Under Construction
The neighborhood has been filled with the sound of heavy construction equipment this week. One of the town's major public works projects is currently underway -- they're outfitting our area with water.
Like many areas on Cape Cod, each house in our neighborhood has its own private well. And private well water has some advantages: It's free, outside of the cost of drilling the well and installing the pump; and the town can't tell you what to do with the water, so you can water your lawn or wash your car even if there's a drought.
There are some down sides, however: The water we pull up from the well is pretty hard (that is to say, it's mineral-heavy), so we have to use a relatively complex filtration system that needs to be regularly maintained to make it good enough to drink and use without worrying about eroding the pipes. And we always run the risk of the pump failing or the well running dry, which could cost us thousands to fix. What's more, if there's an electrical failure (and there have been several since we've moved here) there's no water pressure. There's another problem around here as well: Several plumes of pollution from the nearby military base -- legacy of decades of shelling practice and dumping jet fuel straight into the ground -- have contaminated the local water supply. We don't have to worry about that so much here, but it is a big concern elsewhere in town.
So we're happy to see them laying pipe, although the sound of the backhoes and dump trucks are certainly creating a cacophony in our quiet neighborhood. One of our neighbors asked the workers about the project and they told her it would take about seven months from start to finish, so I guess we'll be living with it for a while.
Comments
The systematic dumping of waste materials by the US military is a massive problem up in Alaska, btw. We sailed into one town (I forget the name of it now unfortunately) that was on the Yukon river right above the arctic circle. The town has been permanently marked by the activities over several decades of the personnel working at the military base that was installed there in the fifties.
The military base has since been abandoned, however apparently the military has a policy of burying all their waste instead of shipping stuff out of the state back to the mainland. Apparently all sorts of military vehicles - old planes, jeeps, transports, etc - and the equipment to support them - oil cans, drums of diesel, etc - were all buried on site. There are also rumors by some of the locals of the remnants of "Agent Orange" having been buried there, but there's no proof about that.
The problem, of course, is that the base is close, actually, practically right on top of the Yukon river. The oil, diesel, and all the other crap that was buried has been seeping into the river and contaminating the fish supply. The locals have been eating the fish for years, and now there's a disproportionately high number of cancer and other medical problems with the native population in that community, compared to the other communities in the state.
Scary stuff.
Posted by: Jean-Luc Dinsdale | October 14, 2004 04:19 PM