MAJOR water pipe break in Weston leads to boil water order in EVERY MWRA Community east of Weston which includes:
IF YOUR TOWN IS ON THIS LIST YOUR WATER IS NOT SAFE TO DRINK UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Arlington,
Lexington
Belmont
Boston
Brookline
Canton
Chelsea
Everett
Lynnfield Water District
Malden
Marblehead
Medford
Melrose
Milton
Nahant
Newton
Norwood
Quincy
Reading
Revere
Saugus
Somerville
Stoneham
Stoughton
Swampscott Wakefield
Waltham
Watertown
Weston
Wilmington
Winchester
Winthrop
A MEMA Alert went out at 4:30 PM. Again, infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure.
Please share widely!
I wonder why we’re not on the list, since everywhere near us is.
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p>Glad, also, because I’ve been putting off laundry and today’s the one day I have a chance to do it.
Cambridge uses MWRA for sewer and for emergency backup water. The main water supply isn’t from MWRA, so that’s why.
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p>See here.
don’t even use the water. We were told not to water the grounds with it, and it said if people must bathe to boil it first.
Following Amber’s link and the news stories, there are issues with things like drinking, brushing teeth, and washing dishes but not with bathing (as long as you don’t ingest any water) or washing clothes – although the latter activities should be put off if possible to preserve water.
I just wanted to report what my town told. The town administrator may have just been going with the ‘better safe than sorry’ theme.
Basically, what’s coming through the taps is something like untreated pond water, as I understand it. Obviously not safe to drink without being boiled, but I can’t see why you couldn’t use it for bathing or flushing. The reason not to water plants would be consistent with a water conservation emergency (which is also in effect), but not because it’s not safe.
It’s a bit of a higher standard than untreated pond water, just not irradiated, chlorinated, and filtered to the extent that treated water is…
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p>It’s not like a frog is going to wriggle out of your tap.
I was relying on the Globe, which reports:
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p>What’s your source?
the water stored in emergency reservoirs to untreated pond water, then he is not in touch with reality.
of my comment here, you should have gotten my point. In my comment, I didn’t compare the magnitude of the harm to Nantucket Sound ecosystems to the tragedy unfolding in the Gulf, only that they are both harms caused by our society’s breakneck quest for more and more energy. The amount of harm is relevant of course, but nowhere did I imply it wasn’t, and nowhere did I imply that the magnitude was the same, or even “like” the oil disaster.
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p>Now here is this guy, equating the magnitude of the pollution and hazard of Chestnut Hill Reservoir water to unfiltered pond water, literally saying they are “like” one another, essentially the same the same. That is not in touch with reality.
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p>So, this was my little revenge, my way of registering my complaint of deliberately unfair straw manning and dismissing of my point. I know it struck deep, and you’re all deeply chagrined and embarrassed.
I would agree that if Chestnut Hill reservoir water is unsafe to drink and requires boiling to brush your teeth, then it could be said to be more like untreated pond water than like drinking water.
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p>But the “to be fair” is what was missing about David’s response to my comparison, which was here.
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p>My overall point: we need to reduce energy consumption radically with major social changes. I agree that society will need alternative power like wind and water to survive the coming oil shortage, and Cape Wind will presumably save lots of oil for the rest of the country, and I trust that the return on investment will be worth it. But it distracts us from social changes, and absent social changes, it would just wind up giving cheap power to the people of the Cape and Islands, while the rest of us are stuck in some Mad Max movie. Is there a mechanism to make sure the the whole state will reap the long term benefits equally with the people of the Cape?
who once lived in the last place in the state to pump untreated lake water into peoples’ homes, I’d like to know what is the difference between the CH Reservoir and Lake Cochichewick (the source of the aforementioned untreated water). Just what treatment is applied to water from the reservoir? If it still requires boiling, my guess is not much.
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p>My year on North Andover water was interesting, as the algae bloom turned water in the toilet a bright green, then a less-lovely brown as the algae died. Later came the state-ordered boil directive and chlorine-injection pumps to deal with the Giardia outbreak. MWRA subscribers have my sympathy.
Yep. For starters, build more wind turbines. There was another proposed project not too far away, off the coast of NB and Dartmouth. Let’s hope its not far behind. Beyond that, though, is the fact that if Cape Wind provides most of the power for Cape Cod, that means Cape Cod needs less power from other sources — which, indeed, has a very tangible benefit for the rest of the state.
