Paddle down a lazy river!

The bridge deck segments are 58 ft wide by 100 ft long, sitting on torsion trivet pilings 60 ft wide by 50 ft on center.  Expense for this type of river crossing is minimal, given the small beam size.

Wildlife values are excellent

Hogging the log!

Life lesson – looking down is necessary at times, up looking up is always up-lifting.

Hat tip to Earth Ocean Sky

Stone Sculptures

In-coming geese – always a thrilling and noisy spectacle.

In-coming geese

Option 1 – dig it deep, with a wide berth for the floodway.

Option 2 – keep it shallow but bury it in a big load of stone placed in the floodway area.

Which is the legal option?  Obviously #1.   What did the Town choose to do, even though a sewage lift station was less than 500 feet downstream?  Obviously #2.

Sewer Siphon box on east bank of the Byram River 450 ft North of Den Lane.

Would this tend to de-stabilize the opposite bank, where home-owners own to the center of the river.  You betcha!

Say goodbye to land along Caroline Place - It won't be around for long.

The NY Court Decision (Index 16132/10 from a Westchester County Clerk filing on Jan 10, 2012) found that NY DEC, which administers the same MS4 programs on the west side of the Byram River, failed its “agency” from EPA in four ways:

1. Failed to reduce discharge of pollutants tot he maximum practical extent.

2. Failed to ensure compliance with water quality standards of the Clean Water Act.

3. Failed to conduct monitoring of storm water discharges.

4. Violated requirements for public participation in the process.

At Board of Selectmen Meeting on Dec 1, 2011 David Theis asked Public Works:  ”Where does all this bacteria come from?”  Answer given: “Dogs.”  The amount formally reported by the Town to EPA’s MS4 Storm Water monitoring program, from the Town’s website:

Poop sheet results - that's official

If you are asking if this is high, consider a beach is closed in Vermont with 77.  An average of 126 is needed in CT.   So yes, that’s a lot of poop.

We’ll take up the issue of whether it’s geese, gulls, horses, failing septic systems, or cross-connections and spillages between the storm and sanitary piping networks later this week.

But Sound Beacher weighs in with a photo essay, from where else, the beach:

Okay, We provide the doggy bags and give you the world's greatest dog park

And we give you reminders to pick up after your dogs (or ferrets or whatever)

But People - The idea is to send the bag to the Burn Plant in Bridgeport. So put the bag in the trash can, Pleeazze!

And this is really, really gross:

$100 fine for this.. Bad doggy? No. The owner brings the dog to the park.

First Iris bloom of 2012

Whole new meaning to: "Who's your daddy?"

Oh Venus!

Blowing a hole overhead

http://spaceweather.com/images2012/23jan12/snow.gif?PHPSESSID=e5b9l45fbi494b44nl5hniubk5

The storm subsides.

Does Mt Fly Ash exist at Holly Hill?  What is this:

Six foot two in height, EarthImage scales the ash mound at Holly Hill. Goodwill trailer on top visible.

The Public Works Dept stores pipes and curbing on top of the pile

Storm Water percolates through the pile and drains into Tom's Brook

Sediments that should be trapped on site now overflow to Armstrong Court and Byram Harbor.

The ashes remain from operations of the municipal incinerator, now replaced with a transfer station.  The old incinerator incompletely burned metals fed into it, and those metals now leech into Tom’s Brook.

The Wetlands Agency requested testing of metals in this sediment pond:

test results reported by DPW to IWWA from October 2011

Note:  mg/L is milligrams per Liter of liquid, or parts per million  (1 Liter is 1000 grams of water.)  Findings are in parts per million of soil (milligrams per kilogram.)

