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- clifton heights
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<font color=BLACK>My name may be Clifton but I've never been a boy </font> <img border="0" src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0">
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The article in the Enterprise was very interesting (shocking as that statement is). A lot to think about.
m.enterprisenews.com/article/20150530/NEWS/150539741
The break in East Bridgewater threw the city into crisis. Much of Brockton lost water pressure and the entire city and neighboring Whitman came under a state-issued boil water order for most of three days. Businesses and schools closed and a hospital cancelled surgeries.
But could things have gone differently?
At least some of the impact may have been averted, according to current and former city officials, if the city had been able to locate a bypass valve that might have been able to keep water flowing through the undamaged pipe.
Larry Rowley, the city’s Department of Public Works Commissioner, said his workers tried in vain Wednesday morning to find the bypass. They were relying on a map from 1933. “We’re working off plans that have been here for years and, with the bypass, we could not find out where it crossed over,” Rowley said. “I just couldn’t feed that other main. We tried and tried everything possible and we still couldn’t do it.”
This could have been much worse, said Wayne Tartaglia, a former city superintendent of utilities. He was incredulous this week that the water department could not locate the valves.
“I’ve been in the industry for 35 years,” Tartaglia said. “We never had to shut down the system.”
Tartaglia said that overgrown vegetation along the pipes likely added to the department’s confusion. Before he retired in 2005 amid a probe into whether he used city resources to build a new house, Tartaglia’s department hired a contractor to maintain the area. He does not believe it has been taken care of since.
“If there was fire in Campello, that whole neighborhood would go down,” Tartaglia said. “They really endangered the lives of the citizens.”
The state Department of Environmental Protection is also looking for answers.
Spokesman Ed Coletta said that as soon as the acute problems are addressed, the DEP will expect an after-action report from the city. Included should be information on why it happened, how Brockton can minimize future problems and where that bypass valve is located.
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If we all sang the same note in the choir, We'd never have harmony
2/1/1938-5/4/2019
Rest in peace
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Fire Dept. emergencies were at a terrible risk.
Numerous places of business took losses having to shut down.
Elderly without water or bathroom use.
Most of us were able to cope and improvise, but the emergency situations should never have happened.
I still praise the men and women who put things all back together again.
If we all sang the same note in the choir, We'd never have harmony
2/1/1938-5/4/2019
Rest in peace
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"Do the right thing, even when no one is looking"
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- SeamusMcFly
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In general those numbers are based on the average person in this country, Not including hospitals or separate business usage. Just use per person (whether at home or work).
It really is incredibly high, particularly when compared around the world. The NE in the USA is one of the worst. We're very congested up here, but we also have some of the cheapest water around. This is what really delays our cutting back on water usage.
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The "FREE" cases of water weren't exactly free, it cost the COB $15,000.
We paid $6.50 a case but shipping was included!
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m.enterprisenews.com/article/20150604/NEWS/150608094/13406/NEWS
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Also it was also pointed out that the Communucations to foreign language residents from BEMA was made to an ILLEGAL Haitian Radio Station. I thought DeNapoli was going to burst a blood vessel.
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- clifton heights
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<font color=BLACK>My name may be Clifton but I've never been a boy </font> <img border="0" src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0">
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- clifton heights
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<font color=BLACK>My name may be Clifton but I've never been a boy </font> <img border="0" src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0">
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ETA: update
received through the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency – a bill that is at least $3,400 higher than it should be, based on the state’s own emergency bottled water contracts.
Those contracts, with four different vendors, outline how water should be made available to municipalities and other organizations like hospitals, and how much it should cost. A case of 16.9 ounce bottles of water, as Brockton received, should cost $4.99 under the contracts.
However, last Wednesday none of the approved vendors had enough bottled water available, and MEMA had to get the water from an outside vendor, which ended up charging about $6.50 per case, according to Peter Judge, an agency spokesman. The state-contracted vendors did not have sufficient water so we had to go off state contract,” Judge said Thursday. “At that time, it was an emergency situation, and we weren’t dickering on the price at that point.”
City councilors questioned the overall expense at a budget hearing Wednesday night, wondering why there was not a bulk discount and whether Brockton could get the cost waived. On Thursday, after The Enterprise uncovered the out-of-contract purchase, some councilors challenged MEMA’s readiness.
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