On Wednesday May 23, 2007 a letter to the editor appeared in the Woburn Times Chronicle written by Thom Phillips of Woburn. In the letter Mr. Phillips goes into detail in describing the effects of the sewer surcharging problem in Woburn.
He points out correctly that during peak rain periods the manhole covers near Horn Pond are lifted by the pressure of the heavy flows of water and that the spill over of the mix of raw sewerage and storm water flows into the pond which is a source of Woburn's drinking water.
There is an incorrect assertion however as to who is responsible for these events. Mr. Phillips rightly points out that this line is the trunk line that connects Burlington to the MWRA treatment plant in Boston. However he is incorrect when he states that "it is their flow that over taxing Woburn's sewer capacity."
The problem of course starts at the beginning of the sewer line not at the end. The communities closer to Boston and Boston itself are different than Burlington and Woburn because in many cases they have a single system instead of a dual system in dealing with storm water.
A dual system means that storm water and sanitary sewer are carried in away in two separate systems. In the more urban and older communities this type of system is cost prohibitive to install. Prior to the early 1980's the problem of an overtaxed sewer system was pretty simple.
The method was to simply open the gates and let all the sewerage and storm water flow into Boston Harbor.
This became a problem when Quincy sued and won a decision in court to prevent that solution from constantly polluting their beaches. The result partly was the creation of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and the accompanying massive spending on upgrading the Nut and Deer Island treatment plants.
This seemed to have alleviated the problem for a period of time. For a decent period during the 1990's surcharging seemed to be a thing of the past. The new facilities coupled with very aggressive inflow and infiltration programs seemed to get the problem under control.
Inflow is the illegal tie ins of storm water systems into the sanitary sewer and infiltration is ground water flowing into the system via leaking pipes or manholes in flooded areas.
Burlington spent a lot of time and effort in this area because of imposed restrictions by the authorities. No expansion could take place of new sewer consumption unless the developer did a 10 to 1 removal of I&I in exchange for sewer capacity.
The problem of course is that the new sewer users you put on line were permanent sources of discharge while the infiltration you took out might not be a permanent solution. Mother nature constantly assaults the sewer system with such things as frost heaves and erosion which can penetrate the integrity of the system.
During this period Burlington's peak flow has actually declined because of these efforts. The ominous development here is that the surcharging of the downstream lines occurs at lower levels of Burlington's discharge. This can only be a result of the combination of three things. The communities closer to the treatment plants are not doing enough inflow and Infiltration removal, we are getting more annual rain fall and we have seen a great deal of growth in newer sewer discharge.
As far as I know the rain fall stats of late have not been unusually large so it must be the other items that are to blame. The real culprit of course is development. Burlington and Woburn have been Hell bent on new construction for the past five years with out any consideration what so ever for the sewer issue.
Part of this of course has been the chapter 40B non sense but equally as large has been the race for more tax revenue. Both Burlington and Woburn have pursued the extra money from the hotel tax as an example. This has turned out to be a Fools paradise since Burlington doubled the number of rooms available in town but only succeeded in reducing both the hotel tax income as well as reducing the property values of all the hotels.
Both communities are now pursuing a similar strategy in the retail areas. One segment of the commercial market that has retained its over all value during the commercial decline was the retail sector. What has followed is zoning changes to retail that have exceeded all the retail space approved over the past 25 years. In addition to the space is approval of "amenities" necessary to make the retail space work. Those amenities are restaurants and liquor licenses. Restaurants are huge producers of sewerage.
It is to early make any value judgements as to the extent this will alleviate the residential tax burden but one thing we can say for sure. Over the past three years residential property taxes have increased over 50% because of spending as well as the shift of the property values. Residential values have sky rocketed while commercial values have fallen. Will more commercial building add to the tax base or will more building simply lower existing commercial values and leave us with more pressure on the existing infrastructure?
Only time will tell but one thing is for sure. The completion of the Cummingsville connector, touted as the solution to the sewer capacity problem has been erroneous. I am afraid that as time passes along, surcharging is going to become more and more prevalent and will become a fact of life unless the residents demand a solution.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Waiting patiently
The last NBA championship won by the Boston Celtics was in 1986. Since then it has been the curse of Len Bias as the team has floundered. This past year a combination of injuries, a poor start and some questionable coaching resulted in the team compiling the second to worst record in the NBA.
Bias of course was the Maryland star who the Celtics picked in the 1986 NBA draft. He was the second over all pick after Brad Dougherty. I can't remember exactly how the then defending NBA champs managed to have acquired this pick. I do remember that he was to be the heir apparent to Larry Bird and would extend the domination of that great Celtic club. The rest of course is history as two days later Bias was dead of a cocaine over dose.
