112- On Notice

This morning I put the town of Woodstock on notice for inadequate water pressure for fighting fires, but since this is a RUPCOcentric blog, let me back up and tell you how I came to uncover this problem:

RUPCO, in its application for Woodstock Commons, cited a study by Morris Associates.  The study was from 1996.  The study said that pressure in the town water system would fall below 20 PSI, the minimum pressure for firefighting, according to New York State’s chosen standards, The Ten States Standards.  Back in 1996, the water district did not yet extend down Route 375.  The Morris Associates study sought to simulate the water district we have now, back before it was built.  For whatever reason, the town, back then, I suppose, thought it was OK to have sub-standard water pressure at the “working” fire hydrants. I can’t travel back in time to see whether the system was built as outlined in the simulation, or whether it was changed when built.  What I do know is that a more reliable measure of system pressure would be simply to measure the pressure in the system now.

So what does this have to do with RUPCO?  The RUPCO team does not appear to have simulated the water district pressure of the current system PLUS the expansion to serve their 53 new units. In other words, the study done 15 years ago, written in the future tense, was borrowed and substituted for lack of a current analysis of today’s system, written in the future tense about our current system plus RUPCO’s added demand. This is to say that RUPCO did NO analysis of water pressure in a system that would include its housing project.

This is also to say that the Planning Board just passed this study to the Town Board, who is responsible for the water and sewer system analysis.  The Town Board, all through the RUPCO application process, ignored this issue.  Now, according to the Daily Freeman article of last Friday, Jeff Moran is satisfied with the Planning Board’s analysis (which is nonexistent).

What happens when a town simply fails to maintain adequate water pressure to the fire hydrants?  Houses catch on fire, fire engines come, and no water comes out of the hose. Houses burn down. A certain town board member’s immediate family member watched this happen across the street from his home just a few towns away from here. He watched the homeowners sue the town.

Here in Woodstock, and in all towns in New York, if you know about a dangerous situation, go to the Town Clerk’s office and fill out a “Notice of Defect or Dangerous Condition.”  By law, the town must correct the defect or danger within 30 days or decide that it is not really a danger. But guess who really makes that decision: the town’s insurance carrier.  I filled out such a form, citing the old water pressure study, and the dangerously low water pressure that the Planning Board thought was OK to decrease even further by adding 53 new users to the system. While the danger is not imminent, the decision to allow it to become imminent has already been made.  Approval of Woodstock Commons was an act of negligence.

Here is the form I filled out this morning at the Town Clerk's office, Woodstock, NY.