Leadville spins the acid mine drainage circle–how not to manage a disaster

Monday morning free advice:  if you are reading one of those books or papers on managment and you see one of those figures involving a circle of activity,  I recommend that you put the book down and flee.  You surely know the kind of figure I mean.  There is generally a circle that is divided into a number of activities.  There is generally an arrow that directs you to go around the circle in a clockwise direction.  The most common activities into which the circle is divided are: plan; do; monitor; evaluate.  Or some combination or variation thereof. 

I confess I once was a devotee of this circle.  I have put together winning proposals in which the circle was the centerpiece of the section on quality control and continuous performance management.  The circle has about it the magic of a roulette wheel, a TV wheel of fortune, or a shaman muttering in a dark cave about the fortune of empires.  Thus it is tempting to use the circle and abuse it and crutch your thinking to its smooth surface.

I know it is still popular.  Last week I innocently wondered into an office where two friends were deep in planning a major book chapter on the management of acid mine drainage; and there on the board was the magic circle, destined to be the centerpiece of advice on planning, doing, monitoring, and evaluating acid mine drainage.  I am glad I can wait the long time it will take to get out that paper production, and that with but one glance at the inevitable circle I can avoid another repetitive spin. 

Afterall, how do you put this reported acid mine drainage spin into a static circle.  Here are extracts:

The Bureau of Reclamation is working with Lake County, Colorado state officials and other federal agencies to reduce the risk of 1.5 billion gallons of acid mine drainage blowing out the walls of the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel.  Lake County commissioners declared a state of emergency last week for fear that the heavy winter snowpack would exacerbate the problem during a spring runoff. Water has risen to 188 feet above the tunnel’s water treatment plant.   Officials say that untreated mine runoff is already seeping out of new springs and flowing into the Arkansas River, which is part of the California Gulch Superfund site.  Located one mile north of the town of Leadville, the tunnel drains water from a portion of the underground workings of the Leadville Mining District.  The tunnel was built in 1943 by the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The project was completed in March 1952 at a total tunnel length of 12,999 feet or 3,444 meters. To bring the discharge of the drainage water into compliance with the Clean Water Act, a water treatment plant was built and started operating in March 1992.  More than 1 billion gallons of water in the tunnel are caught before a wall of rubble that has accumulated for more than 30 years. The fear is that the water pressure, made worse by rising groundwater tables and spring runoff, may cause the tunnel to rupture or the gate at the portal to blow out. Water seeping from the mine shafts is contaminated with zinc, cadmium, manganese and other heavy metals.

If I were involved with this event I would be spinning, not simply following an arrow around a platitude.