And With That Boston Has Fallen

Just got in from shoveling. Will probably have to do one more round in the morning when the troops are up to shuffle the cars around so I can get a few spots I missed.

Feels like I’m CONSTANTLY shoveling, and given the weather and the spotty nature of public transit I had to take the day off from work AGAIN.

Yeah, I’ve practically quit my job, and taken a NEW job of moving snow around.

Tuesday is my day with the Baby, but the wife will be home too BECAUSE BOSTON IS CLOSED!

MBTA rail service will be suspended after 7 p.m. Monday and all day Tuesday due to the heavy snow, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo has confirmed. This includes all subway, trolley, and commuter rail service running in or out of Boston, as maintenance crews continue to clear snow and ice from the tracks.

Bus service will be available on an extremely limited basis with various buses on “snow routes.” Bus delays should be expected due to traffic congestion and local street conditions, according to the MBTA. The MBTA also notes that passengers will not be able to make transfers at usual intermodal points due to the suspension of rail service.

“The accumulating snow is making it virtually impossible to keep rail lines operational,” according to the MBTA website.

Let the gravity of that sink in. It is 9pm here and the snow is practically stopped. My neighbor works for the T and is working 24 hour shifts right now, and the T will not be open tomorrow!

There is so damn much snow, that even when it isn’t snowing they can’t keep the shit working. Took me 3 hours to make a 1 hour trip on the train on Friday, and the sky was blue!

They don’t even know where to put this stuff!

As Boston grapples with recording-breaking snowfalls, the city may dump snow into Boston Harbor, Mayor Martin J. Walsh said.

In an interview Monday, Walsh said the city has run out of space to deposit snow after more than 61 inches fell in the last 30 days. Snow melters cannot keep up with the demand, Walsh said, and the city’s “snow farms” — vacant lots where bulldozers take snow – are full.

“We’re going to explore the opportunity of putting this snow in the ocean,” Walsh said. “We’re looking at that now because of the amount of snow we have.”

The city would be required to notify the state and the Boston Conservation Commission that it needed to plow into the ocean because the snow had become a public safety hazard, according to Edmund Coletta, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

…Under normal circumstances, state law prohibits dumping snow in public waterways because plows pick up salt and other contaminants. The practice is allowed in extreme circumstances when public safety is at risk, Coletta said, and Boston has done it within the last few years. City officials believe the last time Boston pushed snow into the harbor was 2009.

Now the environmental hazards of snow isn’t TOTALLY bullshit. The Mall in my home town would use earth movers to make massive mountains of snow in the worst places of their parking lots. We’re talking 15′ high 30′ wide MOUNTAINS of snow. It would be white in February, but by late March it would be a big brown mound. By June they’d be shoveling dump truck loads of crap off the lot. Stand, salt, gravel, asphalt, and trash would be what the snow would leave behind.

Still, Salt, gravel, and Sand IS what the ocean is made of, and that other stuff DOES still get into the ocean. I think it’s great if the city avoids dumping snow into the bay, but there is a limit for everything.

And that limit is RIGHT NOW! Really amazing, as we have a LOT of snow out there, but frankly it doesn’t seem like it’s THAT much snow…

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4 Responses to And With That Boston Has Fallen

  1. Bob S. says:

    Sure you don’t want to bring the family down for a visit; do some job and home hunting while you are here?

    70+ degrees for the last 4 days and it is only expected to drop into the mid-50s for highs this week. Still above freezing even at night.

  2. Archer says:

    I saw the news stories on this, and suspect the “We don’t want to pollute the bay” line might be crap.

    When the snow melters are working, they’re turning snow into a veritable flood of brown water pouring out the end. Where does that go? Storm drains?

    Does Boston send all their rainwater and storm run-off to a water treatment? Or does it all end up in the harbor (via canals and underground drainage tunnels) anyway, and we’re just bickering over whether to dump in solid dirty water or liquid dirty water?

    • Weerd Beard says:

      Don’t know what they do with the runoff. I assume the majority of it goes into the bay anyway, but there might be filters that strain out the bigger particles, or settling tanks.

      Also I want to know what runs the melters. If they’re oil-powered heaters, then one can wonder what’s worse, dumping more salt, sand, gravel, and misc into the bay, or running burners to melt the snow?

      • Archer says:

        Even if the melters are electric-run, it’s not any better; it’s just bleeding off the local grid (however that’s generated – coal? oil?) and risking brown-outs for local residents.

        Risking brown-outs during the Storm Surge of the Century(tm) is not a good idea.

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