Greenfield's Water Pollution Control Plant

Last night, Greenfield's Department of Public Works Director, Sandy Shields, sent out this press release concerning the flood ravaged water pollution control plant. It's important to note that this plant has been separated from the town's water supply and our drinking water is completely safe.

PRESS RELEASE:
By 7:00 am 8/30/11 the flood water had receded from around the Town’s Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP) on Deerfield Street to levels that allowed operators to return to the main building to begin restoration of the extensively damaged facility. The facility contains four stories. It was designed to withstand 100 yr flood levels of 140 ft above sea level. The level after Sunday’s storm was 142.5 ft. The bottom two stories, which contain the major pumping equipment were inundated and over 30 inches of flood water was on the main floor of the building. This floor houses the process control center, laboratory, offices etc.

Upon entry the operators immediately began restoration of most essential infrastructure. Power has been restored to selected areas of the facility as safety allowed. By noon Tuesday a bar screen which removes rags, large debris, feminine hygiene products etc, was functioning and two primary settling tanks were back on line. All of this equipment had been completely submerged in the flood. Also by noon, sodium hypochlorite (chlorine) was being applied to flow entering the plant. This is a very significant accomplishment since the chlorine is a disinfectant that will greatly decrease bacterial levels in the water entering the Green and Deerfield Rivers. This level of treatment is referred to as “primary treatment” which removes 50-60% of incoming pollutants. Full secondary treatment will take up to eight weeks because of the extensive damage to the main building.

The other major accomplishment was that MEMA brought in a pump with a 6” suction line that removed most of the flood water from the bottom two floors of the building. This will allow access for restoration work to continue.
END OF PRESS RELEASE

The DPW kindly provided us with these photos, taken by Facilities Superintendent Chris Bassett, of the flooded plant:







By the way, we're putting together a short piece about our local water supply to help everyone understand exactly where our water comes from and what does, and does not, affect it. Look for that video on our homepage either Friday or Monday.

Greenfield's Drinking Water IS SAFE

This press release just came in from DPW Director Sandy Shields:

The Town has been receiving many calls regarding the safety of the town’s drinking water in light of the recent flooding.

THE QUALITY OF THE TOWN’S DRINKING WATER HAS IN NO WAY BEEN COMPROMISED BY THE FLOOD.

The tap water is completely safe for drinking. Currently water is being supplied to the town from the Mill Brook well field which is in the northeast section of town and was not impacted by the flooding.

The Green River dam suffered extensive damage in the flood. That water supply annually supplies approximately 25% of the town’s drinking water. Barring a severe drought, the two other water sources, the Leyden Glen reservoir and the well field will be able to meet the town’s supply needs until the dam is repaired.

Soft Reveal of Website Going Well

So far the feedback we've been getting about our new website has been positive. The producers and board members who've been testing it out like the design and content. Hopefully, over the weekend, more of them will try creating new user accounts and posting on our forums. (Yup! We're going to have new functionality on the site.) Next week will be all about tweaking the site before our public launch the week of the Franklin County Fair Parade. We'll be telling you more about that grand reveal in next week's blog post.

When we're not working on the new site, we're busy getting ready to film the Franklin County Fair Parade, which is coming up on Thursday, September 8th, at 5pm. If you can't get a good spot on Main Street, from which to watch the parade, don't worry. We'll be broadcasting it live on Cable Channel 15. Keep checking gctv.org for more information on the parade, and the fair itself, because we'll be doing some news stories on it over the next two weeks.

Government Meetings & New Website

We had a large audience for Wednesday night's Greenfield Town Council Meeting. Residents gathered to watch their councilors debate changes to the solar farm contract, disposition of the town farm, repairs to the middle school roof, and funding for additional student transportation. You can watch the whole meeting for yourself tonight at midnight on Cable Channel 15 or look for it as part of our Video on Demand Player early next week.

The Greenfield School Committee has changed their meetings from the 2nd & 4th Thursdays of each month to the 1st & 3rd Thursdays so we recorded their short meeting at the high school this week and there won't be a meeting on the 25th. You can watch the latest session on Cable Channel 15 tomorrow at 1pm and again at midnight on the 24th. It will also be available as part of our Video on Demand Player early next week.

Finally, our new website is getting closer to launch. We'll be doing a soft reveal of it to our board members and some of our producers next week and we've planned the grand opening to coincide with the Franklin County Fair Parade on September 8th. We'll be telling you more about all of that in next week's blog post so be sure to check back.

Family Week at GCTV

On Monday morning, "The Dukes of Sports" host Russ Brown brought his father and grandchild with him to the studio for a taping. Russ' dad made a wonderful guest commentator while his grandchild finally got a chance to see where grampa makes his tv show. The staff, meanwhile, appreciated the chance to meet some of Russ' family.

Thursday morning's "Local Bias" shoot was also a family affair in a way. Dr. Andrew Blais interviewed Paul Richmond---a local writer, poet, publisher, and activist. Paul also happens to be the host of "Imagine" on WMCB 107.9-lp FM. You'll be able to see their conversation on Cable Channel 15 within the next two weeks.

Airing on GCTV now are two interesting pieces of programming that came from local government events held Tuesday evening and Friday morning. Our Station Manager recorded the Special Greenfield Town Council Meeting (in which the councilors discussed upcoming repair work on the middle school roof) on his way home on Tuesday and our New Media Producer came in early on Friday to attend the swearing in ceremony of Greenfield's new "Special Police Officer". Both of these videos can also be viewed on our homepage.

While our New Media Producer was at town hall, the rest of the staff was assisting the Greenfield YMCA as they recorded two new shows in our studio. Keep an eye out for them during the coming months.

Weekly Wrap Up

Even though our Station Manager was on vacation, and we had some beautiful weather, we managed to behave ourselves this week and get a lot done. Though no shows ended up being recorded in our studio, a lot of field equipment was signed out and ten programs were worked on in our editing suites. In addition, the staff produced a news story for our website each day. If you missed them, be sure to check out our homepage for the most recent pieces and the "Community Coverage" playlist in our Video on Demand Player for the rest.

Looking forward to next week, we thought we'd highlight a couple of events for you:

On Monday night, the Reggae group "Rebelle" will be in our studio for a live performance on "Valley Homegrown". The show is free and open to the public so come on down and have a good time. ("Valley Homegrown" goes live on Cable Channel 15 at 7pm so we recommend getting there around 6:45pm.)

At 6pm on Tuesday night, the Greenfield Town Council will be holding a short, special, meeting at the Greenfield Police Department. This meeting is being held in order to do a First Reading on the order to appropriate $175,000 for the repair of the Greenfield Middle School Roof.

That's all for this week folks. Have a great weekend!