Since then it has been one disappointment after another. I have included a link to a Bill Simmons column that goes into great detail, the pain that Celtic fans have felt. http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1216291
Tonight marks a point in time when things could turn around. A genuine moment when we can look back and say it was at that moment that we came full circle.
Finishing second to last gives the Celtics a 38% chance of getting one of the 2 franchise players available this evening. That means that if we capitalize on that chance then we will either get Kevin Durant of Texas or Greg Oden of Ohio State. Both are freshman but each is destined to be a marquee player in the NBA.
We were in this situation once before when we had a chance to get Tim Duncan and the lottery gods failed us miserably. Duncan went to San Antonio and we went into the dumps. He won rings and we won disappointment. Perhaps with a little change of luck we will either be getting a genuine 7 foot pivot man in Oden or a dynamic 6'10" athlete with unlimited up side potential in Durant. I am not even thinking about anyone else.
Bias of course was the Maryland star who the Celtics picked in the 1986 NBA draft. He was the second over all pick after Brad Dougherty. I can't remember exactly how the then defending NBA champs managed to have acquired this pick. I do remember that he was to be the heir apparent to Larry Bird and would extend the domination of that great Celtic club. The rest of course is history as two days later Bias was dead of a cocaine over dose.
Since then it has been one disappointment after another. I have included a link to a Bill Simmons column that goes into great detail, the pain that Celtic fans have felt. http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1216291
Tonight marks a point in time when things could turn around. A genuine moment when we can look back and say it was at that moment that we came full circle.
Finishing second to last gives the Celtics a 38% chance of getting one of the 2 franchise players available this evening. That means that if we capitalize on that chance then we will either get Kevin Durant of Texas or Greg Oden of Ohio State. Both are freshman but each is destined to be a marquee player in the NBA.
We were in this situation once before when we had a chance to get Tim Duncan and the lottery gods failed us miserably. Duncan went to San Antonio and we went into the dumps. He won rings and we won disappointment. Perhaps with a little change of luck we will either be getting a genuine 7 foot pivot man in Oden or a dynamic 6'10" athlete with unlimited up side potential in Durant. I am not even thinking about anyone else.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Clemens mania
The recent signing of Roger Clemens to a 28 million dollar pro rated contract was a perfect example of a some what insignificant news item blown way out of proportion. http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2007/05/06/clemens_chooses_yankees_red_sox_caught_by_surprise/
The previous article by Gordon Edes of the Globe seems to be written more for the consumption of the Globe's New York owners than for the Boston fan base.
Insignificant you say? How can a seven time Cy Young award winner going to the evil empire be insignificant. The insignificance is what impact Clemens is going to have on the New York Yankees this season. Clemens will be 45 this August and for the past three years he has been pitching in the National League which by comparison to the American League Eastern division is a notch above the minors.
Clemens has not faced a line up as powerful as the Red Sox in a very long time. It is unlikely that he is going to be much of a factor for the Yankees in trying to shore up their front line starting pitching.
There are a couple of things that are startling about this deal by the Yankees. It is amazing how quickly it has dawned on George Steinbrenner that the make up of this Yankee team is not nearly good enough to compete in the division. Yes they are a great hitting team but the starting and relieving pitching is so bad that they find themselves ten games out of first place and we are not even out of May yet.
The signing of Clemens for this ridiculous amount of money amounts to George being in a mindless panic. It was reported that the Sox and the Houston Astros were in the bidding for Clemen's services but even if true about the Sox it is non sense to trump their bid by over 10 million dollars. Roger would have pitched for a lot less money because Clemens has proven over his career that he is about the money.
As for any surprise about Roger "Rocket" Clemens signing with the Yankees, Lance Berkman of the Astros summed it up best when he said, "with this Rocket situation, there's two kinds of people: people that are not surprised and morons,"
There was a great deal of talk in the papers and surprise and disappointment that Clemens was not coming to Boston to finish out his career in a blaze of glory. This was clearly a case of wishful thinking. An aging pitcher with a reputation for quitting on the team was more likely to be a disastrous ending than any kind of a fairy tale. Many of us long time fans could not bear to see him back in a Sox uniform.
For those of you who harbored such thoughts please go back and look at Clemens last four years here. During the stretch from 93 though 96, Clemens was a pedestrian 40 wins and 39 losses and had the body of the Pillsbury Doughboy. At that time then Red Sox general Manager Dan Duquette commented that Clemens was in the "twilight of his career".
