...

Excerpt - KABUL, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Taliban fighters used children as human shields to flee heavy fighting this week during an operation by foreign and Afghan forces to clear rebels from around a key hydrolectric dam, NATO said on Wednesday. The Taliban have used human shields before, but never children, local residents say. The fighting occurred during Operation Kryptonite on Monday, an offensive to clear insurgents from the Kajaki Dam area in southern Helmand province to allow repairs to its power plants and the installation of extra capacity. "During this action ... Taliban extremists resorted to the use of...

February 13, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The NATO-led force in Afghanistan says it has thwarted a Taliban attack on a key hydroelectric dam in the southern province of Helmand, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported. The alliance says more than 300 troops from Britain and other NATO countries secured the Kajaki dam late on February 12 with support from NATO aircraft and Afghan government troops. Afghan provincial officials said at least 15 Taliban have been killed during the past three days in clashes near the dam. A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said she could not confirm a...

At least 700 Taliban fighters have crossed from Pakistan into Afghanistan to reinforce guerrillas attacking a key dam, a major source of electricity and irrigation, a provincial governor said on Monday. "We have got confirmed reports that they are Pakistani, Uzbek and Chechen nationals and have sneaked in," Helmand Governor Asadullah Wafa told Reuters by telephone. The Kajaki dam has seen major fighting in recent weeks between the Taliban and NATO forces, mainly British and Dutch. NATO-led troops have been conducting operations in the area for several months to allow reconstruction on the dam and the power transmission lines to...

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, Feb 12 (Reuters) - At least 700 Taliban fighters have crossed from Pakistan into Afghanistan to destroy a key dam, a major source of electricity, a provincial governor said on Monday. "We have got confirmed reports that they are Pakistani, Uzbek and Chechen nationals and have sneaked in," Helmand Governor Asadullah Wafa told Reuters by telephone. The dam, Kajaki, has seen major fighting in recent weeks between the Taliban and NATO forces.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2006 – More than 140 Afghan laborers are currently working to complete local dam and building construction projects worth a total of nearly half a million dollars, according to Combined Forces Command Afghanistan news releases. More than 90 Afghan workers are helping to build a water-retention dam on a natural waterway near the village of Rawza in Ghazni district, Ghazni province. Work on the $200,000 concrete dam began July 25, but much of the work was redone because of heavy rain and flooding that month. Work on the more than 45-foot-high dam is 25 percent complete. The...

Ancient Hittite dam inaugurated after 32 centuries Wednesday, September 20, 2006 ANKARA - Turkish Daily News A Hittite-era dam located in the central Anatolian province of Çorum and believed to be one of the oldest in the world to have survived to date has been restored and is once again serving as a source of irrigation for local residents. The dam, located at the Alacahöyük archaeological site, was built by the Hittites in 1240 B.C. The dam's inauguration was marked with a ceremony over the weekend attended by Professor Aykut Çýnaroðlu, who heads the team excavating Alacahöyük, Ankara University Rector...

Turkey has begun building a major dam, despite criticism that the project will ruin an ancient archaeological site and displace thousands of people. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan led a ceremony to begin work on the Ilisu dam in the south-eastern Turkey. Turkey says the $1.55bn (£800m) project will help irrigate vast areas of farmland and provide vital energy. Critics argue that it will destroy ruins and artefacts at the Hasankeyf site dating back thousands of years. Some 4,000 protesters held an overnight vigil near the dam site on the River Tigris, about 45km (28 miles) north of the Syrian...

BALAD, Iraq, July 16, 2006 – Civil affairs soldiers are here working to ensure local Iraqis have the strong foundation needed to rebuild and sustain their government long after the coalition leaves Iraq. Army Capt. Philip Zapien, civil affairs team leader for 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Band of Brothers, finds himself wearing many different hats these days. The majority of his civil affairs team has been tasked to help another unit, leaving Zapien with just a couple of soldiers to complete missions. Though short-staffed, Zapien is determined to...

Enormous new dam fails in Brazil 10 July 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition. GIANT cracks have opened in one of the world's tallest dams, just months after completion. The cracks appeared after a tunnel collapsed on 20 June beneath the 200-metre-high Campos Novos dam in southern Brazil, and the reservoir rapidly emptied. At one point, 4000 cubic metres of water (more than enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool) were rushing downstream every second towards a second dam on the river Canoas. "If this had happened during the rainy season, and the two reservoirs had been full, water would...

