[trogg]

(The first in a series of Trogg’s Rants)

Is it just me or is it false economy not to do something about the lahar risk on Mt Ruapehu?

In case you were not aware the crater lake is filling with water and is just about at the level of a pile of volcanic ash that is blocking the usual outflow. Sometime in the next few months the water level will get high enough to waterlog this dam which will cause it to collapse and allow the excess water (now mixed with the ash) to flow down the side of the mountain.

Remember the stories about the Tangiwai rail disaster from history at school? Well this will be a similar (but potentially smaller event) and according to one article in the NZ Herald it will ONLY cost approx $68,000 to pay someone to spend a couple of days on the mountain to make a channel through the ash pile so that the water level can't get high enough to cause a sudden collapse.

Isn't it better to spend that money than wait for the inevitable to happen and risk lives on the ski fields or mountain trampers etc (at the least) and then spend even more of the taxpayer’s money on rebuilding the infrastructure that is damaged or destroyed?

Another example of political short sightedness perhaps? :shrug:

[kall]

;B

They aren't doing anything about the lahar risk?

Jesus! That's one of the things I remember most vividly from Social Studies (didn't do History in 5th form)...the lahar taking out the train on Xmas Eve (or day, or boxing day...unforgettable).

One would think this would be on the top of the list of things to avoid happening ever again.

[Sparklechick]

Typical though huh?

The government is far too concerned with what they need to do to get votes. Unless someone really starts pounding them with this problem and getting the public behind it then no politician is going to take any notice of it whatsoever.

[amystery]

there was an excellent article in the Sunday Star Times (p.A13, 14-03-04) about what it's like living in the path of [ptential] natural disaster. Trogg, they think the NEXT lahar (and it's not if, but when...) wil be seven metres high at the Tangiwai Bridge. I still can't see why they don't use siphonic technology and lower the lake slowly, starting NOW, the most difficult thing would be to have pipes that would not be affected by the extremely corrosive lake liquids. But better to reduce the risk now, than have people in the path literally smothered in corrosive liquid and mud.... [just my five cent's worth...]

[trogg]

Yea, that is it in a nutshell amystery

A 7m high wall of mud, ash and shit that has the power to remove (or severely damage) a rail bridge on the main trunk line. What is the cost to rebuild / repair that?

So why not start the siphoning process now? If the pipes last a couple of months before they are dissolved then just replace them and keep replacing them until the there is a more permanent solution to the problem with the ash dam.
Surely the cost to replace the pipes a few times would be cheaper than rebuilding / repairing a main transport link.

Mutter mutter.. dam false economy.

[amystery]

It's the issue that no-one's really doing anything - and lives are at risk - that bugs me. There was a false alarm on the expensive early warning system the other day - how many of those [false alarms] before people just get used to them, them ignore them?? It seems like the local and national Govt's have just put it in the *too hard* basket....but a waitandsee attitude is no tribute to the 151 who died in 1953 - and they knew about the potential there, weeks before, too. Have we learnt so little?? :grr: :shrug: :grr:

[trogg]

The other weird thing I read recently (see the link to the NZ Herald) is that a government department (Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences) want to sent up a video monitoring system so that they can watch the event unfold (there is currently no film or video footage of a lahar caused by the sudden collapse of an ash dam in the world).

The cynic in me has to wonder if a govt dept wants to allow this potential tragedy unfold so they can sell the footage. :shrug:

[amystery]

the cynic in me would have to agree, the humanitarian in me is appalled (people in Whangaehu are having effects of the sulphur in the recent flooding, houses damaged, and yet the lahar will be much bigger??...!!), the economist says there's a low-cost way to fix this, the sensationalist in me wants to band some heads together, to try and make someone see sense before it's too late.

BTW - there is already a video monitoring system on Mt Ruapehu - they are going to add to this??? Seems VERy suss, dunnnit??

[amystery]

Hmmm - that WAS *bang* some heads together, but maybe *band* - as in *think tank* would be a better idea??