6. History Of Water Control And Dam Impacts

2019 ◽  
pp. 87-98
Keyword(s):  
Water Control ◽  
Dam Impacts ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals Mine Flooding History of a Regional Below-Drainage Coalfield Dominated by Barrier Leakage (1970–2014)

Geofluids ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Joseph J. Donovan ◽  
Eric F. Perry
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Mine Water ◽  
Underground Mines ◽  
Water Level Fluctuations ◽  
Water Control ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
The North ◽  
Mining History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mine Flooding

A 44-year record of water level fluctuations in a series of adjacent closed underground mines documents the history of closure and mine flooding in the Fairmont Coalfield, one of the oldest coal mining districts in the Pittsburgh coal basin, West Virginia, USA. As closures proceeded and mines began to flood, US environmental regulations were first enacted mandating mine water control and treatment, rendering uncontrolled surface discharges unacceptable. The purpose of this study is to present this flooding history and to identify critical events that determined how mine pools evolved in this case. Also examined is the strategy developed to control and treat water from these mines. Flooding is visualized using both water level hydrographs and mine flooding maps with the latter constructed assuming mine water hydraulic continuity between one or more mines. The earliest flooding formed small pools within near-surface mines closed prior to 1962 yet still pumped following closure to minimize leaking into adjacent still-active workings. These subpools gradually enlarged and merged as more closures occurred and the need for protective pumping was removed, forming what is today referred to as the unconfined Fairmont Pool. Later, deeper mines, separated by intact updip barriers from the Fairmont Pool, were closed and flooded more gradually, supplied in large part by leakage from the Fairmont Pool. By 1985, all mines except 2 had closed and by 1994 all had fully flooded, with the Fairmont Pool interconnected to deeper single mine pools via barrier leakage. As protective pumping ceased, the Fairmont Pool rose to a water level 3 m higher than surface drainage elevation and in 1997 discharged from an undermined section of Buffalo Creek near the Monongahela River. The principal mine operator in the basin then designed a pumping system to transfer water from the Fairmont Pool to their existing treatment facilities to the north, thus terminating the discharge. It may be concluded that the progress of mine flooding was influenced by mining history and design, by the timing of closures, by barrier leakage conditions, and by geologic structure. A key element in how flooding proceeded was the presence of a series of intact barriers separating deep from shallow mines. The shallow mines closed and flooded early, but then lost sufficient water by barrier leakage into the deeper mines to delay the completion of flooding until after the deep mines had all closed and flooded as well. Intensive mine water control has continued from the 1997 breakout to the present. The final water control scheme was likely unanticipated and serendipitous; future district-wide mining efforts should be advised to consider in advance closeout strategies to control mine water postmining.

Patterns of Population Movement and Long-Term Population Growth in Southwestern Colorado

1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 773-793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah H. Schlanger
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Population Movement ◽  
Water Control ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
History Of

In spite of considerable fluctuations in the likelihood of agricultural success from place to place and from time to time, the southern Colorado Plateaus show a smooth increase in farming populations between A.D. 1 and 1150. At the local level, however, population curves in this region often register a pattern of short-lived occupations and abandonments that are tied to specific patterns of short-term and long-term climatic conditions. The prehistoric population record from the Dolores area, in the southwestern corner of Colorado, demonstrates how localized population adjustments to climatically sensitive environments can result in long-term population increases. Here, a 600-year history of population increase was maintained primarily through population movements between environmentally complementary places. When that strategy failed, due to a combination of adverse short-term and long-term climatic conditions, agricultural methods shifted from rainfall farming to intensified agriculture supported by water-control facilities.

scholarly journals Power, Nature, and the City. The Conquest of Water and the Political Ecology of Urbanization in Guayaquil, Ecuador: 1880–1990

1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Swyngedouw
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Social Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Water Control ◽  
Urbanization Process ◽  
Supply Condition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
The City

In this paper, I seek to explore how the circulation of water is embedded in the political ecology of power, through which the urbanization process unfolds. I attempt to reconstruct the urbanization process as simultaneously a political-economic and ecological process. This will be discussed through the exploration of the history of the urbanization of water in Guayaquil, Ecuador. As approximately 36% of its two million inhabitants has no access to piped potable water, water becomes subject to an intense social struggle for control and/or access. Mechanisms of exclusion from and access to water, particularly in cities which have a problematic water-supply condition, lay bare how both the transformation of nature and the urbanization process are organized in and through mechanisms of social power. In order to unravel the relations of power that are inscribed in the way the urbanization of nature unfolded I document and analyze the historical geography of water control in the context of the political ecology of Guayaquil's urbanization. In short, Guayaquil's urbanization process is written from the perspective of the drive to urbanize and domesticate nature's water and the parallel necessity to push the ecological frontier outward as the city expands. I show how this political ecology of urbanization takes place through deeply exclusive and marginalizing processes that structure relations of access to and exclusion from access to nature's water.

The History and Visual Culture of Mexico City’s Xochimilco Potable Water System during the Porfiriato

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey M. Banister ◽  
Stacie G. Widdifield
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Potable Water ◽  
Water System ◽  
Water Control ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
Porfirio Diaz ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Traditional Sense

Historians have extensively explored the topic of water control in Mexico City. From the relationship between political power and hydraulics to detailed studies of drainage and other large-scale infrastructure projects, the epic story of water in this megalopolis, constructed over a series of ancient lakes, continues to captivate people’s imaginations. Securing potable water for the fast-growing city is also a constant struggle, yet it has received comparatively less attention than drainage in historical research. Moreover, until quite recently scholars have not been especially concerned with water control as a process of representation—that is, a process shaped by, and shaping, visual culture. Yet, potable water brings together many stories about people and places both within and outside of the Basin of Mexico. As such, the history of potable water is communicated through a diverse array of objects and modern infrastructures not limited to the idea of waterworks in the traditional sense of the term. A more expansive view of “infrastructure” incorporates more than the commonplace objects of hydraulic management such as aqueducts, pumps, wells, and pipes: it also involves architecture, photography, and narrative history, official and unofficial. Built in the first decade of the 20th century as a response to acute water shortages, the impressively modern Xochimilco Potable Water Works exemplifies a system that delivered far more than fresh drinking water through its series of modern electric pumps and aqueduct. The system was a result of a larger modernization initiative launched by the administration of Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911). It wove together an official history of water, which included the annexation of Xochimilco’s springs, through its diverse infrastructures, including the engineering of the potable water system as well as the significance of the structures themselves in terms of locations and architectural elaboration in neo-styles (also known as historical styles) typical of the period. Demonstrably clear from the sheer investment in making the Xochimilco waterworks appealing to the public is that infrastructure can possess a rich visual culture of its own.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document