I don't know what I can say, but "I told you so". The Harbour Gets Loaded
Big is stupid.
Design-build projects for the public sector cede the value of the designers' knowledge and work from the owner to the contractor, and mean that we get the bare minimum we ask for, and often not what we wanted or we needed.
No one puts their delicate, water-sensitive electrical parts below a hydraulic grade line when they have to live with what is built. Someone cheaped out on something. And someone probably made a very bad decision over whether or not to have a last ditch gravity overflow, maybe even one running down the street, rather than flood the place out and take it down for a year. Who those someones are is not yet known to we ignorant people who are paying for this.
In any event, we can take solace in one thing. The treatment plant really does not do much anyway. When it rains, and it does that every now and then here, even after the plant is "working" most of the poop will still go to the harbour. It will just be a bit cooler and more dilute. But the lobsters will figure that out - they are filter feeders in a fashion.
Bon appetit, y'all.
PS. I hate lobster
3 comments:
I love lobster, but then no one has ever accused me of being a fussy eater....
Cheaped out...no...LOL...someone ignored the advice of seasoned engineers. I don't know much, but I know that much.
It never rains here much does it? What was it Cindy Day said, 6 days without rain here in NS in June?
And as for an overflow valve, like your bathroom sink has, there is a reason why that wasn't done. That would mean pumping raw untreated sewage into the harbor sometimes, not just all the time. We can't have that!
Jeez. Honestly, get with the program!
I did wonder why CBCL suddenly left the project a while back. I am guessing The Coast may be getting to the bottom of the story soon.
I just have this dislike of using the Design-Build process for public works projects. You simply don't get what you need, you get the minimum they can get away with giving you.
In retrospect, I am sure the people running the thing, and permitting it, would have lived with a day of overflow instead of a year.
Tim Bousquet nailed this in the August 20 edition of The Coast. I wonder what happens now?
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