A scheduled dam inspection Tuesday gave the Regional District of Central Kootenay officials a lucky break when they happened to discover a damaged retaining wall seeping water from a mine tailings pond.

Undetected, it could have spilled toxins into the Salmo River.

It was just part of a regular inspection that happens monthly, said Bill Macpherson of the regional districts emergency operations centre.

They go and look at it, and make sure that its as it should be.

These monthly checkups are voluntary on the part of the regional district, which owns the former HB Mine property and uses it for its central landfill area.

The district is only required to submit an HB dam site inspection report once a year, wrote Jake Jacobs, a Ministry of Energy and Mines spokesman, in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail. Additionally, water-quality test results must be sent to the Ministry of Environment every month, he wrote.

An independent geotechnician conducts the dams more thorough annual inspection, Mr. Macpherson said, and an environmental technologist has been inspecting the site monthly since 2009 while obtaining the required water samples.

If the retaining wall damage had not been detected and the rain continued for two or three more days, the problem could have been much worse, he said.

You quite conceivably could have had complete failure of that structure, he said.

In 2010, a breached dam caused a mudslide in Oliver and devastated orchards, vineyards and some houses. In response, the government launched an investigation. The final report noted mine tailings dams, such as this one, were not monitored by the provinces Dam Safety Program. The author recommended these dams should have licensing and standards approaches consistent with those of structures monitored by the Ministry of Environment.

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Lucky break saves dam in Kootenays from failure and toxic Salmo spill

Car dangles from retaining wall in Yonkers Car dangles from retaining wall in Yonkers

Updated: Friday, July 6 2012 9:27 AM EDT2012-07-06 13:27:11 GMT

A car nearly went overa retaining wall in Yonkers Friday morning. One person was rescued from the vehicle as it dangled fromArgyle Terrace at about 7:30 a.m.

A car nearly went overa retaining wall in Yonkers Friday morning. One person was rescued from the vehicle as it dangled fromArgyle Terrace at about 7:30 a.m. SkyFOXHD was over the scene as a tow truck tried to move the dangling car onto the ground.

Updated: Thursday, July 5 2012 4:47 PM EDT2012-07-05 20:47:17 GMT

An upstate woman was arrested on Wednesday on an animal cruelty charge after authorities found dead and malnourished animals in her home, according to New York State Police.

An upstate woman was arrested on Wednesday on an animal cruelty charge after authorities found dead and malnourished animals in her home, according to New York State Police.

The warnings about the Internet problem have been splashed across Facebook and Google. Internet service providers have sent notices, and the FBI set up a special website.

Despite repeated alerts, tens of thousands of Americans may still lose their Internet service Monday unless they do a quick check of their computers for malware that could have taken over their machines more than a year ago.

Updated: Wednesday, July 4 2012 3:32 PM EDT2012-07-04 19:32:21 GMT

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Car dangles from retaining wall in Yonkers

As many as 100 flood-weary residents of Sicamous, B.C., are on alert once again as the Shuswap region town braces for another emergency.

Officials are taking no chances after levels of Sicamous Creek suddenly dropped this morning, suggesting it may be blocked by trees in the hills above the neighbourhood of Two Mile.

Thats the same area inundated by flash-flooding when a torrent of debris was unleashed June 23, causing extensive damage to homes in Two Mile and nearby Swansea Point.

Highway 97A, about four kilometres south of Sicamous, has been closed about 350 kilometres northeast of Vancouver because of potential flooding.

RCMP Sgt. Carl Vinat says the highway closure and door-to-door warning in Two Mile are precautionary while an aerial inspection of Sicamous Creek is conducted.

Meanwhile, officials in southeastern B.C. say improving weather is speeding progress as crews work to drain an old tailings pond near the communities of Nelson and Salmo after the earthen dam around the pond began to crumble following recent heavy rains.

Meanwhile in Prince George, the provincial government will pick up most of the tab for flood costs racked up when the Fraser and Nechako rivers began rising last month.

City officials say 100 per cent of preparation and response costs can be recovered through Emergency Management BC.

To date, the city has spent just over a quarter of a million dollars, but crews are still waiting to assess damage to a trail system and piping along the Nechako, because that area is still under water.

Once those costs are added up, Prince George expects to recover 80 per cent of the repair bills.

