Boil water alert - Boston Mass area

[zerg901]

http://www.mwra.com - big water pipe broke in Weston - approx 30 communities being told to boil water

460.50 R - Boston PD held all day units on duty

483.1625 R - Boston FD advised all members to boil water for cooking or drinking

Peter Sz

 

[bobl943]

Would you happen to know why BFD is offline again?

 

[zerg901]

No sorry - I have no idea. Peter Sz

 

[zerg901]

The water boil order has been lifted on 4 May 2010. 2 talkgroups on the State TRS seemed to have the most interesting action. TG 38928 MEMA East had Operations coordinating delivery of pallets of bottled water with Massport Staging and Meadow Road Staging. TG 36432 seemed to have Natl Guard units operating trucks. DOT, DCR, DER, Natl Guard, and private trucks were used to haul the water to distribution sites in various communities.

Maps of the Boston area water supply system. The main that broke was in Weston, right next to the Charles River. (Caught a lucky break there)

http://www.mwra.com/01news/2010/maps/mwrawatermap.pdf - 4.5 MB

http://www.mwra.com/01news/2010/maps/mwrawatermap.jpg - 488 KB

Dont ask me why there is just 1 pipe coming in from the west.

PS - there are no desalination plants to provide water from the Atlantic Ocean.

Peter Sz

 

[kennyblues]

[QUOTE
Dont ask me why there is just 1 pipe coming in from the west.

Peter Sz[/QUOTE]

The Metrowest Water Supply Tunnel was completed about 10 years ago. It runs aprox 18 miles from Marlboro to Weston, basically along the same route as the Mass Turnpike, it lies anywhere from 300' to 500' below ground. At the time of it's completion the Hultman Aqueduct was shut down. The Hultman was originally constructed in the 1930's and remained the only source of water for MWRA communities until the new tunnel was completed. At the time the Metrowest Tunnel was completed the Hultman was leaking millions of gallons of water every day. Earlier this year the rehabilitation of the Hultman was started, the project is not scheduled for completion for another 3 to 4 years after witch the MWRA communities will have an almost unlimited supply of water for centuries to come. I spent about 4 years on the construction of the Metrowest Tunnel, the MWRA has been very very good to me.

 

[zerg901]

Boston Fire Department Live Scanner Audio Feed

The Boston FD is up now - Weds at 1033AM - the website might say it is down, but I am hearing the feed OK. Peter sz

 

[zerg901]

Kennyblues - do you have any idea how earthquake proof these water supply pipelines from Quabbin Reservoir and Wachusetts Reservoir are? Maybe a better question is - how resistant are they to "all - risks"? I suppose if we go back to two supply lines east from Wachusetts, that would be better than just having one. I dont know how long it would take for us to suck Wachusetts Res dry though. Peter Sz

 

[zerg901]

Can anyone confirm that "Massport Staging" was at Logan Airport? Can anyone confirm that "Meadow Staging" was at the Stop and Shop Warehouse on the Readville / Dedham border on ?Meadow Road / ? West Meadow Rd? Peter Sz

 

[kennyblues]

Kennyblues - do you have any idea how earthquake proof these water supply pipelines from Quabbin Reservoir and Wachusetts Reservoir are? Maybe a better question is - how resistant are they to "all - risks"? I suppose if we go back to two supply lines east from Wachusetts, that would be better than just having one. I dont know how long it would take for us to suck Wachusetts Res dry though. Peter Sz

I'm not sure but I think the Aqueduct from the Quabbin to Wachusetts is not through a tunnel but open air, but again I'm not sure

 

[zerg901]

Turns out Boston-area water was OK to drink all along -

Boil water order was not necessary

 

[Lynch_Christopher]

Turns out Boston-area water was OK to drink all along -

Boil water order was not necessary

Better to be safe than have a lot of people get sick. Id rather boil water for a couple days and be inconvenienced than risk getting very sick.

 

[garys]

Better to be safe than have a lot of people get sick. Id rather boil water for a couple days and be inconvenienced than risk getting very sick.

While that is true, neither the media nor the politicians emphasized that the water was likely safe and that the order was precautionary. As a result there was wide spread panic buying of bottled water. The real kicker is that they didn't have a way to test the water quickly, nor does it appear that anyone had a contingency plan for such a catastrophic water main break.

Emergency preparedness fail.

 

[N1BHH]

The problem is, people panicked because they are uneducated and they asked for a handout from the government. This is typical of the 47 percent of the people who don't pay taxes, they have always been living on the dole, on my dime. People who can't figure out how to boil their water need to grow some better gray matter. It's always best to take the boil water advice should the water be contaminated. You boil the water, then cool it before drinking, how common sense is that?

 

[zerg901]

Did anyone catch any MWRA radio traffic about the break? I heard bottled water being distributed by the Natl Guard and MEMA, but I did not catch any radio traffic about repair work.

The news media is reporting today that there are 100 connections that use the same clamp as the one that failed.

Peter Sz

 

[garys]

The problem is, people panicked because they are uneducated and they asked for a handout from the government. This is typical of the 47 percent of the people who don't pay taxes, they have always been living on the dole, on my dime. People who can't figure out how to boil their water need to grow some better gray matter. It's always best to take the boil water advice should the water be contaminated. You boil the water, then cool it before drinking, how common sense is that?

I think it was more than just the 47%, a lot of people who should have known better panicked. I think it's part of the mindset of relying on the government for everything. It's also off topic, so I'll say no more.