Numerous Studies Call Cobble Mountain Dam Unstable; Springfield Water and Sewer Commission Skirts Issue Instead of Fixing The Dam!Business & Assignment Editors SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 2003 "Seizing a small country road in a Western Massachusetts hilltown is hardly the remedy. Fixing the dam is," said Bob Costello and John Kelly John Kelly or Jack Kelly is the name of: People
Springfield Water and Sewer Commission (SWSC SWSC Space & Warning Systems Center SWSC Sanitary Wastewater Systems Consolidation SWSC South Wales Safety Consultancy (UK) SWSC Swing Low Sweet Chariot (rock climbing) SWSC Signals Warfare Support Center ) filed emergency legislation Jan. 31 for the "permanent closure and seizure of Cobble Mountain Road" in Blandford citing possible terrorists threats to Cobble Mountain Dam. Cobble Mountain Road traverses the dam. Federal, state and the SWSC's own local engineering reports however, indicate that the real potential threat is from the dam itself rather than from terrorists. Cobble Mountain Dam is the highest hydraulic filled earthen earth·en adj. 1. Made of earth or clay: an earthen fortification; an earthen pot. 2. Earthly; worldly. dam in the world. Rising 263 feet and holding 25.5 billion gallons, the reservoir provides drinking water drinking water supply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. for hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses in Springfield and surrounding towns, including Westfield, Southwick, West Springfield West Springfield, town (1990 pop. 27,537), Hampden co., SW Mass., on the Connecticut River opposite Springfield; settled 1654, set off from Springfield and inc. 1774. Light manufactures include paper, chemicals, and ignition systems. , and Agawam, among others. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Kelly, Cobble Mountain Dam is considered a `high hazard' by the Federal Emergency Management Authority (FEMA FEMA, n.pr See Federal Emergency Management Agency. ), the Massachusetts Emergency Management Authority (MEMA) and SWSC's own commissioned studies, the dam is an outdated example of a non-redundant, positive feedback impoundment An action taken by the president in which he or she proposes not to spend all or part of a sum of money appropriated by Congress. The current rules and procedures for impoundment were created by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C.A. system. Constructed in the late 1920s and early 1930s with no significant structural improvements in the intervening years, if the dam breaks, there is no safety net; if the dam leaks, the leak only becomes worse. The potential for loss of life and property should the dam fail is the criterion that generates the high hazard rating. According to SWSC`s own internal consulting engineering firm's study, a breach of the dam would send water cascading to Westfield's business district peaking anywhere from 25 to 41 feet in 35 minutes. Water levels in adjacent West Springfield would rise 15 to 25 feet above normal within three-and-a-half to seven hours before flooding the areas around the Connecticut River. Main roads through other state reservoirs, Quabbin Reservoir, for example, were initially closed after 9/11. These roads were later reopened. SWSC appears to disguise its real failure to repair and strengthen the dam under the threat of terrorism. State police provided round the clock protection at Cobble Mountain Road immediately following 9/11 at a cost of $15,000 a week. The weekly cost proved too high, and SWSC closed the road on May 14, 2002, with no warning to residents, local officials or local emergency management officials who use the road. Judge David Ross of the Westfield District Court affirmed in March 2002 in a separate finding, that there was no credible terrorist threat to the dam. Closing Cobble Mountain Road does not successfully restrict access to the dam, either by foot or boat. Even when the road was under 24-hour police surveillance, five men entered the dam's diversion tunnels and made their way eventually to the gatehouse instrumentation room. The proposed legislation also seeks the uncompensated uncompensated (  n·kômˑ·p transfer of Cobble Mountain Road ownership and right of way from the Town of Blandford to both Springfield and SWSC. The legislation comes on the heels of Blandford attorney's request to SWSC for compensation for over 70 years of Cobble Mountain Road maintenance, and for the development of alternate routes. SWSC is the second largest landholder in the state after the Commonwealth. The SWSC's 12,500 acres in Blandford are currently restricted as watershed. Springfield is located nearly 25 miles from Blandford. It took the acreage by eminent domain eminent domain, the right of a government to force the owner of private property sell it if it is needed for a public use. The right is based on the doctrine that a sovereign state has dominion over all lands and buildings within its borders, which has its origins in in the 1920s for its water supply. "SWSC continues its heavy handed tactics, but the law is going to catch up with them sooner or later. This is a totally illegal seizure of property, and we intend to prove it in court. Time would be better spent addressing the real problem, which quite simply is to fix the dam. That would truly be in the public's best interest," concluded Costello. |
|
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion