Thursday, June 18, 2009

THE GREAT LIE

We suppose the most of you have been following the Channel 2 coverage of the Hwy. 311 water line story. Finally, someone is showing an interest. We found it amazing how many "mistakes" were presented to the reporter as fact. Mr. Pinckney said the water line went past his house for a mile. When the reporter paced it off, it was more like 1,500 feet, ending at Pinckney Ct. Then, yesterday, the reporter was told 950 letters were sent out to prospective customers. Where are all these 950 houses located? Let us break this thing down to specifics.

The Channel 2 story is about the Hwy. 311 water line not the entire "Cross Area Water Improvement Project". On the entire length of Hwy. 311, there are only 112 "properties"......not houses, properties. But, let us concentrate on the part of Hwy. 311 where the water line has been installed.

The Hwy. 311 water line begins at the Old Cross Fire Tower, where Hwy. 6 and Hwy. 311 join. It proceeds along Hwy. 311 in the direction of Hwy. 176. It ends just past Caldwell Pinckney's house at Pinckney Ct.

From the fire tower to Hwy. 59, there are approximately 79 houses. Of these, only approximately 35 houses are close enough to Hwy. 311 that they can even be seen from the road. From Hwy. 59, after you pass the Grooms farm, there are approximately 30 houses, not all of which can even be seen from the road.

Also part of this project, is a line that goes down Muddville Rd. (to service 4 houses), and a 4 inch line that goes down Groomstown Rd. (to service approximately 25 houses).

Now, let's do the math. 4+25+35+30=950????? We admit it has been many a year since we were in school but math couldn't have changed that much.

BCW&S is, once again, trying to confuse the issue. The cost, by their own admission, of the entire "Cross Area Water Improvement Project" was 3.8 million dollars. We know for a fact that the contract for the "Hwy. 311" part of the project was 2.24 million dollars.

According to DEHEC and the engineer overseeing the Hwy. 311 project, this system requires at least 400 tap ins to operate properly. The water must travel through the pipe at a certain rate in order to keep the chlorimines (sp) suspended. If the water does not go through the pipe fast enough, these additives will settle to the bottom of the pipe and form a sludge. This would render the water undrinkable. The solution to this problem, according to the experts, would be to install timers on the fire hydrants at the ends of each lines (Pinckney Ct. and Groomstown Rd.) to empty water into the ditches on a regular basis. Because of the limited number of tap ins, both experts said this purging of the line could need to be done on a daily basis. How many millions of gallons of wasted water will this process involve?

This information that we are providing is but a small part of this story. Stay tuned.