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Chinese Work To Drain Rising Quake-Formed Lake

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The Associated Press

Published: June 10, 2008

HONGYE VILLAGE, China - A quake-formed lake continued to swell Monday even though soldiers used dynamite and anti-tank weapons to blow up boulders in a diversion channel to try to speed its drainage.

Authorities remained on alert after yet another aftershock jarred the Tangjiashan lake, which could flood more than 1.3 million people downstream if the water flow is not controlled.
Military engineers fired ammunition at massive rocks in a spillway dug to relieve pressure on the unstable barrier blocking the river, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The flow in the channel increased after more than 10 explosions, but it was still not keeping up with the water gushing into the lake from the blocked river behind the dam.

On Monday, about 120 People's Liberation Army troops were sent to reinforce the operation to drain the lake, which formed when a landslide set off by the powerful May 12 earthquake blocked the flow of the Tongkou River.

The water level was more than 6 feet above the mouth of the spillway and rising, Xinhua said. Authorities were on alert for threats to the dam's stability including increased rainfall, new aftershocks and landslides that could deposit rubble in the lake and push water levels even higher.

Efforts to control the lake have been hampered by aftershocks. A magnitude 5.0 quake rattled parts of the disaster zone Monday afternoon, including the Tangjiashan lake. Monday's aftershock followed one of the same magnitude the day before.

The death toll in the May 12 quake climbed Monday to 69,142, with 17,551 people still missing.

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