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Flood Watch B.C.: Concerns ease over Nelson retaining wall; drinking water, swimming advisory in Shuswap; dams spill ...

footnotes officially known as the City of Valenzuela ( ) (ISO: PH-00; PSGC: 137504000 ) or simply Valenzuela City is the 101st largest city of the Philippines and one of the sixteen cities that along with the smaller municipality of Pateros comprise the region of Metro Manila, located about 14km (7.9 miles) north of Manila. Valenzuela is categorized by virtue of Republic Act Nos. 7160 and 8526 as a highly urbanized, first-class city based on income classification and number of population. A chartered city located on the island of Luzon, it is bordered by Meycauayan (Bulacan) in the north, Quezon City and northern Caloocan to the east; by Obando (Bulacan) to the west; by Malabon, southern Caloocan and Tullahan River to the south. With a land mass of 44.59km2 and a population of almost 600,000 in August 2010, Valenzuela is the 10th most populous city in the Philippines. Valenzuela's population is composed of 72% Tagalog people followed by 5% Bicolanos. Small percentage of foreign nationals reside in the city.

Valenzuela was named after Po Valenzuela, a doctor and a member of Katipunan. The town preceding Valenzuela that was originally called Polo was formed in 1621 due to religious separation movements from parishes of Meycauayan (Catanghalan). Polo has been occupied twice by foreign armies other than colonial powers Spain and United States: first during the Seven Years' War by the British and by the Japanese during the Second World War. In 1960, President Diosdado Macapagal ordered the creation of the municipality of Valenzuela carved from few territories of Polo and is independent from the provincial government of Bulacan. However in 1963, another law was issued ordering the reversal of the previous edict and reunifying the towns of Polo and Valenzuela under the single name of Valenzuela. In 1975, Valenzuela was named as an independent municipality from the government of Bulacan and incorporated under the administration of Metropolitan Manila Authority. On February 14, 1998, President Fidel V. Ramos signed Republic Act 8625, or the Valenzuela City Charter, which elevated the status of Valenzuela as a highly urbanized, chartered city.

Under the Local Government Code of 1991, Valenzuela has a similar government system to other chartered cities of the Philippines. It is governed by a city mayor and vice-mayor elected through popular vote. The city is divided into two congressional districts and each is represented by a congressional district representative at the Philippine Congress. The vice-mayor heads the 12-manned city council: each district elects six councilors. The current mayor is Sherwin T. Gatchalian.

There is no known tourist spot in the city except for the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, the Philippine apostolate to the Our Lady of Fatima of Portugal. Valenzuela is traversed by two major roads in the country: MacArthur Highway and North Luzon Expressway (NLEx), with NLEx being connected to Circumferential Road 5 at segments 8.1 and 9. Major transportation modes include buses and jeepneys that founded terminals at the northern points of the city.

Owing to the cross migration of people across the country and its location as the northernmost point of Metro Manila, Valenzuela has developed into a well-mixed, multicultural metropolis. A former agricultural rural area, Valenzuela has grown into a major economic and industrial center of the Philippines when a large number of industries relocated to the central parts of the city.

Originally, Valenzuela was called Polo. The name Polo was derived from the Tagalog term pul meaning island, though the area was not an entirely island for itself. The original town of Polo was blessed by the rivers from the north and Tullahan River on the south. Hence, the enclosed land was thought to be an island, so the early townsmen regarded the place as Pul which later evolved into Polo done by hispanicization of the word.

Today, the term Polo only applies to the barangay of Polo, the birthplace of Dr. Pio Valenzuela himself, which is found in the city's first congressional district.

According to Philippine historians Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson there existed an infamous battle in Bangkusay, Tondo headed by Maynila king Rajah Sulayman which employed seafarers and warriors from all over parts of the north of Maynila Kingdom and Bulacan. The battle was declared against Spanish conquering forces of Miguel Lpez de Legazpi on June 3, 1571. Spanish troops were headed by Legazpi's nephew, Martn de Goiti. On June 3, 1571, Sulayman led his troops and attacked the Spaniards in a decisive battle at the town of Bangkusay, but they were defeated, and Sulayman himself was killed. With the destruction of Sulayman's army and the friendship with Rajah Lakandula, the Spaniards were enabled to establish throughout the city and its neighboring towns. Legazpi formally established settlement on Maynila on June 24, 1571. According to Martnez de Zuiga, a Spanish missionary of Augustinian order, Maynila was a vast region enclosed by the towns of Polo, Tambobong (now Malabon City), and mountains of San Mateo in Morong. The region of Valenzuela, was formally merged under the rule of Bulacan town of Catanghalan.

