2/06/2006

Heard Any Good Rumors Lately?

Try this one on for size. The grapevines are beginning to sizzle with this one. It seems as if there is a leetle bit too much water in the Towns resevoir. Which by the way doesn't completely belong to the town. It seems, because the water has reached a certain level that the Town Manager, at the behest of a private property owner has requested that the town take on the responsibility and handle the cost of draining down the pond by quite a few gallons. Lets see now, the pond is approximately 7.2 acres as of this date and has an average depth of, (I forgot to ask), so that in the end, in order to bring down the depth of the pond by one foot, 5 million gallons of excess water has to be, evaporated? trucked off? dumped down the road? or, pumped to the south across about three to four pieces of private property and down the South East Bluffs! How much of the bluffs are going to eroded in a short period of time with that much water running down them? How much is it going to cost to buy the trespass rights from each of the land owners? Or is the town just "going to do it"?

It also will involve digging a couple of trenches across two town roads unless we are to undertake horizontal boring. It is also going to entail the installation of a pipe that doesn't come free and the use of some sort of a pump to do the job. And I expect this will be a 24/7 job till it is done. Who's paying the troops to do that? And finally, just why in the hell is the town going to take on this job when private landowners own MOST of the pond? To top it all off, the powers that be say that we cannot even use the pond for water anymore because it is "impaired"! I guess it doesn't hear very well or is somewhat blind.

So where are all the people who screamed so loud when Fresh Pond was being "killed" by the oh so obscene and destructive pumping that went on there in the 90's? Where is the Department of Environmental Mis-Management on this one? I think I've heard it said that they said," it is okay to do so, so have at it"! Wonderful folks up there in PVD. They worry themselves and property owners sick over inconsequensial(sp) tiny things but give the go ahead on this without batting an eye. I guess they don't really care what happens to the bluffs. Oh yeah I forgot, that jurisdiction belongs to that OTHER department that gives private land to developers and guards our natural resources with uncommonly zealous zeal! Oh yeah, they don't care either, 'cause they can't give that piece of ground to anybody. Sick of reading this rant? Thats all. TIFN

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

There won't be any erosion if the end of the pipe is placed on the beach at the bottom of the bluffs.

I think it is the town's responceability because they've accepted the duty of monitoring the pond. The entire community has benefitted from the Private land owners' water for decades...and the community should tend to this community asset, when it is good and when it is bad.

Anonymous said...

Your math is off by over 50%
7.5 gallons to 1 cu/ft x 43,560 sq/ft/acre= 326,700 gal/acre x 7.2 acres = 2,352,240 Gallons to lower the water 1 ft.

Sam said...

Whooee, even with a garden hose going over 100 feet down the SE bluffs would create one heck of water drill, although usually ag pumps are sized to 2-4 inches. The sheer weight of the vertical column of water could probably blast a hole in the beach 20 feet deep unless you run into granite. That's how you can dig for gold, soldier!

But alas, I've done this before and the poor hose will break so you need to go hardpipe like PVC or aluminum. Those make even more spectacular kersplosions! At least you're not dealing with nasty landfill leachate like I was. It can be done but one weak joint and ... what a mess.

And then you'll need a discharge permit into the ocean. You talk to the CRMC and Corps of Engineers yet? We had to truck our lovely leachate by truck to hazardous waste facility but you probably know better about what to do. A big water truck holds about 8,000 gallons, I know that much.

-Sam

Anonymous said...

This has got to be a joke, right.....

Sam said...

Yessir, I tend to stretch things sometimes for a good yarn.

But putting my consultant hat for a moment, yes, a one-inch hose hanging down 100 feet could get you maybe about 40-50 psi at the bottom, not like a super-duper fire truck but not bad. A column-inch of water is 0.036 psi. Divers probably have to know a similar kind of thing.

Didn't a waterline on High Street explode for the same reason?

Anonymous said...

Word from the old timers is - that's the natural way for the water to go and the way it went before people started changing the grades in the neighborhood (road included). Wouldn't it make more sense to pump the water out of the pond and use it instead of pumping on the wells (that are partly salt water anyway)?

Everett said...

TO Good Listener, The reason they can't use the pond for the water supply on a regular basis is because the "state" in it's infinite wisdom designates/says the water is "Impaired" What ever the hell that means. I assume that is a polite word for polluted or some such thing. The thing that gets me is that Sands Pond is a natural occuring pond and they have no qualms about pumping it out. Across from the school on the Faulkner property is a pond that was 'created' by the town when they started dumping fill in there early last fall. Now, that self same entity, says most vehemently. NO PUMPING on that one!!Is this total stupidity or what? They blocked up the natural outflow of that drainage ditch- that runs under what is now Pilot Hill Road- for the last 10-20 million years and now won't allow it to be opened up again. Now the water level there has backed up so far that it has begun to invade Alvin Ernst's basement. I say again that stupidity reigns supreme in the DEM of this State! They, society, sends these kids to school for four years, turns them into biologists and then turns them loose on the rest of us with this "vast amount of experience" under their belts to let them do just about any damned thing they want to! All in the guise of "the law"!

Anonymous said...

Good listener has heard via the rumor mill that there is an easement through Ambrose Lane that someone had the foresight to procure before the houses were built and that the idea of draining the Faulkner lot in the direction that nature intended has not been abandoned. The Old Timers that have been consulted insist there is a drainage pipe already there, they just have to find it, although a larger diameter pipe is probably needed at this time to accommodate the addtional flow anticipated from school run-off.
Just another random thought re: Sands Pond - if they can see fit to treat salty water and make it potable, why can't they treat fresh water to get the same result?

Everett said...

'Tis beyond my ken!!

Sam said...

Actually a small diameter drainage pipe is what you want, as the draw-down can be quite fast. Excellent find there, Listener.

Question: the pond is mentioned as "impaired" by for what chemicals or properties?

I say this because ... urk ... our freshwater comes from the Rio Grande, the largest sewer system in the US and Mexico.

Anonymous said...

I see that they are pumping out the water from the Faulkner property, wrong again, huh Everett.

Everett said...

No anonymous, not "wrong again". The DEM finally told them, the town to go ahead and pump the water out after previously telling then they couldn't! It is called changing your decision or some such thing. The DEM TOLD them NOT to pump the water into Ambrose swamp but that is exactly what happened. They wanted it pumped down the road! I assume so it could wash out the sides of the road a little more. I guess you are right though, I should have been able to tell when the up state folks were going to reverse themselves without telling me in advance so I could CMA! Bye now.

Anonymous said...

What a lot of useless gossip and trash on this site. People on Block Island really don't have much to do, or much on their minds. How sad.