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In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a sluice channel, right, of the Tangjiashan quake lake in in operation and another one is in progress Sunday, June 8, 2008 in Tangjiashan, southwest China's Sichuan Province. The water level in the quake lake stood at 741.82 meters above sea level at midday on Sunday, still 1.45 meters higher than the sluice, and the lake's volume exceeded 240 million cubic meters, Xinhua said. The drainage plus natural leakage of the lake is about 25 cubic meters per second, while the inflow is 4.6 times the drainage, a hydro expert said on Sunday, according to the news agency. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Gang)
By AUDRA ANG – 4 hours ago
HONGYE VILLAGE, China (AP) — 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.
But the official Xinhua News Agency sounded a hopeful note Tuesday, reporting that the lake’s water level was expected to fall later in the day as debris was cleared from the spillway.
Military engineers fired ammunition at massive rocks in the manmade channel, and soldiers have used three tons of dynamite over the past couple of days to blow up boulders and double the width of the channel to 33 feet, Xinhua 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. Crews were deepening the diversion channel and digging a second spillway, Xinhua said.

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