Carbon Footprint of Tuttle Creek Dam Seismic Retrofit

Tuttle Creek Dam in Manhattan, Kansas was found to be seismically deficient. Cement-bentonite slurry walls were used to remediate the dam. We use the EFFC DFI Carbon Calculator to calculate the carbon footprint of the cement- bentonite slurry walls, as well as the carbon footprint of an alternative remediation option, stone columns. The cement-bentonite slurry walls resulted in a GWP 100 of 71,000 tonnes CO2 equivalent, while the stone columns resulted in a GWP 100 of 3,900 tonnes CO2 equivalent, a significant difference even when considering the uncertainties in life cycle modeling. The Carbon Calculator is a simple tool for quantifying the carbon footprint of different geotechnical engineering techniques.