While not the vindication Kennecott wanted, a company-funded report released on the danger of Kennecott’s massive 5,700 acre tailings impoundment, north of Magna, Utah, says the tailings dam may fail, but will not destroy residential areas, as originally thought.
In October, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that the tailings dam could fail in a major earthquake and move across State Road 201 – like a “violent and intense” flash flood - reaching more than twice the distance Kennecott predicted.
“Really, the public-safety concern is the highway,” said Troy Meyer, lead engineer for Colorado-based Tetra Tech, the engineering firm conducting the safety evaluation.
According to Tetra Tech, Kennecott’s tailings impoundment is still far from meeting Utah’s minimum safety standards and the company’s goal of meeting those requirements in 2018 is likely optimistic.
In March 2008, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Kennecott Utah Copper had concealed, since 1988, the potential for a major earthquake-caused tailings disaster in Magna. In 1992, the company conducted a “risk assessment” to determine if full containment of the impoundment would be more expensive than legal costs associated with property damage and citizen deaths. Read the rest of this entry »
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