Opinion: Reservoir is valuable asset

Good things sometimes take a long time getting resolved. I have been involved for about 40 years in saving the Weathersfield reservoir, our former water supply. This very valuable resource has the capacity to hold 56 million gallons of water.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20120918/OPINION02/709189985

Published September 18, 2012 in the Rutland Herald Reservoir is valuable asset Good things sometimes take a long time getting resolved. I have been involved for about 40 years in saving the Weathersfield reservoir, our former water supply. This very valuable resource has the capacity to hold 56 million gallons of water. There have been various town managers and Select Board members, some for, but most against, keeping the reservoir. Citizens of Springfield, time and again, have voted to save this reservoir because they believe in its merits. One hundred thousand dollars to upgrade the dam was approved by the voters, but the work was never done. Recently, however, there has been some clearing of brush. The last time this issue came up, the voters of Springfield cast more than 1,500 votes to keep this asset. Over this long period of time it seems the majority of these town officials have, in ignorance or lack of vision, been unable to see the true value to the town of Springfield of this very reliable and versatile resource. Also, they and others keep coming up with the “danger factor.” Remember the Tropical Storm Irene? Jeff Strong and I were up there the day after, and the water was just barely coming over the spillway. In another example, in New Hampshire a few years ago, they and we had approximately 11 inches of rain. In New Hampshire that caused a great disaster, killing four people and destroying many homes in Alstead. This was not caused by a dam breaking, as the rumors said, but by a culvert plugging up and the road washing away. The Weathersfield dam held its own and did not fill and the spillway took care, as usual, with the runoff. Our present aquifer water system has had unacceptable amounts of salt in it to the point that the public had to be warned of its existence. Also, we recently had a scare because of an oil spill into the Black River. The river recharges the aquifer to some extent, especially during dry weather. All I am trying to convey to our Springfield residents is that we should spend enough money to stabilize the dam and fix the spillway so that we will be comfortable with the fact that it will not deteriorate to the point that it breaches itself and become just another lost opportunity in the future and also insurance against a failed water system. There is money for this and possible grants to help us do this. This is what the people of Springfield voted for. No one is looking, at this time, for a fully operational reservoir, but the vote clearly states not to breach the dam. As a former Dufresne and Henry engineer stated years ago when the town officials wanted to sell this property (for $43,000, by the way), you do not put all your eggs in one basket. To finish, it is hard to believe that any intelligent person would wish to destroy a viable water supply, especially in these times of great shortages of water all over the country. STEVEN J. SYSKO Springfield