BEAT’s Blog

I am writing from the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation in Duluth, MN at the west end of Lake Superior. The conference doesn’t really start until tomorrow (Monday 9/14) but I checked in this evening and attended the screening of “Division Street” with the filmmaker, Eric Bendick. Actually, we only screened 40 minutes of the film, but enough to decide that this would be a great film to bring to western Massachusetts to try to raise awareness and start a discussion about the impact of roads on wildlife here. (As you know, BEAT is already working to decrease the impact of roads on wildlife.)

The filmmaker said that the farthest away you can get from roads in the continental US is about 21.2 miles. Roads are everywhere!

The conference should be interesting with speakers from around the world talking about what is being done in their area to decrease the impact of roads on wildlife.

More tomorrow once the conference is really underway!
Jane

A recent Pittsfield Gazette story highlighted the controversy surrounding flooding in the area around Deming Park in Pittsfield. Local residents are angry over mistakes made by the Pittsfield Parks Commission and the Pittsfield Conservation Commission. A second, seemingly unrelated story has me concerned.

According to the Gazette, “Ontario Street homeowners led by Dan Miraglia have challenged the city’s activities at the park, which they feel have violated the law and contributed to an ever-worsening flood problem impacting their residential properties. ‘There is a constant flooding problem in that particular area,’ he said.” (1)

Part of the controversy centers on a new batting cage that was built for the Babe Ruth baseball league in Deming Park. There was no permit issued for this work by the Conservation Commission even though the work was in the floodplain.

According to the Gazette, “The parks commission approved the batting cage — paid for by the Babe Ruth league — in February, during a meeting when all votes were illegal because a quorum was not present. The cage was then installed and in March, the commission ‘corrected’ the votes by voting as a package to reaffirm all February actions, without any deliberation. (1)
Read more…

Pittsfield has suffered from an unusual amount of flooding over the course of the past year. Of course nobody is blaming the City for the recent heavy rainfall. But the kind of extreme storms we have been experiencing lately may become more common in the future. Global climate-change models have been saying for years now that climate change in our area will mean more rainfall and more extreme and intense rain storms. (1)

Although nobody is saying that Pittsfield caused all the recent flooding, I believe that the decisions made by the Pittsfield Conservation Commission have made the flooding worse than it otherwise would have been. For example, take their decisions regarding the reconstruction of Wahconah Park. Read more…

BEAT has been warning the City of Pittsfield about the dangers of undersized culverts. As I said in a previous post,

“BEAT has also been arguing to apathetic ears that Pittsfield has been installing undersized culverts at road crossings. We hate to say ‘we told you so,’ but part of the flooding is a result of the city being unwilling to force engineers to do a little extra work or spend a little extra money. Apparently the city would rather force homeowners to go out and buy sump pumps.”

Here’s an amazing video from Freeport, Maine that underscores the danger of undersized culverts. The video was captured by WMTW.com photojournalist Kevyn Fowler in Freeport, Maine during a storm. It shows the collapse of a road when water flow exceeded the capacity of a culvert. The culvert makes its appearance at the very end of the video.

Guess what! You know that nice, new grassy area that the City was in such a hurry to put in at Wahconah Park, just outside the stadium? The work that BEAT complained was being done against existing environmental regulations? That grassy area is going to be torn up soon by the City. It seems a storm-drain pipe under Wahconah will have to be dug up so that a new one can be put in. The new grassy area (already dead from being constantly under water) and the new pavement that the City just put in are about to be torn up by the City.

The interesting thing is that the City had planned this storm-drain work before they started the work at Wahconah. In other words, the City performed the work at Wahconah knowing that it would just have to be undone by a later City project. As a matter of fact, the state certificate to perform the work at Wahconah “strongly encouraged” the City to coordinate these two projects. BEAT pointed this out to the City at an open meeting before the work at Wahconah Park started. But the funds were available, so they did the work anyway. Your tax dollars at work. It’s amazing how many problems could be solved just by following existing laws and regulations, but our leaders always seem to have a better idea. I’m just glad we didn’t need any of that wasted money for other things, like social services. We didn’t, did we?

If you have been following BEAT’s Blog, you know that we have a few themes.

1. All BEAT asks is that the City of Pittsfield follow existing laws and regulations.

2. The Pittsfield Conservation Commission does a poor job of protecting Pittsfield’s lakes, rivers, streams, and other wetlands.

3. The purpose of Pittsfield City Government seems to be to take in tax money and grant money and control its distribution.

All three points came into focus for me recently as I looked at two engineering plans related to the work being done at Pittsfield’s own water theme park; Wahconah Park. Read more…

To say Wahconah Park was flooded last week would be an understatement. People were actually kayaking and swimming in the parking lot. I guess even pumping the overflow into nearby wetlands (which the City of Pittsfield has done) couldn’t help. Of course, it wasn’t just Wahconah Park that was flooded. Pittsfield is seeing an unprecedented amount of flooding. Can anything be done? BEAT has been saying for some time now that the Pittsfield Conservation Commission does a poor job of protecting the city from flooding. Read more…