A sediment pond west of
A city probe of the spill determined there must have been “seepage” from one of the large filtration ponds on Jay Dee Realty’s property near the park, Mayor Art Ward said Wednesday.
A video filmed this week by Carl Swanson, an environmental activist in town, showed water gushing through a culvert that leads from the site to Cuss Gutter, a creek that flows through the park into the river.
Where the muddy flow entered the river, it turned the clear water flowing in the Pequabuck to an ugly haze.
Swanson, who could not be reached, described the situation as disgusting. He uploaded three videos detailing what he witnessed onto YouTube on Tuesday.
Ward said he watched a short snippet of the footage Wednesday and immediately called two public works officials to his office to find out what the city was doing about it. After talking to the mayor, an assistant city engineer prepared a written report.
According to the report by Ray Rogozinski, an assistant city engineer, the incident was reported to the city on Tuesday.
David Clout, an environmental technician for the city, investigated the complaint and found that “the discharge was from an earth removal operation north of
The city contacted Blake DellaBianca, Jay Dee’s representative, to let him know about the problem and to tell him to prevent any more discharge, which was “associated with dewatering an area of the site.”
By Wednesday, the flow had stopped, the report said.
At a meeting Wednesday, DellaBianca was told that any discharge of water with high sediment content “is unacceptable and any future discharges will result in enforcement action from the Inland Wetlands Commission.”
The city plans to monitor the situation daily. If sediment is found, the report said, “a cease and desist will be issued” to Jay Dee.
DellaBianca did not return calls Wednesday.
The report said the matter will be discussed at Monday’s Wetlands Commission session, slated for 7 p.m. at City Hall.
If you want to see the videos, please be aware that Carl Swanson's language may offend some. If you're sensitive about cursing, please either don't watch the videos or turn down your sound.
As an aside, what Swanson did is a terrific example of citizen journalism, though he probably should have watched his words a little better and might not have wanted to advertise that he probably trespassed.
In any case, anybody who get some footage of something newsworthy -- let's put those Flip cameras to good use, everybody -- should let me know when you upload it. I'm happy to share your work with the community at large. That includes tapes of candidates talking, fires and anything else that's at least vaguely 'newsy' some people might want to see.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
16 comments:
oh yes those muddy waters. my family and i were walking the path next to the river and i said to my husband, does'nt the water look strange?cloudy greenish just not right? so i guess i have my answer, maybe not alot of other matters in bristol have been covered up thru the years.
i want to know what 'OUR' mayor is going to do about this. give us all a break ART . i'am sure you do not know anything about OUR muddy waters of course.
The kids in schools should have there cameras at the ready to catch all the problems in the schools and report it to the BP. Maybe then the administrators would take some action.
Steve,
Check the list of contributors to Wards campaign.
8:51 -- I saw that today. I'll post the list on here tomorrow.
6:45 You have all the answers ....what would you do? Cry some more? What's new?
That's right Steve. Do the research (er dirty work) for these republican hacks!
ward and his "BUDDIES" are all muddy just like the river
Disgusting!! It always has to turn political!! The mayor is a busy man and doesn't hang around Rockwell Park all day waiting for something to happen. That's why we hopefully have citizens in this town who are vigilent and can report something that is amiss which is what was done in this case. Must the mayor and our city officials always be blamed for everything little thing that happens in this town? How could they possibly know what was happening unless they happened to be there at that time? Let's be fair and reasonable, shall we?
Muddy water from is from all the crap the Mayor is feeding us.
2:53 PM, Really? I thought it was from aii you crap you've been slinging. You sure seem full of it! ;0)
3:57 I make one comment and I am slinging crap? You can't even spell - numbnuts.
4:07, How mature! Keep slinging...you've got plenty of ammo!
4:07, BTW, forgive my error. I was just laughing so hard that I put the wrong word in. Judging from your juvenile response, I guess you understood what I meant to say...please continue to sling away! ;0)
Any update on campaign contributions?
This article indicates the run-off was an accident. Would you plan for an accident? Jay Dee Reality prepped that natrually feed lake for weeks before the so-called "release" into Cuss Gutter Brook. This pond has been at this location for over two years; when they unearthed an aquafir which feeds the pond. This isn't a one-time-deal by no means. I think this site has been destryoed enough. Sand mining (oh I'm sorry "earth removal") in Bristol has been going on now for over sixty years. I'm still waiting for the train to fall into Pit #1 with all this recent erosion from rain water - and no long term solutions in place. I just feel bad for the Brook Trout in Cuss Gutter and the Introduced Natrual Samon in the Pequabuck River. I'm sure we paid a pretty penny for those. I walked the river after the flow stopped and could clearly see the silt settlement. I wonder if the DEP sees it?
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