DOCTRINE OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST Spir Dynamics 827 4/17/96; Eph 284-286 5/11/86; Rev 11/3/82; 1 Jn 11/11/81 A. Definition and Description. 1. While our Lord did some bleeding on the cross, He didn't bleed to death, nor does His literal human blood have anything to do with the phrase found throughout the New Testament, "the blood of Christ." 2. Even Greek lexicons recognize this principle when defining the word HAIMA, the Greek word for blood. a. The Arndt and Gingrich, Greek-English Lexicon, p.22, under HAIMA in the paragraph describing the figurative use of the blood of Christ, says, "blood...

China completed construction of the world's largest dam Saturday in Three Gorges area, central China's Hubei Province, signifying accomplishment of the major structure of the mammoth Three Gorges water control project aiming to tame the flood-prone Yangtze River, the nation's longest. At 2:00 on Saturday afternoon, the final concrete was poured for the 2,309-meter-long, 185-meter-high main wall of the Three Gorges Dam, which by then began to have capacity of holding water. The concrete placement of the Dam's main section was completed 10 months ahead of the schedule, which will enable the Dam to start its role in power...

Despite bombs, boats and rubber bullets, dozens of sea lions are continuing to kill salmon near the Bonneville Dam. This month, biologists are trying one last time to scare off the problem sea lions, but if that doesn't work, they may try to kill them. Sea lions could kill as much as 10 percent of this spring's salmon run and biologists say if they cannot get the problem solved soon, the situation could get ugly. The problem is that the salmon are disappearing. An estimated 8,000 salmon will be lost this spring at Bonneville Dam. "The difficult part about it...

About 100 homes were being evacuated Wednesday morning as a small earthen dam in Calaveras County weakened by an overnight thunderstorm threatened to break. Showers and thunderstorms dumped up to four inches of rain over the past 24 hours around the La Contenta golf course near Valley Springs, said Angus Barkhuff, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. A 12-foot-high dam at the golf course was weakened by the storms and crews from the Calaveras County Sheriff's Department began evacuating nearby homes threatened by the dam overnight. If the dam fails, water will drain into a smaller pond...

Tucked into the folds of the gigantic state infrastructure bond lawmakers were grappling with into the evening Monday is money aimed at buying and removing dams on the Klamath River. It is the first sign that money would be available from the state to grease the skids in negotiations between the dam owner and the fleet of sometimes conflicting parties that have a stake in using the river or restoring its debilitated fish runs. Tribes, environmental groups, fishermen, farmers and agencies have been meeting every two weeks to hash out a settlement that could involve decommissioning Pacificorp's dams and removing...

Honolulu (AP) -- A dam burst on the island of Kauai on Tuesday, and seven people were missing, the Coast Guard said.

WASHINGTON — A broad question - whether a Maine agency has the authority to regulate the quality of water released from dams - was subjected to a series of narrow observations Tuesday by members of the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice David Souter asked, for example, whether moving a spoonful of water from one part of a river to another would constitute a discharge and trigger government regulations. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg observed that putting food through a processor changed it, perhaps like the turbines of a dam churning water. "What you get out is quite different from what you put...

Tempting fate: A torrent of doubtsProject backers expect electricity, water and flood protection, but critics call it pie-in-the-skyBy Matt Weiser -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, February 19, 2006 American taxpayers have had an unsteady relationship with the Auburn dam: $400 million spent so far on a dam that was never built; another $30 million through the end of this year to restore the former construction site; and now $1 million more to study whether to build the dam after all. Since Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans, Auburn dam supporters have rallied behind the project anew, suggesting...

The Presumpscot River, one of Maine's first industrial waterways, will be at the center of high stakes U.S. Supreme Court arguments Tuesday that could alter the fate of dams and rivers nationwide. An attorney for S.D. Warren in Westbrook hopes to persuade the nation's highest court that Maine has no authority to impose environmental rules on five of its hydro dams along the Presumpscot. Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe will argue the other side: States have a clear right to protect their rivers. S.D. Warren's challenge taps into the national dilemma over dams, which offer renewable, domestically produced energy but...