The Red Sox failed to re-sign Clemens and he went to Toronto for big money so "he could be closer to his home in Texas". Clemens should remember Duquette in his will because he more than anybody was responsible for his wake up call to get himself back in shape.
The rest of course is history and surely will result in a deserved place in Cooperstown for the hard throwing and very durable Texan. His career statistics are unmistakable in their grandeur and cannot be denied by the most hard core Clemens critic. His 348 wins, over 4000 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.10 speak for themselves.http://www.baseball-reference.com/c/clemero02.shtml
Like all good things however, at some time they come to an end. It is more than likely that Clemens stat line this year will look a lot more like those of other aging ball players who have come to the end of the line. The Yankees as always will get better before the end of the season but it will not be because of a story book ending by Clemens.
The previous article by Gordon Edes of the Globe seems to be written more for the consumption of the Globe's New York owners than for the Boston fan base.
Insignificant you say? How can a seven time Cy Young award winner going to the evil empire be insignificant. The insignificance is what impact Clemens is going to have on the New York Yankees this season. Clemens will be 45 this August and for the past three years he has been pitching in the National League which by comparison to the American League Eastern division is a notch above the minors.
Clemens has not faced a line up as powerful as the Red Sox in a very long time. It is unlikely that he is going to be much of a factor for the Yankees in trying to shore up their front line starting pitching.
There are a couple of things that are startling about this deal by the Yankees. It is amazing how quickly it has dawned on George Steinbrenner that the make up of this Yankee team is not nearly good enough to compete in the division. Yes they are a great hitting team but the starting and relieving pitching is so bad that they find themselves ten games out of first place and we are not even out of May yet.
The signing of Clemens for this ridiculous amount of money amounts to George being in a mindless panic. It was reported that the Sox and the Houston Astros were in the bidding for Clemen's services but even if true about the Sox it is non sense to trump their bid by over 10 million dollars. Roger would have pitched for a lot less money because Clemens has proven over his career that he is about the money.
As for any surprise about Roger "Rocket" Clemens signing with the Yankees, Lance Berkman of the Astros summed it up best when he said, "with this Rocket situation, there's two kinds of people: people that are not surprised and morons,"
There was a great deal of talk in the papers and surprise and disappointment that Clemens was not coming to Boston to finish out his career in a blaze of glory. This was clearly a case of wishful thinking. An aging pitcher with a reputation for quitting on the team was more likely to be a disastrous ending than any kind of a fairy tale. Many of us long time fans could not bear to see him back in a Sox uniform.
For those of you who harbored such thoughts please go back and look at Clemens last four years here. During the stretch from 93 though 96, Clemens was a pedestrian 40 wins and 39 losses and had the body of the Pillsbury Doughboy. At that time then Red Sox general Manager Dan Duquette commented that Clemens was in the "twilight of his career".
The Red Sox failed to re-sign Clemens and he went to Toronto for big money so "he could be closer to his home in Texas". Clemens should remember Duquette in his will because he more than anybody was responsible for his wake up call to get himself back in shape.
The rest of course is history and surely will result in a deserved place in Cooperstown for the hard throwing and very durable Texan. His career statistics are unmistakable in their grandeur and cannot be denied by the most hard core Clemens critic. His 348 wins, over 4000 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.10 speak for themselves.http://www.baseball-reference.com/c/clemero02.shtml
Like all good things however, at some time they come to an end. It is more than likely that Clemens stat line this year will look a lot more like those of other aging ball players who have come to the end of the line. The Yankees as always will get better before the end of the season but it will not be because of a story book ending by Clemens.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Turkey Wars
I have lived in my town for over 50 years. In all that time I had never seen a wild turkey until a few years ago when I looked out my office window and saw a flock of them. Since that time it has been more of a common occurrence than an exception. Just last week I stopped my car on Middlesex Turnpike to shoo away a female that had gotten herself stuck in the the road in rush hour traffic. She was right in the middle of the road unsure of which way to go, first starting left then going right but not getting out of the way. A normally grouchy crowd of drivers were very patient while I managed to get her moving in the right direction.
A couple of weeks ago we started to have regular visits in the yard by a number of females and one rather impressive Tom. It was hilarious watching him puff himself up, prancing back and forth trying to get some turkey dating action. I have been a bird watcher since I was a little kid looking out the window at the bird feeder while my mother read from Peterson's Field Guide, so it has been kind of cool to have a new additions to the neighborhood.
I guess I should rephrase to was kind of cool. It seems as though our new friend has some rather annoying habits. Apparently this guy likes to jump up on the neighborhood cars and walk on them while he make some rather disgusting deposits. He also appears to be a tad smarter than we thought since he is able to stretch his neck and stand on tippy toes and dine at my bird feeder. He also like to stomp through the flower beds kicking and scratching around.
