31 Aug

The Situation: Woodstock Water Details…

Posted August 31, 2011 by Julia Carlisle in Vermont. 3 Comments

Early Bird is re-posting Robert Cavnar’s very thorough run-down of what Woodstock is facing with the water situation. He has also been blogging from his “post” on College Hill ( http://this-small-planet.com)

We can confirm the “big picture” of his details although Early Bird did not have the technical details.

In the meantime, Village Trustee Bob Pear has been — and will continue to be in touch – with Woodstock Aqueduct’s Eric Wegner. Woodstock Early Bird will refrain from calling while these guys are out “bird-dogging” but has asked Pear to inform us ASAP of anything new.

First the critical water problems have to be addressed. However,Woodstock Early Bird hears there is a cadre of people who are upset enough over the water situation that they may — down the line — move to take-over the privately-held company in the public interest. At this point, the Village and Town are doing what they can to assist Woodstock Aqueduct and the people we have on-site in fixing things.

Here’s Cavnar’s thorough run-down:

Some Progress on the Woodstock Water System Failure

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 by Bob Cavnar

This evening, I spoke to an individual very familiar with the Woodstock municipal water system failure and efforts to bring the system back online. When asked about status, this individual stated that extensive work is being done to the system that provides water to the Town of Woodstock, which was severely damaged during the floods on Sunday. As I talked about this afternoon, there are two issues here…first, the system must be brought up to full operations as rapidly as possible; second, the Town of Woodstock needs to take definitive steps to make sure this kind of failure never happens again.My conversation this evening, while acknowledging the second issue, appropriately focused on the first: getting the municipal water system up and running as soon as physically possible. Here’s the latest:

Woodstock Aqueduct Company representatives are engaged and working to solve the immediate problem.
As discussed earlier today, there are two pumps in the main system. The new information tonight is that one is seriously damaged and must be replaced. The other suffered a major component failure when the water system was breached, and that component should be in Woodstock tomorrow. (We’ll talk about why Woodstock Aqueduct doesn’t keep spare components in inventory later.)

Here are the steps that must be completed before the water system is capable of normal operations:

The component on the functional pump must be installed. The best case scenario for that accomplishment is late tomorrow afternoon or early Thursday morning.
Once the component is installed, the water pump will be put into service for testing, then pressurizing the water system.
Once the system is pressurized, different Town neighborhoods will be isolated by closing valves along the system to determine leaks in the lines.
Each line leak will be repaired and then put back into service.

My source was cautiously optimistic that progress was being made, but was unable to give me a definitive day when the system will be fully functional. We should know a lot more in the next 24 to 36 hours. this small planet will be monitoring this situation closely and reporting new information just as soon as we learn of it.

In the meantime, we’ve learned that there is a general number now established by the Town for non-emergency needs. Everyone is encouraged to call 457-2337 to ask for assistance.

Sources of information:

Town of Woodstock: Non-Emergencies – 457-2337
Woodstock Early Bird: https://woodstockearlyworm.wordpress.com/
Woodstock VT Flood Response on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002854462350
Vermont Flooding 2011 on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002854462350#!/pages/Vermont-Flooding-2011/212455332141871

3 responses to this post.

Posted by Steve on August 31, 2011 at 09:24

excellent information from Bob Cavnar. Sounds as if this crisis might provide an opportunity for the town to examine the efficacy of having the water supply owned and operated by by a private entity that, in hindsight, wasn’t prepared for emergency response in terms of backup equipment, communication to the public, etc.

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Posted by Helen McCarthy on August 31, 2011 at 10:02

Vermont Law School students are ready and available to help as community volunteers in Woodstock and Bridgewater. I would like to reach out to those community volunteer organizers to coordinate our students. Can someone please contact me (Helen McCarthy 802-831-1225) or Lorraine Atwood (802-831-1204) at VLS? We have students ready and willing to help!
Helen McCarthy

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- Posted by Julia Carlisle on August 31, 2011 at 10:50
  
  Thanks Helen. I also posted your name and number at the Facebook website. That’s a real clearing-house today (Wednesday) for needs and volunteer help requests:
  
  “Woodstock VT Flood Response”
  
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