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I think you’re too fixed on social changes. If we sell climate change reform on dramatic changes to our lifestyles, guess what? We’re not going to get energy reform, because too many people will be unwilling to make those changes. Some minor changes may be needed, but not anything to the extent that would dramatically change our lifestyles. We need changes in investment, both on the supply side and on the demand side (more efficient building codes, appliances, vehicles, etc.). We need to make sure the changes we implement on the surface don’t look very different – or actually improve our qualities of life – from the status quo, because much of the change can happen under the surface, changes to how things operate and how they’re constructed that don’t actually create “social changes.”
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p>We need the state to start to implement policy standards to nudge people into making the right decisions — ie shift the government from incentivizing disperse development (all the highway funds, allowing restrictive zoning locally) to creating incentives for denser, infinitely more efficient, development, shifting highway funds to public transit funds, etc. Personally, I think an emphasis on reform will actually improve our qualities of life, growing permanent jobs and economic opportunities for people all over.
about the backup reservoirs. I was generally interested in the recent projects to build completely closed reservoirs, and I was asking them about the open ones like in Chestnut Hill… about things like degree of contamination, risk of intentional contamination, etc.
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p>The side walls of the Chestnut Hill reservoir are made from stone and block, not mud. I don’t know about the bottom. They said that there is sediment in the reservoir, but it settles to the bottom and the water flow is remarkably free of debris and biological matter.
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p>I’m not saying it’s Poland Springs, but it ain’t Pond Scum either. Remember, the Chestnut Hill Reservoir was on “active duty” until 1978, and has been maintained since then for backup.
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p>I saw the pond water comment in the Globe. Did he say it because he’s not a water quality engineer and doesn’t know better? Did he say it because the MWRA is interested in making sure people believe the water is really risky so that they’ll take extra precautions (and maybe even avoid it altogether so the MWRA mitigates the risk of depleting their reservoirs before repair is completed)? Dunno.
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p>But come on — pour yourself a glass of tap water and put it next to a glass of pond water. They’re simply not very similar in terms of biological, mineral, or toxicity content.
because it’s a low priority use. Same goes for washing the car.
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p>It’s not that it’s dangerous to the ground or the car, just that they want to make sure that there’s enough water for the toilets.
and he could have not been as clear as he’d have liked (by “he” I mean the town manager). plus, I only listened to the message once, and it had been an hour or so before I posted my initial reply.
They get their water from a Nagog Pond in Acton.
…oh, Boston, you’re my home!
While in general I’m all for infrastructure spending, I don’t think you can really make much of a statement based on this. The pipe seems to have been relatively new. Who knows what we’ll find out about the cause, but this isn’t a case of neglected maintenance.
If that wasn’t caused by some idiot digging with a backhoe, then this is some sort of engineering malpractice.
Outraged Liberal digs up the history of this steel pipe: It was put there by Parsons Brinkerhoff.
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p>http://baystateliberal.blogspo…
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p>That big crack in it could have started from some small structural flaw in it, and under seven years of stress from all the weight of that water, ripped open in a catastrophic failure.
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p>If an oil rig can capsize due to a poorly done 6 millimeter weld, then it’s really not beyond belief somebody let a dent or a bad weld get past the quality inspection, and here we are, with 2 million people boiling their water.
Bay State Liberal wrote this:
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p>That does not mean the steel pipe in question was “put there” by Parsons Brinkerhoff. It seems to me that Bay State Lib implies other firms were involved, as well. I know it’s fun to bash Parsons, but I think it’s more important to be accurate. If it turns out that Parsons was actually responsible for what went on here, then yeah, they get the blame, but there needs to be an investigation first (especially given the fact that we may just need to see if there are any other weak spots, too).
… he’s wrong. It’s not PB. It was designed by Jacobs and built by Barletta.
If a dent could cause structural failure, it should have been found by the inspection. If it wasn’t, either the inspection wasn’t good enough or the design wasn’t good enough. You can always make the walls thicker to make larger dents acceptable. Civil engineers typically overdesign things by an order of magnitude or more (based on strength as compared to what is calculated to be necessary). That allows a lot of imperfections to go through without a problem. This isn’t an airplane where you care about how heavy it is. And underdesign leads to extremely expensive failures, so you don’t expect to save money by cutting back on the wall thickness. Unless you’re paying for construction, but won’t be around by the time you expect the pipe to fail.