As you might imagine a 20 or 30 pound turkey has a bit larger appetite than say a chickadee, cardinal or finch. This year I switched over from regular striped or oiled sunflower seeds to hulled seeds because the husks would make such a mess. I found that although more expensive they seemed to last longer without the mess. Not so with this guy.
The eating of the seed and stomping on the cars is not his worst characteristic however. The thing that has me most annoyed is his penchant for announcing his arrival every morning at 5:30 a.m by gobbling directly under my bed room window. On a work day it isn't so bad because getting up early is not such a bad idea. A Saturday or Sunday morning following the imbibing of a few beverages the previous evening is quite another matter.
Most animals at the sight of a human will get startled and move off, not this guy. I bang on the window and yell at him while he remains unfazed, alternately filling his beak with my food and gobbling at the top of his voice. It was time for a change in tactics.
The next step was to open the door and come on the stairs but this to was ineffective so I then began to chase after him. He responded by running just fast enough to stay ahead of me. I imagined I could hear him laughing at me like the little fast kid in elementary school that you could never catch in a game of tag.
Next came the alternate food strategy. I bought some cracked corn and placed it strategically down in the woods. What this proved was that turkeys enjoy cracked corn and sunflower seeds. He dines on the cracked corn and then comes up for a nice sunflower chaser. I am in the process of spraying fox urine around and finding a life like dummy of a dog to put out there and see if that is a deterrrence. I have tried squirting him with the hose but with the water ban in place that can only be employed on alternate days.
I have now declared turkey war and explained my strategies to my wife who replied that the cracked corn idea seemed to be more of aiding and abetting the enemy than a declaration of war. After explaining to me that there would be no planting of flowers this year if he was out there, she then informed me that she had been studying and found that it was legal in Massachusetts to shoot turkeys with a bow and arrow. Wow, that girl takes the term war seriously. Maybe I will sleep with ear muffs on.
A couple of weeks ago we started to have regular visits in the yard by a number of females and one rather impressive Tom. It was hilarious watching him puff himself up, prancing back and forth trying to get some turkey dating action. I have been a bird watcher since I was a little kid looking out the window at the bird feeder while my mother read from Peterson's Field Guide, so it has been kind of cool to have a new additions to the neighborhood.
I guess I should rephrase to was kind of cool. It seems as though our new friend has some rather annoying habits. Apparently this guy likes to jump up on the neighborhood cars and walk on them while he make some rather disgusting deposits. He also appears to be a tad smarter than we thought since he is able to stretch his neck and stand on tippy toes and dine at my bird feeder. He also like to stomp through the flower beds kicking and scratching around.
As you might imagine a 20 or 30 pound turkey has a bit larger appetite than say a chickadee, cardinal or finch. This year I switched over from regular striped or oiled sunflower seeds to hulled seeds because the husks would make such a mess. I found that although more expensive they seemed to last longer without the mess. Not so with this guy.
The eating of the seed and stomping on the cars is not his worst characteristic however. The thing that has me most annoyed is his penchant for announcing his arrival every morning at 5:30 a.m by gobbling directly under my bed room window. On a work day it isn't so bad because getting up early is not such a bad idea. A Saturday or Sunday morning following the imbibing of a few beverages the previous evening is quite another matter.
Most animals at the sight of a human will get startled and move off, not this guy. I bang on the window and yell at him while he remains unfazed, alternately filling his beak with my food and gobbling at the top of his voice. It was time for a change in tactics.
The next step was to open the door and come on the stairs but this to was ineffective so I then began to chase after him. He responded by running just fast enough to stay ahead of me. I imagined I could hear him laughing at me like the little fast kid in elementary school that you could never catch in a game of tag.
Next came the alternate food strategy. I bought some cracked corn and placed it strategically down in the woods. What this proved was that turkeys enjoy cracked corn and sunflower seeds. He dines on the cracked corn and then comes up for a nice sunflower chaser. I am in the process of spraying fox urine around and finding a life like dummy of a dog to put out there and see if that is a deterrrence. I have tried squirting him with the hose but with the water ban in place that can only be employed on alternate days.
I have now declared turkey war and explained my strategies to my wife who replied that the cracked corn idea seemed to be more of aiding and abetting the enemy than a declaration of war. After explaining to me that there would be no planting of flowers this year if he was out there, she then informed me that she had been studying and found that it was legal in Massachusetts to shoot turkeys with a bow and arrow. Wow, that girl takes the term war seriously. Maybe I will sleep with ear muffs on.
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