Atkins Reservoir December 1st water level 6'7" down from full
Atkins Reservoir 9/21 water level down 9'4"
Atkins Reservoir, after the 2.8" of recent rain, is now at 50% of its 200 million gallon capacity, or half full.
But for those of us still a little nervous about the drought and our town still relying only on wells for our vital water supply, it's half empty.
Either way it's not now in use as it was shut down on September 21st when water levels hit an almost historic low, down 9'4" with only 70 million gallons of water remaining.
Normally around this time the time we fire up Centennial Treatment Plant which processes water from our other two Pelham reservoirs, Hills and Hawley.
Click photos to enlarge/read
Water usage in November averaged 2.9 Mgd, a tad below average
While the recent rain was a very good thing overall, it did stir up the water in all three reservoirs but DPW Chief Mooring reports the Pelham Reservoirs will be tapped "soon."
Current drought map does not yet show impact of recent rains
Growth of drought since July
Atkins sandbar 10/7
Atkins sandbar 12/1
19 comments:
I say again: drain one of the three, clean it out, deepen it, and improve the quality of the supply.
And what do you guess THAT would cost?
Less than what we waste on the School System consistent Fuck-ups!
In the new optimism in America, let's say it is half full!
Not as much as you might think.
1: Draining it -- essentially free if it involves opening a spillway. Otherwise the cost of electricity or Diesel Fuel, particularly if it is used as a training exercise. How about giving "Engine 3" (the UM volunteers) some real-life practical experience with drafting.
2: Cleaning it out -- the "Centennial" was in 1876, and things called "Centennial" were built around that time -- 140 years ago. That muck on the bottom is 140 years worth of decomposing leaves, silt, and such -- is actually quite valuable. It's worth $20-$40/yard (FOB) to contractors and landscapers -- either alone or mixed with sand (depending on organic content) -- it makes wonderful topsoil.
Quality topsoil is increasingly hard to come by because it usually involves "mining" farmland, something which is increasingly prohibited, as it should be. When Hadley built their new Elementary school in the '90's, they sold the pile of excavated dirt, I believe for a fairly good price. There ate contractors who will clean out pond muck just to have it -- other communities in the Commonwealth have gotten ponds cleaned out for a nominal cost (i.e. $1) because of the value of this decomposed organic material.
3: Deepening it: I don't know the quality of the "sand" on the Atkins sandbar, or what lies under these dam-created ponds (former rivers) but the best sand & gravel is found along riverbanks, something to do with glaciers. Notwithstanding that, sand & gravel of any quality is hard to come by in the upper valley -- other than what the MDC has for its own use in the Quabbin, where is the nearest *active* gravel pit?
There is a statistically-likely chance that there is commercially valuable sand or gravel underneath, valuable enough for someone to remove it for having it. Or if it is sand, the DPW may find it cheaper to mine it for future winter road use, particularly if it is a higher road-use quality than what they can buy.
The thing to remember is that the town can get environmental permits that no private entity ever could -- what here is seen as improving a public water supply would otherwise be viewed as destroying protected wetlands. Hence value created by scarcity.
And remember that chlorine and organics creates dioxins -- which are bad. Hence clearing these reservoirs down to gravel or bedrock would be a good thing.
Your point as to cost is valid -- but if the stuff to be dug out is valuable enough for people to dig out just to have, your costs won't be what you think they will be, not if tou have someone looking out for the town's interests.
Ed, mind your own business.
When your cup is half empty-it's half full. ?!?!??!!!$&@
Kind of like the sound of one hand clapping.
Always with the Chicken Little routine.
I prefer to think of it as vigilant.
I support Larry's vigilance on the issue of water scarcity. It's one of the critical problems of this century.
I was out at an Amherst restaurant last week and the servers kept refilling water glasses without even asking. When I mentioned the water shortage to the server, she seemed completely surprised. So clearly the restaurant hasn't done any training around this. It should be an understood practice that you only give people water if they request it and you only refill if they request it. I know that filling water glasses in restaurants is probably a small fraction of the usage but the point is that we need to raise people's awareness. People need to stop looking at water as some kind of infinite resource.
Every drop that goes over the top of the dam is wasted by not having the capacity to store the water.
Just sayin....
Ed, mind your own business. Please Ed, In reality you know nothing but you do not live in reality....you live in your mother's basement ....stay at your end of the state...comment on your town not ours....
End of the state? Ha! Ed doesn't live in Massachusetts.
I echo Nina on this. Thank you for the reporting on this topic, Larry.
There are days when the comments section does not reflect the seriousness of the blogmaster's post.
Rich Morse
You must be a lot of fun to go out with.
You should really get some help for the way you want to control Ed. Give it a rest. We're begging you.
Give me what I want and I'll go away....
And Larry, ponds do turn into swamps if you don't clean them out.
Amherst has an un-allocated wellfield off Teewaddle Hill Road in the floodplain below Atkins-very promising potential-since they have the rights-they could tap this !!!??
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