On 1587, the Tagalog cabeza de barangay of Catanghalan Tassi Bassi joined the chieftain of Tondo Magat Salamat in a planned insurrection against Spanish colonization of Maynila. The rebellion was composed of kin-related noblemen or maharlikas of Maynila including Juan Banal, another Tondo chief and Salamats brother-in-law; Gernimo Basi and Gabriel Tuambacar, brothers of Agustn de Legazpi; Pedro Balinguit, the chief of Pandacan and other chiefs of Tondo. The "revolution" never happened because whistleblowers revealed the nature of it to Spanish authorities.

When Manila became an archdiocese on August 14, 1595 based upon Pope Gregory XIII's Papal order, regular friars that already established permanent church in Catanghalan decided that the attached sitio of Polo be separated to cater spiritual needs of its increasing population. Through successive efforts of Franciscan Fray Juan Taranco and Don Juan Monsod, sitio Polo was successfully separated from Catanghalan in 1623. Thus, the first cabeza de barangay of the new town of Polo was Monsod while Taranco operated the present San Diego de Alcal parish on a small tavern. The separation was made upon the orders of Governor-General Alonso Fajardo de Entenza the towns were still under the provincial government of Bulacan. (However it must be noted that historical records in Errecciones de los Pueblos at the Philippine National Archives showed first parochial records of Polo as early as November 7, 1621. Later, this was adopted as the foundation day of Valenzuela.)

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3 kids hurt in wall collapse in Valenzuela

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

THE Baguio City Government is set to start soon the P80-million Irisan dumpsite retaining wall rehabilitation funded by the Office of the President (OP), according to City Mayor Mauricio Domogan.

According to Domogan, the project will assure the safety of the immediate community and also a gigantic step towards converting the former garbage facility into an eco-tourism park.

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It may be recalled a wall of the five-hectare dumpsite breached last August 27, 2011 during Typhoon Mina and the cascading garbage killed six residents of the area.

The mayor said the approval of the Department of Public Works and Highways is now the only requirement we are waiting so that we can immediately start this important project.

Apart from the dumpsite retaining wall, there are many other infrastructure projects worth several millions of pesos undergoing completion. (Aure Galacgac/PNA)

Published in the Sun.Star Baguio newspaper on July 03, 2012.

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P80-M dumpsite project ready to commence

By Alana Melanson

amelanson@sentinelandenterprise.com @alanamelanson on Twitter

FITCHBURG -- City officials are looking to move the single-family home at 242 High St. -- a property the city has had to buy twice in less than 30 years because of an issue with an adjacent retaining wall -- possibly to the location of a blighted triple-decker that will soon be torn down on Johnson Street.

According to Housing Director Ryan McNutt, the city will soon put out a request for proposals for the home, provided the buyer is capable of moving it.

McNutt said he would like to see the house moved to the site of 3-5 Johnson St., which currently holds a triple-decker owned by the Twin Cities Development Corp. -- if the organization casts the winning bid.

In 2010, water runoff had undermined the structural integrity of the retaining wall that holds up Mechanic Street next to 242 High St., he said, and the city paid the owner $165,000 for the house. McNutt said repairing the existing granite retaining wall would have cost nearly $1 million.

According to Department of Public Works Commissioner Lenny Laakso, the city had to buy the property in the 1980s as well, after problems with the retaining wall then caused damage to an existing tenement building. The owner sued the city and won, he said, costing the city about $87,000, in addition to repairs to the wall. The existing structure was torn down and

Simultaneously to the 2010 events of 242 High St., McNutt said, the city decided to take a landlord who owned several blighted properties in the Elm Street area to court. These properties were then put into receivership, he said, and were taken under tax title. Twin Cities CDC bid on 3-5 Johnson St. in an auction and will tear it down possibly as soon as next week, McNutt said.

Marc Dohan, executive director of the Twin Cities CDC, said he wants to get the building down as soon as possible, but a date for the demolition hasn't been set yet.

"We're about to finish three new homes across the street," he said. "We've been really wanting to take down 3-5 Johnson for quite some time."

Link:
Fitchburg eyes relocation of house due to retaining-wall problems

WALLINGFORD Town staff will prepare an in-depth report on ownership of a retaining wall on Holy Trinity school property that supports a town-leased parking lot and get a legal opinion before deciding what to do concerning repairs.

The Town Council tabled the issue at its meeting Tuesday night and will await the results of the report.

Its so important that now we do some research and we find out once and for all what is the town liable for on the retaining wall for your school, said Town Councilor John Sullivan, a Democrat.

The issue revolves around who is responsible for a retaining wall that divides the schools playground from a parking lot behind buildings on Simpson Court and North Main Street that is used for public parking through a lease with the town. Church and school officials say the structure is deteriorating, with cracks and chunks of it falling onto the playground, and it needs to be reconstructed.

