Friday, October 22, 2010

Cross your fingers folks

UPDATE: 10:00 PM Still waiting for my friends at the Daily Hampshire Gazette and Springfield Republican to get on this story. Even the Umass Daily Collegian got it up around 6:00 PM. I went to bed but they did both get around to the story just before midnight--better late than never.

3:45 PM
So Saturday just after high noon we will know if the town of Amherst--who supplies Umass all of their water--will have to issue a "Boil water" alert. And if you live in a dorm that could get tricky.

Normally that would not be a huge B-I-G deal, an inconvenience for sure, since it is mid-October and Umass is in session. But Umass is hosting the sold out Phish concerts this weekend at the Mullins Center and they tend to attrack a H-U-G-E crowd. Presumably that crowd of 20,000 will require water. Although any excuse for them to drink other beverages will probably go over well. Yikes!
##############################################
To the Campus Community:

During recent routine water testing, the Town of Amherst identified
limited instances of total coliform and E. Coli bacteria in its water
system, which supplies the campus. Further tests are being conducted
and results will be available Saturday afternoon. Public health
officials will determine at that time whether a “Boil Water Order” is
needed.

Should such an order be issued, the university will activate a campus-
wide precautionary plan to minimize any potential health risks. This
will include ample supplies of bottled water and hand sanitizer and
detailed instructions on how to take preventive measures.

Further details about the water testing can be found on the Town of
Amherst web site at www.amherstma.gov.

The university will continue to communicate with all members of the
campus community on the status of this health advisory.


Donald Robinson
Environmental Health and Safety


A history lesson about water--or lack thereof in Amherst

Town website gets the word out

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just saw news report on break-in by drunk UMASS student early this morning, broke into an elderly woman's apartment at Chestnut Court. Thank God the woman was able to fend him off and police were able to take him into custody! This town is going down the toilet, with the e-coli,and along with the shit from all of those students who contribute to this town!
Water anyone?

Anonymous said...

How about we all raise a glass, to Amherst!

Ed said...

One other thing Larry -- exactly how are you *supposed* to boil water when you live in a dorm? Or what to bathe in -- I have my emergency ration of 6 gallons in a storage locker but who else has that?

Anonymous said...

may two thousand vipers infest your yard this weekend ED.

Ed said...

Anyone notice how this is the second time in 13 months that this has happened?

Yes, it was caused by the heavy rain, but it has rained before, for hundreds of years as a matter of fact.

But the town went to the evil university and charged it twice what it charges everyone else per gallon and the university went into hyper-conservation mode which includes not flushing hydrants because you have to pay for the water used. Likewise, the super-low use from dribble faucets and lowflush toilets means that big buildings, like the Student Union have stagnant water in their lines.

Wanna bet that one of the samples that failed was the UM Student Union (like the last time)?

And second, bacterial counts are like BACs -- much as there is a difference between the person who had one beer and maybe a .01 BAC and someone who has been drunk for three days and has a .4 BAC, there is a difference between counts above acceptable and "TNTC" (too numerous to count) levels.

And third, how many tests didn't fail? That matters too...

Heaven forbid we give the populace enough information to make our own decisions as to our own risk....

Ed said...

may two thousand vipers infest your yard this weekend ED.

Do you think the students actually want to have PHISH here? Or that they will benefit? NO!

Look at who is making the money on this and hold them accountable for what happens.

Anonymous said...

I'm just remembering when Stan Z. delayed the opening of UMass due to a lack of water ... ah, the good ole days ...

Anonymous said...

Walk through the parking lots down near southwest and see all the empty heroin packets lying around sat and sun mornings...


Yeah, the Amherst mirage utopia is a great place for our kids.

But whatever, our property values'll stay up as long as we keep suckering suckers to move here, right?