So as I pointed out on Saturday when I was the only reporter to show up at the Amherst Police Station turned War Room to observe the coordination of officials from various fiefdoms handling what could have been a major health alert, Princess Stephanie reaffirmed on Monday night that indeed public officials were on edge. As well they should have been.
Twice now in the past 13 months--both events at most inopportune times--the town has undergone this public health scare. If I were a terrorist trying to maximize damage from sabotaging the public water supply in Amherst, I would probably choose Labor Day weekend when the students return in waves (last year) or the first ever Phish concert at the Mullins Center (this year) which brought an extra 20,000 people to the town.
Unfortunately the Town Manager reported to the Select Board that we may "never know" the cause of the false coliform and E. coli positives (but then, how do we know they were false?)
The Springfield Republican reports
Larry, I will tell you what caused it: Heavy Rain
ReplyDeleteIf you have a whole bunch of rain, you have a whole bunch of runoff and when you draw on surface water sources, the runoff contaminates your source.
The solution, of course, is to open up all the hydrants and flush the daylights out of your system. And this includes UMass except that means you have to stop charging UM for the water they will flush (on your behalf) if you want them to do it.
Politically, well, I guess we prefer contaminated water...
Yes, the heavy rain brings downstream all those contaminated stagnant pools of bacteria-laden water that were festering during the parched summer. And, so you know, Phish played the Mullins Center in 1994 and 1995.
ReplyDeleteParched summers with a little heavy rain now and then sounds to me like pretty normal weather by New England standards.
ReplyDeleteThis excuse sounds like the one town officials trot out every other year for the lousy performance of the town owned golf course.
Did not know about Phish playing the Mullins Center previously. Thanks for the correction.
Like Charlton Heston said, " It's people" LOL
ReplyDeleteas long as people (and their pet dogs) get to crap in the drinking watershed, there will be such problems
ReplyDeletei took a dump in the reservior
ReplyDeletePhish played at the spring pond concert before Mullins was even constructed.
ReplyDelete