Disks about the size of a quarter

On the beach they float in with the winds and tides after ten months at sea:

They will persist for years

From:

http://www3.westchestergov.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2923:storm-water-washes-plastic-disks-onto-sound-shore-beaches&catid=74:news&Itemid=300137

Storm Water Washes Plastic Disks onto Sound Shore Beaches
LAST UPDATED ON WEDNESDAY, 09 MARCH 2011 13:18
March 8, 2011 — Heavy rain on Sunday contributed to a release into the Long Island Sound of thousands of small white plastic disks from the Westchester County Wastewater Treatment Plant in Mamaroneck.

The disks have washed up on shore from Rye to New Rochelle.

The county’s Department of Environmental Facilities is hiring a contractor to retrieve as many of them as possible. The disks, used at the Mamaroneck WWTP to help clean wastewater, are made of HDPE (high density polyethylene). HDPE is a non-toxic plastic that is used in every-day storage of food items. For example, it is the same plastic commonly used for making milk containers.

Thomas J. Lauro, commissioner of the county’s Department of Environmental Facilities, said that the plant is under construction, with two of the six aeration tanks being upgraded for advanced wastewater treatment. The disks escaped from one of the tanks during startup of the process. The disks are used in the process of removing nitrogen from the wastewater to prevent hypoxia (inadequate oxygen) in the Sound.

Dr. Cheryl Archbald, acting commissioner of health, said that the disks pose no health risks to the public. Residents who find the disks on their property can throw them in the garbage. As with any debris, it is recommended that people use gloves or wash their hands after handling the disks.

The county has already retrieved thousands of the disks, which are white, about the size of a quarter and resemble a wagon wheel.

In the wild

From:

http://glencove.patch.com/articles/plastic-disks-from-westchester-plant-wash-

onto-glen-cove-beaches

“There is no public health concern,” said Mary Ellen Laurain, a spokesperson for
the Nassau County Health Department. Laurain said she received her information
both from Westchester health officials and the NY State Dept. of Environmental
Conservation.

Rather, they remain a litter issue: “Treat them like debris. You should use
plastic gloves to be safe,” Laurain said.

Gator sunbath

Evil eye on you

Turtle warms up too

Common siight

The force of flooding ripped many abutment structures in two:

After the storm

Temporary bridges are in place – but in need of permanent replacements:

Quick repair

Email your stuff to MWF@EarthImage.Net and share your views and thoughts.

First up from Sound Beacher —  A Reflection on the New Year:

A Reflection on the New Year

Old Bike:

Old Bike

New Bike:

New Bike

And who is going to ride that bike?  Is that the lock broken and on the ground?  No one will even steal this bike!

Here’s the problem:  A 23 ft high pile of old ash leaching into the Brook with no remediation efforts.  This was approved by the Wetlands Agency in 1980.  Do they care yet about water quality in our streams and rivers?  (rhetorical pause…)

Mt. Fly Ash at Holly Hill

After flowing under the Holly Hill Resource Recovery Facility, formerly an incinerator/dump for the Town of Greenwich, CT,  this brook makes its way to Byram Harbor, with the last natural area and opportunity for a bio-filter trap of silt and metals being south of the Turnpike just west of Ritch Avenue.  Note the stream sediments.

The last stilling pool - note the sediments

The brook then “falls out” at Byram Harbor:

The 5 x 10 ft outfall box culvert at high tide elevation

Another opportunity for water quality presents itself in the form of a clean-able forebay.  This would be a berm near the high tide level with a truck ramp access to collect and remove what now flows though to the Sound.  Like ducks in a row (mute swans – forgive me.)  In storms the berm overflows.  In dry weather, the water near the middle to lower third – the cleanest water – leaks out into the harbor slowly.

Clean-able Forebay Option site

And finally, the receiving waters where remaining sediments and metals sink into the Harbor, which the EPA classifies as “impaired” under the Clean Water Act.

Byram Harbor on a January day

Investigating the outfalls of the Byram River on Nov 1, 2011

EarthImage investigates the outfall from Lyon Park and Port Chester Streets

Both Post Rd bridges are entirely in NY State

The Loire Valley of France it's not - but OK anyway.