Sunday, August 14, 2016

Conservation Now

Atkins Reservoir is down 4 feet

UPDATE:  The Select Board voted unanimously to give the Town Manager authority to implement mandatory water restrictions should the drought worsen before they meet again on August 29.

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The Amherst Select Board, acting as the town's Water Commissioners, will consider stepping up their game on Monday when it comes to water conservation in the dog days of August by making the current "voluntary" controls "mandatory".


 July rainfall is down 40% from the ten year average

One problem is the the day after they enacted the advisory ban it rained.  Not nearly enough precipitation to do much of anything other then create an impression that Mother Nature was suddenly on our side.

 Click to enlarge/read

As the DPW chief points out the "voluntary water restrictions have helped with only 7 of the last 16 days."

And with our #1 demographic -- college aged youth -- about to descend on our sleepy little town, it would be nice to ensure that when a faucet is turned the water still flows.

 Atkins Reservoir this morning


10 comments:

  1. Remember the year when the students were sent home due to a shortage of water?

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  2. Wow! I'm amazed. Obama really DID lower the level of the sea. I was windering... anyone interested in buying some carbon credits? I'll sell 'em to you at a reduced price.

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  3. Making America Great Again....starts with "voluntary" and then turns to "mandatory".



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  4. Looks to me like they ought to drain it completely and then clean the crap out of it.

    Did they really leave half a tree in there? And it looks like more stuff to the right.

    WTF!!!!

    Larry, does that look like water you'd want to drink?

    They need to drain it, remove the debris, dredge out all the organic sediment on the bottom (which will increase the capacity as well), let it refill, and then stock it with trout.

    NB: Trout keep water clean, in earlier centuries, people would put a trout into theie hand-dug wells. They eat the bugs & such that fall into the water.

    Yes, I know this would cost money -- say $310,000 -- but people are drinking that water. But Larry, would YOU want to drink that water?

    -- Then why should the UM students be asked to?

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  5. Ed, you realize they filter and clean that water first, right?

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  6. Ed, you nutburger!

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  7. Is the public golf course still using water to water the grass? Are UMass contractors still watering the construction sites to keep the dust down? It seems to me there are many ways to conserve water for all of us and the previous two examples feel quite wasteful to me.

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  8. Cherry Hill doesn't use the public water supply or draw down the reservoir. It waters from the creek.

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  9. Yes, I know they filter and treat it with Chlorine and/or a mixture of chlorine & ammonia -- chlorine reacts with organic matter to form nasty things that form cancer.

    But I am talking aesthetics, does that LOOK LIKE water you want to drink?


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  10. If you get thirsty enough Ed, you will drink it.

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