I agree most engineers would over design in an application like this – a small extra amounts of cost results in a larger degree of safety. I wouldn’t assume the welds in this project would be inspected ? I would assume they would depend on the skill of the welder – or these might be bolted or press fitted together.
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p>You realize an order of magnitude is 10, right? I can assure you, things are not designed to withstand a reasonable worst case times a factor of 10. That’s overkill to the extreme, and it ain’t cheap neither.
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p>The current theory being floated is that a collar failed, but no word as to design, fabrication, or installation at fault.
I was at Central Square just getting ready to leave for JFK when the red line died the other night. I’m so glad I get to watch this one from afar.
I posted just to make sure the word got out in case someone hadn’t heard – the first e-mail blast or notice I got was actually from my state rep, Sean Garballey.
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p>Looking at that video, what comes to mind is “Are we having fun yet” – no one, not Gov. Patrick, not mayor Menino looks like they ARE having fun.
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p>Suggestion: paper plates. The biggest discussion on our town listserv is how much bleach to make used dirty dishes safe after hand washing or running a dishwasher. Really.
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p>Any estimates on repair time anywhere?
I don’t know if the Arlington list covered this yet, but according to the Mass DEP FAQ:
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p>Our dishwasher has a sanitizing cycle, so even things we normally hand-wash are going into the dishwasher.
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p>And regarding the pond water comparison, although it’s not really accurate, I think it is useful in the following way: If you have spent any time in ponds, you’ve probably ingested pond water and if you’ve survived that without getting ill, you’ll probably be just fine if you follow the recommended precautions.
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p>And, finally, regarding repair time, they are working on it right now but in order to not set expectations, they aren’t giving any completion times (as heard on WBZ this morning). Given that the Globe noted a number of businesses that are shut down (or will not be able to run on Monday), I’d bet this will get done pretty quickly.
Accidents and failures happen. With and without human responsibilities. I hope the Globe article regarding citizen response is mostly hyperbole.
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p>If fights are breaking out now over bottled water, what is in store for us if we face economic collapse? Has state government developed any plans for coping with an economic breakdown? The federal government shows itself more and more as too big to be effective.
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p>Would state government be able to provide essential services?
is that the stores didn’t immediately limit the amount that each customer could purchase, to help ensure that they’d be enough to go around.
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p>You want to ensure a shortage of something? Suggest that there will be a shortage, and watch as people start hoarding — taking far more than they need and to hell with their fellow citizens. Human nature? Tribalism? Survival of the fittest? Dunno, but it does seem ugly from 30,000 feet.
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p>As for me, I borrowed a few 5 gallon unopened containers from my office. I’ll return the empty bottles soon enough.
Every time a major snow storm is forecast for the Boston area – there is a run on milk. Hood should sponsor the weather forecast.
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p>Individuals should be prepared, you always should have some bottled water on hand. You can do without a lot of things, but water is not one of them.
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p> I would not want to be a business in the MWRA district, I guess this is what business interruption insurance is for. Not sure I could do without my Harpoon beer for week.
why there is the rush on bottled water? I understand not everyone is an expert chef, but can’t most of us handle boiling water and operating a timer for a minute?
Easier to rush the stores and wait on line for water than to put it in a pot, boil it, and then store it.
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p>There’s also the nonzero thought that the reserve water may actually run out. Then again, if that was what people were worried about, then they’d buy bottled water but go home and boil tap water so as to not deplete their own reserves.
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p>shrugs
There will be people who simply don’t want to boil the water — and there will be people who don’t want to drink the water they boiled (ie they may still fear about its safety).
There are other things to drink, and even a couple of shower-free days isn’t going to kill anybody. When I was growing up my family saved a few gallons of water for something like this, so being prepared isn’t a bad idea either.
Maybe not you. But what about the people around you? 😉
…but if we all stink nobody will notice;)
Q. Why are there no ice cubes in [country of origin deleted to eliminate ethnic slur]?
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p>A. The old lady with the recipe died.
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p>Clearly, some folks lost the recipe for boiled water.