Church officials say the wall was built by the town on their property in the early 1960s, either with or without the agreement of the church, and believe the town should be part of its maintenance. But no documentation has yet been found regarding its construction.

Parish priest the Rev. Thomas Walsh and school Principal Kathleen Kelly presented the issue to the council at the meeting.

Walsh read a prepared statement saying that the parish did not know that the wall was considered Holy Trinitys property until a survey prepared a few years ago declared it to be.

It was news to us that this wall, by a matter of inches, was on school property, Walsh said. Try to understand that this issue is more complex than who owns the wall who does the wall benefit and who should be involved in its maintenance.

He said he believed the wall was likely built by the town, as it was constructed during a time when the town had a parking authority that was involved in creating lots. He also said that agreements found for other projects during the time did not include maps, leading him to believe that the wall was built on their property in error.

Walsh also said that he believed work done on storm drains by the town that routed water to the wall was aiding in its destruction.

Link:
Wallingford council wants more info on liability for school's wall

TAMPA A 22-year-old man died Thursday morning after his sports car crashed into a wall on Sligh Avenue and burst into flames.

A Nissan two-seater crashed into the retaining wall of a home at 304 W Sligh Ave. just before 7 a.m. Thursday, police said. The car caught fire while Nasdiel Viera-Curbelo, 22, was trapped inside.

Viera-Curbelo already was dead when authorities arrived at the scene, according to the Tampa Police Department.

Witnesses reported seeing flames reaching as high as the telephone line and stretching down the street for half a block.

"We couldn't get in there to help them," said David Smith, 49, who lives near the crash site. "The whole street was on fire."

The wreck and resulting investigation closed Sligh Avenue from Florida Avenue to N Boulevard for most of the morning.

Police said it was not immediately clear how fast the car was going, but investigators believe speed was a factor in the collision.

It appeared the car was speeding eastbound over the Hillsborough River Bridge and became airborne when the driver lost control, investigators said.

Skid marks on the road show the driver swerved into oncoming traffic lanes on Sligh Avenue and overcorrected just before the collision, investigators said.

Police Chief Jane Castor responded to the scene about 8:15 a.m. She said the area is well-patrolled and officers are always on the lookout for speeding or street racing.

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Driver dead on Tampa's Sligh Avenue after sports car hits wall in fiery crash

TAMPA A 22-year-old man died Thursday morning after his sports car crashed into a wall on Sligh Avenue and burst into flames.

A BMW two-seater crashed into the retaining wall of a home at 304 W Sligh just before 7 a.m. Thursday, police said. The car caught fire while Nasdiel Viera-Curbelo, 22, was trapped inside.

Curbelo was already dead when authorities arrived at the scene, according to the Tampa Police Department.

Witnesses reported seeing flames reaching as high as telephone line and stretching down the street for half a block.

"We couldn't get in there to help them," said David Smith, 49, who lives on N Ola Avenue near the scene of the crash. "The whole street was on fire."

The wreck and resulting investigation closed Sligh Avenue from Florida Avenue to N Boulevard for most of the morning.

Police said it was not immediately clear how fast the car was going but investigators believe speed was a factor in the collision. It appeared the car was speeding eastbound over the Hillsborough River Bridge and became airborne when the driver lost control.

Skid marks on the road show the driver swerved into oncoming traffic lanes on Sligh Avenue and overcorrected just before the collision.

Police Chief Jane Castor responded to the scene about 8:15 a.m. She said the area is well patrolled and officers are always on the lookout for speeding or street racing.

An investigation remained under way Thursday afternoon.

Link:
One dead on Tampa's Sligh Avenue after sports car hits wall in fiery crash

DULUTH, Minn. - Like most businesses these days, Whole Food Coop in Duluth has surveillance cameras.Theprimary mission for the video snooping system is to catch crooks in the act, but on Wednesday it captured something else: an 18-foot retaining wall crumbling under the pressure of a historicflood.

The tape shows the breech in the recently constructed wall, located at 6th Avenue East and 4th Street,start as a seep, proceed to a trickle, and thenexplode into a torrent of water.

Whole Food Coop manager Sharon Murphy saysat leasthalf of the retaining wall has given way, and she figures the rest will crumble soon.The water is cascading down the hill into a home and two apartment buildings, both of which have been evacuated.

Murphy says the store is ok so far, but she plans onclosing up early and sending employees homeearly so they remain safe.

(Copyright 2012 by KARE. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. )

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Surveillance video captures wall collapse in Duluth