MVD Declares Water Emergency

[hdw]

Ken's remark is the first intelligent thing said on the water issue. I say less growth and no more draining of wetlands might be a good start. But what do I know, I'm not a politician? Where there was once water are now houses/schools or proposed housing for the future. How much wetlands is the new mall going to destroy? How much water drainage going into Greens Pond has been slowed or stopped due too building on Naticook Road and future building approved on Greens Pond Road?Greens Pond is part of Merrimacks drinking water supply. At this pace there will be no more wetlands to supply water. Remember, the new middle school, Blood Road/Grater Road housing project and the Grater Trails nature walk were once a significant water source for Merrimack. BUT NOT ANY MORE!

[RD]

Is that true? Some of Merrimack's drinking water comes from surface water? I thought it was all ground water.

[TonyRichardson]

RD,

I think what HDW is trying to say is that for the water to get down to the aquifer it has to be sitting somewhere, like wetlands, to percolate down to the aquifer. Since we are in the Granite State after all, I would guess the percolation speed is slower than other places. And that speeding up the movement of the water from the surface where it falls, into the streams and then away reduces the fill/refill rate into the aquifer. Any reduction of the fill or refill rate into the aquifer negatively impacts water availability for our use.

My interpretation of his post anyway, YMMV.

Tony

[hdw]

Thank you Tony.

[andysinnh]

I've observed an INCREASE in the wetlands in the NW part of town - areas off of Woodward, Bean and even parts of Bedford road have had standing wetlands water even during this real dry spell. I'm not saying that places that used to have wetland don't have issues, but there are plenty of (IMHO) untapped wetlands around - and increasing amounts from my passing eye. Sometimes construction removes wetlands, other times it creates wetlands. I know that the lot adjacent to ours was deemed uninhabitable about 20 years ago due to the builder removing too much fill, and it turned INTO a wetland (area behind Hamlet Circle and abutting rear of Westminster Ln). We bought 1/2 acre as part of an abutter "group buy" to preserve the "new" wetlands.

andy

[pumbaa]

I don't know a lot about ground water supply, and begin with a disclaimer that this is speculation - I do not have facts, but I would guess that overall there is a net loss of wetlands. I'm also not sure if these newer low areas that hold water do the same job as established wetlands. The composition of the soil below an established wetland area is probably quite different, being made up of layers of decaying organic material over many years. A depression dug into soil that may have been drier, denser, rockier, clay, etc. might not filter water down to the aquifer the same way. The fact that you see standing water even in dry spells might support that. I want to stress again that this is pure speculation, and I'm not trying to discredit Andy's post in any way. Just offering another line of thought.

[MissyB]

Second stage of what MVD should be doing is providing a 'tip line' for such an issue. Call, leave the time/date/address of what you see and they can go check it out.

This is a great idea, Brian. I went by a condo that I know is on MVD water yesterday afternoon. The automatic sprinklers were on in the entrance. They will probably be on tomorrow at 2 also.

[Sylvie]

Oh this makes a lot of sense, we can't wash our cars in our driveway but we can go pay to use a carwash in Merrimack. Nice work MVD.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/796 ... r-use.html

Perhaps I'll set up a carwash business in my driveway to avoid having to go use a facility. Uhhggg.

[pumbaa]

Well, you will be able to get up early in the morning and wash your car! Seriously though, the car wash is a business, and you can't take away someone's means of making a living. Otherwise, you could shut down the Bud plant, or any other large industrial water user. I'm at least glad to see the MVD is trying to give residents a chance to salvage their gardens, etc.

[Linda Nickerson]

Plus, the Car Washes use less water than washing your car at home.....

http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/car_wash.htm

[mmoy]

Ask a friend that lives in Nashua or Manchester if you can use their driveway and water hose.

I see water trucks that fill up just off DWH in the northern part of Nashua. I assume that they're delivering water to swimming pools. I wonder if someone could start a business that picked up water there, brought it to your home and watered your lawn. Kind of like water arbitrage.

[TonyRichardson]

It is good they are partiallly lifting the ban to give us a shot at saving our yards.

On the other hand a bigger window that opened earlier would be nice to spread out the increased use over a longer time.
5am to 8am happens to coincide with an increased usage time with people starting their day with showers and such.
Allowing watering to start at 2 or 3 am would allow people to spread the usage out more.

If you have an irrigations system, remember to start early enough to account for total watering time inside the window.

[Concerned]

What if I have an organic garden and that is the sole source of produce for my family?

Will the town pay me to go buy it somewhere?

[WIZ]

Well, you will be able to get up early in the morning and wash your car! Seriously though, the car wash is a business, and you can't take away someone's means of making a living. Otherwise, you could shut down the Bud plant, or any other large industrial water user. I'm at least glad to see the MVD is trying to give residents a chance to salvage their gardens, etc.

Just for the record; the brewery is supplied water from Pennichuck Water Supply. Not the MVD.

[pumbaa]

Ok, I knew that, but forgot. I was just trying to make a point that there are much larger water users that car washes, so shutting down someone's business over water restrictions would open a huge can of worms and affect lots of businesses and the local economy as a whole. A ban on washing your own car just leaves you with a temporarily dirty car (which you can pay to run through the wash, if you feel the need).