Tide of opinion turns against Venice dam By Hilary Clarke in Venice (Filed: 29/01/2006) A multi-billion pound project to stop Venice disappearing under water is itself in danger of sinking under the weight of opposition from the city's mayor and the European Commission. Brussels is concerned about the impact the £2.9 billion Moses dam project could have on the environment, while Venice's own council believes the cash would be better spent on maintaining buildings. Water levels in Venice have risen by 32in since the 18th century, when Canaletto painted the lagoon city. Its tourist centre, St Mark's Square, floods more...

<p>The former number two official in Saddam Hussein's Iraqi air force claims the former Iraqi dictator moved weapons of mass destruction from Iraq to Syria in the months preceding the current Iraq war.</p>

GIVEN THE PASTING PRESIDENT BUSH has taken over the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, one might have assumed the president's critics were in agreement about how to prevent such disasters. But for years now, the left has been deeply ambivalent about the most logical and time-tested mitigator against the threat of city-wide and regional floods: dams.How could dams, embraced by everyone from beavers to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, be a source of contention? Ask the environmentalists. Their campaign against dams has gained influence and stalled, decommissioned, or otherwise limited the construction of many dams and levees, including one project that could...

HADITHA DAM, Iraq (Dec. 21, 2005) -- Iraq’s infrastructure is a constant target for terrorist attacks throughout the country. This is no different at the Haditha Dam, which is the power source for many cities in Iraq. Keeping the massive dam and more than 1,000 Marines operating here safe for the past five months is 150 Azerbaijani Army soldiers. Located on the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan is the host country of the guardian soldiers who left their country in July to spend six months supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They worked alongside the Marines with 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment and 3rd...

Dam fails in Missouri. People reported missing. Details to come... -

TAUNTON, Mass. (AP) - A damaged, century-old dam continued to hold Tuesday as the water level behind it was reduced, but an evacuation order remained in effect and schools and highways were closed amid fears of a flood. Mayor Robert Nunes said the wooden Whittenton Pond Dam upstream from the city on the Mill River had developed more failures about 2 a.m. However, gates in the dam were opened to release water from Lake Sabbatia and relieve pressure on the structure, and the reservoir's level had fallen several inches by late morning, officials said at a briefing. "As the water...

TAUNTON, Mass. - A dam on the rain-swollen Mill River deteriorated overnight and Taunton prepared for the worst Tuesday, evacuating residents, canceling classes and closing off downtown amid fears of a wall of water up to 6 feet deep. Mayor Robert Nunes, at a hastily called news conference, said the situation at the wooden Whittenton Pond Dam upstream from the city took a turn for the worse about 2 a.m., resulting in an increase of water flow. "The city of Taunton still is in a state of emergency," Nunes said. "If the dam goes, it will create massive flooding along...

Read the whole thing. This is an actual letter sent to a man named Ryan DeVries by the Department of Environmental Quality, State of Michigan. The guy's response is hilarious, but you must read the State's letter first. SUBJECT: DEQ File No.97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Montcalm CountyDear Mr. DeVries: It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced parcel of property. You have been certified as the legal landowner and/or contractor who did the following unauthorized activity: Construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams...

YEONCHEON, South Korea, Sept. 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has suddenly released a massive amount of water from a dam near the demilitarized zone last week, causing hundreds of millions of won in flood damages in the northern part of South Korea's Gyeonggi Province, officials said Tuesday. The officials said the North opened the gates of its April 5 Dam on the Imjin River on Friday without prior notice to the South, raising the water level of the border river to a near-flood level of 3.96 meters, up from the normal level of 1.16 meters in a little over...

The Islamic regime is to submerge part of Iran's past in a shameful historical cleansing, in order to avoid facing more nationalistic problems with future generations. The construction of a very controversial dam project is near completion and soon, the tomb of "Cyrus the Great" and "Persepolis" would be submerged under water. Cyrus the Great (580-529 BC) (known as Kourosh in Persian; Kouros in Greek; Kores in Hebrew) was the first Achaemenian Emperor and founder of Iran, who issued a decree on his aims and policies, later hailed as his charter of the rights of nations. Inscribed on a clay...