Stava Dam Failure, 1985
This report will be about the construction and disaster that was the Stava tailings dam in Stava Italy. Since the 16th century, there have been silver bearing materials in the mountains of Stava Italy and the minerals that came from the mountains were worth its weight in gold. One of the main minerals that were in such high demand in the chemistry industry was the fluorite mineral [1]. In 1961, in Stava, there were mining organizations in the mountains of the city looking and discovering many different sources of fluorite in the rock and sediment. Throughout the years of digging the material and minerals up, it caused sludge water and other toxic excrements to seep from the mountains of Stava. Throughout the next …show more content…
The dams themselves were built on loose, not compacted gravel, sand material. So needless to say, the grounds it was built on was not the smartest thing to do for one, then having no safety checks and testing of the dam is just a catastrophe waiting to happen. In earlier years of the dam, engineers were hired to check the background and the structure of the dam. They asked the owners of the mining company to pay for a $13,000 safety check to make sure the dam was strong enough and could conceal the material inside. The owners declined their proposition and used metal rods to find out how strong the dam was holding up which was obviously not the best idea but did it anyways. Even though the engineers have previously warned them that there were surprised it had not collapsed yet, they still used the cheaper route of checking the dam [3]. And on that terrible day, July 18, 1985, the worst possible thing happened to the city of Stava. The second dam that was built collapsed from the immense pressure of the sediment that was laying inside the dam with a distorted pipe that caused the blockage to leak into the background of the dam. With the excess pore pressure on the dam, it was just a matter of time that it would collapse. The loose gravel and sediment below the dam …show more content…
Structurally, the dam should of never lasted as long as it did to some spectating engineers that came to check on it after it was long over due for a check up. The materials used to make the structure was not correct either to some engineers, they should have used more elusive and structural sediment material that would stay together under serious weight conditions. With having two earlier experiences where the dams would have two catastrophic holes that would be taken care of but not an extent of structural integrity for the dam, hints why later on in the year, the dams finally had enough and collapsed. All of these issues came back to the construction of the dam and the owners of the dam. Professionally, it falls all on them and they should have known to take care of all issues, checks and balances of the dam, material put into the dam and all. The mining company and construction company that dealt with the situation was then sued in a huge law suit and put in jail for murder due to the size of victims that perished in the tragedy [4]. It all came down to that the owners were trying to cut corners and save a dollar to gain full profit of mining and ended up destroying a whole community and killing many innocent civilians for a
This report will be about the construction and disaster that was the Stava tailings dam in Stava Italy. Since the 16th century, there have been silver bearing materials in the mountains of Stava Italy and the minerals that came from the mountains were worth its weight in gold. One of the main minerals that were in such high demand in the chemistry industry was the fluorite mineral [1]. In 1961, in Stava, there were mining organizations in the mountains of the city looking and discovering many different sources of fluorite in the rock and sediment. Throughout the years of digging the material and minerals up, it caused sludge water and other toxic excrements to seep from the mountains of Stava. Throughout the next …show more content…
The dams themselves were built on loose, not compacted gravel, sand material. So needless to say, the grounds it was built on was not the smartest thing to do for one, then having no safety checks and testing of the dam is just a catastrophe waiting to happen. In earlier years of the dam, engineers were hired to check the background and the structure of the dam. They asked the owners of the mining company to pay for a $13,000 safety check to make sure the dam was strong enough and could conceal the material inside. The owners declined their proposition and used metal rods to find out how strong the dam was holding up which was obviously not the best idea but did it anyways. Even though the engineers have previously warned them that there were surprised it had not collapsed yet, they still used the cheaper route of checking the dam [3]. And on that terrible day, July 18, 1985, the worst possible thing happened to the city of Stava. The second dam that was built collapsed from the immense pressure of the sediment that was laying inside the dam with a distorted pipe that caused the blockage to leak into the background of the dam. With the excess pore pressure on the dam, it was just a matter of time that it would collapse. The loose gravel and sediment below the dam …show more content…
Structurally, the dam should of never lasted as long as it did to some spectating engineers that came to check on it after it was long over due for a check up. The materials used to make the structure was not correct either to some engineers, they should have used more elusive and structural sediment material that would stay together under serious weight conditions. With having two earlier experiences where the dams would have two catastrophic holes that would be taken care of but not an extent of structural integrity for the dam, hints why later on in the year, the dams finally had enough and collapsed. All of these issues came back to the construction of the dam and the owners of the dam. Professionally, it falls all on them and they should have known to take care of all issues, checks and balances of the dam, material put into the dam and all. The mining company and construction company that dealt with the situation was then sued in a huge law suit and put in jail for murder due to the size of victims that perished in the tragedy [4]. It all came down to that the owners were trying to cut corners and save a dollar to gain full profit of mining and ended up destroying a whole community and killing many innocent civilians for a