IS IT TRUE? March 16, 2011
IS IT TRUE that yet another boil advisory has been issued to all families and businesses that use the water from the Evansville Waterworks for human consumption?…that it hasn’t been long since the City of Evansville took over managing the municipal water facility from a private contractor to save money?…that in his last State of the City address that Mayor Weinzapfel boasted about that very action in the following manner?
“Last year, we decided to bring the management of the Water and Sewer Utility in-house, eliminates private management, and return control and accountability to the City. This move will not only save $14 million over the next five years, but it will allow us to put those savings to work to reduce combined sewer overflows.â€
IS IT TRUE that when the municipal water supply is interrupted due to microbes, river breaches, low levels (4 weeks last summer), or a good old fashioned Bee Slough Cocktail, that the public has to spend money that was not budgeted or intended for buying water that was already paid to the order of Evansville Waterworks?…that roughly 200,000 people depend on an uninterrupted flow of healthy drinking water from the City of Evansville?…that a human being is recommended to drink 64 ounces of water per day?..that means that the people who depend on Evansville for water consume 12.8 Million ounces of water per day?…that means that replacing that municipal water with bottled water would require about 45,000 cases of water per day?…that the cost to replace just the lost drinking water is about $250,000 per day when the municipal sources can’t be consumed?…that does not include industrial uses, restaurants, day care centers, or any bathing?…that given the number of “boil advisory†days that Evansville has that the City of Evansville’s newfound $14 Million over 5 years just doesn’t seem like much?
IS IT TRUE that boasting about accountability brings with it the actual call for accountability?…that in all fairness every man, woman, and child in the City of Evansville water district should be paid or credited at least $1.25 per day for every day that a boil advisory is in effect?…that the only winners here are the stores that sell water and of course Vectren who will sell some more 188% overpriced electricity to the people who choose to boil instead of buy?…that one more group benefits and that is the gas stations and the oil companies who benefit from people making that extra trip to buy drinking water?…that by the end of the day Wednesday that the direct out of pocket expenses for water by all of the people and businesses served by the City of Evansville is approaching $1 Million just for this occurrence?…that when you add in the inconvenience of driving, cleaning soft drink machines, throwing out ice, and having PR people generate carefully worded press releases that the cost is much higher than that?…that it is appropriate for the City of Evansville to credit each and every customer whatever their costs were due to the interruption of their deserved good clean water?
IS IT TRUE that the deal between Whirlpool and the City of Evansville to develop a tech park near the airport and to tear down the old blue building while remediating the environmental concerns has been vanquished?…that an Evansville based construction company has pursued and secured a deal with Whirlpool to do something with that tired old piece of property?…that we are quite curious to learn the details about who is doing what and exactly what the benefits to Evansville and SW Indiana will be from this most unexpected development?
So, who left the valve open?
Question is, where is Jon Stewart now?
While I have nothing to base this on except an educated guess…..Walmart* will be the eventual owner of that corner. Walmart* currently has East, West, and no North side presence. Walmart* has sought property at the corner of Lynch and Highway 41 and failed for assorted reasons. Several key features including highway visibility, high population (and growing), and located away from their other stores. The other would be Berry Plastics expansion or possible future blank site for retail or industrial development with air, rail and highway access. Just a thought.
Guess we need to blame the Mayor for the Ohio River being flood stage. I’m sure he personally caused this flooding.
The river has been much higher in the past and we’ve not had this problem. I’m not saying it’s the mayors fault or the city should not have taken back running a city owned utility because I think we should not of ever outsourced it, but I would like the city to supply a full explanation of what happened. I don’t buy the seeping into the tank; I’ll place my money on a mistake by an employee.
Educate me CCO, could a third party management company have prevented the water spilling over or handled the situation differently? I’m asking honestly, not sarcastically. I really do want to know.
… who left the valve open?
Would love to know that. More importantly it would be good to know what procedure was not sufficient to keep this from happening. People mess up and procedures with back ups and redundancy are designed to cover up human error. This one didn’t.
Well, the river seems to rise every spring so we would hope so. It is all about having a protocol following a process and from what we are hearing someone dropped the ball. So, yes they could have but their is no assurance that they would have. The City of Evansville could have too but they didn’t.
In the article about whirlpool it said the plan was to “tear down the old blue building.” Is that the big huge historic building? If so, I’m glad it failed!
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