New version of the Bristol video featuring Jason Flores

Whatever else you think of Jason Flores and his rap song about Bristol, you have to admit that the production values on this video are terrific....
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Oh, those muddy waters

A sediment pond west of Rockwell Park leaked a large amount of muddy water into the Pequabuck River this week, officials said.

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 Farrell Avenue operated by Jay Dee Realty,” the report said.

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.

Video #1

Video #2

Video #3

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.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Hamzy talks to small business owners

Hamzy on Small Business from Bryan Sundie on Vimeo.