Irene's gift to the waters

I was reminded today by a friend who lives up in the mountains that even when the streams start to recede, we need to be careful.

Septic field overflows, power equipment & vehicles, pink flamingos, oil tanks, pieces of buildings, gas and oil cans, chemicals and pretty much anything previously near streams is now floating downstream or deposited in the water.

Nature will clean up after herself with time, but we should be careful about water - drinking it and crossing it for quite some time.

Good advice...I recall seeing a news report last week that warned about swept away propane tanks, especially in Vermont where lots of people heat with propane.

The town of Cavendish, VT (where I grew up) had both the town water and sewer cut off when this happened ....




The pipe you can see with liquid still coming out is the sewer pipe.

Holy crap!

Sabrina, your avatar reminded me of something I forgot when beginning the thread. We carry and pump water, but our hikerdogs run into streams and drink.

Peakbagr said:

Sabrina, your avatar reminded me of something I forgot when beginning the thread. We carry and pump water, but our hikerdogs run into streams and drink.

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Another good point...hmmm...I try to keep mine from drinking any standing water as a general rule.

una_dogger said:

Another good point...hmmm...I try to keep mine from drinking any standing water as a general rule.

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The risk or lack thereof depends a lot on exactly where you are and the source of the water.

Unfortunately, no matter how much water I carry for her, Bookah is drawn to the most brackish, rancid, disgusting water she can find. Jumps in, lays down, and drinks.

Peakbagr said:

Unfortunately, no matter how much water I carry for her, Bookah is drawn to the most brackish, rancid, disgusting water she can find. Jumps in, lays down, and drinks.

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Ain't that the truth! I think dogs in general can handle tons of bacteria (they have short intestines and really acidic stomach juices) but I would be concerned about run off from gas tanks, oil tanks etc...

One side effect of Irene is that it unearthed a number of clay deposits along the banks of the Mad River so now it is no long clear but an aqua green, which I do not see changing anytime soon.

I was in California (John Muir Trail segment hike) when Irene hit. Actually returning via Vegas. Point being the Tuesday of that week (8/30) I was on my return flight from NYC JFK to Burlington, where the weather was great and the flight basically goes straight up the Hudson over Lakes George and Champlain. The southern end of Lake Champlain was completely brown, as were all the river deltas that feed (Otter Creek, etc...). The flooding looked catastrophic from the air in the southern end of the Lake. The Lake started to appear blue about as far north as Charlotte, but even in the northern parts of the Lake you could see the big brown plumes at each river delta where the rivers empty into the Lake. The Lake still has brown tint to it even in the Champlain Islands. We saw this a few months ago with the spring flooding. It took several weeks of dry weather for things to settle out and the Lake to return to its normal beautiful blue color. Then Irene hit. Not a good year for Lake Champlain. Please no more hurricanes this year (stay away Katia!).

Last Friday I did some volunteer clean-up work at a flood-damaged residence in VT. After I came home I read an article in the Valley News about toxic contamination. They recommended that volunteers should not even bother trying to wash their mud-soaked clothing; but should just throw it away. Yikes!

Elizabeth said:

Last Friday I did some volunteer clean-up work at a flood-damaged residence in VT. After I came home I read an article in the Valley News about toxic contamination. They recommended that volunteers should not even bother trying to wash their mud-soaked clothing; but should just throw it away. Yikes!

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All depends on what is upstream...

Sewage treatment plants and industrial ponds are often flooded out in such situations.

Doug