Blizzard 2015 Boston

   / Blizzard 2015 Boston #151  
Yep, we got five or six inches of powder overnight. Nothing coming down now but more coming tonight and tomorrow. Looks like another school closing for tomorrow not because of the amount of snow but because of how difficult it is to clear at this point.
 
   / Blizzard 2015 Boston #152  
I've always wondered why it is considered a terrible thing to just dump the snow into Boston Harbor. In the summer when it rains a good deal of the run off ends up untreated in the harbor and that surface water has a lot more contaminants in it than snow. Most of the snow has never been in direct contact with the street. When certain storm conditions have been met (say 15+ inches in 7 days), why not collect it and dump it in the harbor? It would only happen a few times a year and even thousands of tons of snow would be a relative drop in the bucket for the harbor.
That would bring out the tree huggers.LOL
 
   / Blizzard 2015 Boston #153  
That would bring out the tree huggers.LOL
Moot point: it's been prohibited by federal law for over 20 years. MA and CT allow for emergency dumping: ME, for example, does not allow it under any circumstances. Plowed snow is actually pretty nasty stuff: just because someone here thinks otherwise does mean it is so.

Right now they are using two ice melters that can each melt 350 tons per hour. Snow is very roughly 10 lbs cu ft so that's 70,000 cu ft per hour per machine. Crews have been working 24/7 since the end of the last storm.

If Boston needs an emergency dispensation, the largest snow farm is in a large empty lot adjacent to the harbor. So far it has not been requested, although USCG Boston asked for and was granted a waiver.
 
   / Blizzard 2015 Boston #154  
Well, Boston has declared another snow emergency and closed schools Monday and Tuesday. PITA for parents but much better than having kids standing out in the cold on unplowed streets waiting for buses that are invariably delayed by snow traffic. That makes six snow day cancellations in the past two weeks. I believe we are also about to break some sort of two week snowfall record. Not so bad in the suburbs but inner city life, especially for those dependent on automobiles, must be pretty awful right now. Simply no place left to put snow in areas of Boston (many) where the homes are literally spaced apart by driveways.
 
   / Blizzard 2015 Boston #155  
Moot point: it's been prohibited by federal law for over 20 years. MA and CT allow for emergency dumping: ME, for example, does not allow it under any circumstances. Plowed snow is actually pretty nasty stuff: just because someone here thinks otherwise does mean it is so.

Right now they are using two ice melters that can each melt 350 tons per hour. Snow is very roughly 10 lbs cu ft so that's 70,000 cu ft per hour per machine. Crews have been working 24/7 since the end of the last storm.

If Boston needs an emergency dispensation, the largest snow farm is in a large empty lot adjacent to the harbor. So far it has not been requested, although USCG Boston asked for and was granted a waiver.

Looks like there is not as much opposition to dumping in the harbor as I thought: With no room to put snow, Eastern waterways beckon - USATODAY.com
 
   / Blizzard 2015 Boston #156  
Plowed snow is actually pretty nasty stuff: just because someone here thinks otherwise does mean it is so.

Three questions;

1. Define nasty.
2. Where does the water from the ice melters end up?
3. Is it treated before ending up where it ends up?

I ask these questions because storm water drainage networks are typically not treated and end up in water ways or percolate through the soil into the ground water.
 
   / Blizzard 2015 Boston #157  
Three questions;

1. Define nasty.
2. Where does the water from the ice melters end up?
3. Is it treated before ending up where it ends up?

I ask these questions because storm water drainage networks are typically not treated and end up in water ways or percolate through the soil into the ground water.

1) oil and trash mixed with snow. Salt and sand are not the issue.
2) water from ice melters enters storm drains
3) I'm pretty sure storm drainage in Boston (unless overflowing) goes to the Deer Island Sewage Treatment plant where it undergoes $1Billion or so worth of fancy purification before being put into a pipeline that takes it many miles out into the Atlantic. I'll double check but that is what was supposed to happen when they built the plant. (Remember Bush senior criticizing then Gov Dukakis because of polluted water in Boston Harbor....this is the outcome).

Just checked: that is pretty much the system here. Big catch basins in various parts of the city (at about 30 million each) hold the water until it can be treated at the Deer Island plant (which actually cost $3.8 billion, not the measly 1 billion I mentioned)
 
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   / Blizzard 2015 Boston #158  
1) . Big catch basins in various parts of the city (at about 30 million each) hold the water until it can be treated at the Deer Island plant (which actually cost $3.8 billion, not the measly 1 billion I mentioned)

Billions is a lot of stuff. Just a billion seconds ago it was 1984.
 
   / Blizzard 2015 Boston #160  
Moot point: it's been prohibited by federal law for over 20 years. MA and CT allow for emergency dumping: ME, for example, does not allow it under any circumstances. Plowed snow is actually pretty nasty stuff: just because someone here thinks otherwise does mean it is so.

Right now they are using two ice melters that can each melt 350 tons per hour. Snow is very roughly 10 lbs cu ft so that's 70,000 cu ft per hour per machine. Crews have been working 24/7 since the end of the last storm.

If Boston needs an emergency dispensation, the largest snow farm is in a large empty lot adjacent to the harbor. So far it has not been requested, although USCG Boston asked for and was granted a waiver.
I wonder where that 350 tons of snowmelt per hour run off goes to?Moot point I guess.LOL
 

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