"MWRA considers abandoning search; Dig for connector costly, even risky" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | June 10, 2010
The key piece of evidence in last month’s massive failure of Greater Boston’s water system — a 1-ton steel connector that burst apart — remains elusive, and further searching could risk new problems, officials said yesterday.
See: Water Main Mystery
And it will alway$ remain one, for obviou$ rea$on$.
Continuing to look for the piece could involve much greater costs and risk unsettling the very pipe that previously disrupted the water supply for nearly 2 million people in the Boston area, engineers and water managers said yesterday....
Crews at the water break site in Weston stopped digging Monday, and the authority is considering whether to abandon the search or try another approach....
The authority has spent $137,000 on the search for the missing piece, part of the $575,000 spent on the water leak so far. Further excavation could cost an estimated $500,000, said Fred Holland, a consultant for the authority with the firm CDM.
The state would like to pass on any costs for the search to whatever party is found responsible, and finding the clamp is key to assigning blame, said Ian A. Bowles, the authority board’s chairman and the state Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs....
You are just going to have to eat, 'er, drink it, Massachusetts taxpayers.
Frederick A. Laskey, director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, said the authority expects more results later this week from ground imaging near the point of the water tunnel failure and hopes the images help determine whether to halt the search for the clamp. Crews have already dug 20 feet below grade, 3 feet below the water pipe, and have begun to worry that the ground near the pipe could shift, given rising water levels and the silty sand they have encountered.
“You don’t want to have another break, and that’s what the board is struggling with,’’ Holland said.
Looks like s*** water is getting dumped on you again, taxpayers and ratepayers.
Related: One For Oklahoma
And one for low-lying, poverty-stricken Bangladesh:
"Landslides kill 49 in Bangladesh after heavy rains" by Associated Press | June 16, 2010
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — Powerful landslides triggered by heavy rains killed at least 49 people in southeastern Bangladesh yesterday, striking a coastal area as people slept and burying many alive inside their homes.
Related: Arkansas Campground
Rescuers pulled bodies from under chunks of mud before rescue work was suspended because of darkness, officials said.
As the rain continued to pound, officials feared the toll could rise. At least five soldiers were confirmed dead and another was missing after their camp was hit by a mudslide.
The mudslides struck early yesterday in two areas in Cox’s Bazar, 185 miles south of the capital, Dhaka, in a hilly, forested region near the border with Myanmar.
Kabir Ahmed, a 45-year-old villager, said he felt something shake his mud-walled tin-roof house before a stream of mud and trees came down on top of it.
“It was raining when I woke up to say my morning prayers,’’ Ahmed said, “then there was the jolt followed by rolling mud.’’
Ahmed survived when he went out in the darkness to see what was happening. Before he could return, his house was covered with tons of mud, burying his wife and three young children alive.
I'll bet he wishes he was in there with them.
Rains hampered rescue efforts; many roads were inundated....
--more--"Also see: Today's Globe Goals: French Flood
(Soccer update: Greece defeated Nigeria 2-1, yoo-hoo.)
