Category: Three Gorges Probe

Letter to socially responsible financial advisors and mutual funds

(September 24, 1997) The following letter was sent to socially responsible financial advisors and mutual funds managers , after it was announced in September that General Electric Canada, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Connecticut – based General Electric Company, was awarded a contract to supply turbines and generators to the Three Gorges dam project.

On the nature of reservoir-induced seismicity

(1997) In most cases of reservoir-induced seismicity, seismicity follows the impoundment, large lake-level changes, or filling at a later time above the highest water level achieved until then. We classify this as initial seismicity. This ‘‘initial seismicity’’ is ascribable to the coupled poroelastic response of the reservoir to initial filling or water level changes.

Review of seismic-hazard issues associated with the Auburn Dam project, Sierra Nevada foothills, California

The potential for reservoir-induced seismicity, which is the triggering of earthquakes by the physical processes that accompany the impoundment of large reservoirs, was recognized during the seismic hazard studies for the original Auburn Dam. It remains an important issue for the present project because of the potential to increase the probability of earthquakes near the dam.

The world's biggest hydroelectric project

Half a world away from Canada, a hydroelectric project like no other is underway on China’s Yangtze River. Water from the world’s third-longest river will eventually be harnessed by the planet’s largest hydroelectric project, the Three Gorges Dam. A Canadian company financed a study on the viability of the dam long before construction began; a study heavily criticized by Toronto-based advocacy group Probe International. Now, with work underway, more Canadian companies see big opportunities with the project.