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Newbury Street flooded, but not because of the rain
By adamg on Sun, 09/10/2023 - 10:10pm
Flooded Newbury Street, photo by BFD.
The Boston Fire Department reported at 9:35 p.m. that a water main burst at 337 Newbury St, between Mass. Ave. and Hereford Street and was sending water all the way down to Gloucester Street.
A water main break at approximately 337 Newbury. The water is flooding Newbury st. as far as Gloucester st. pic.twitter.com/NahfqNxmSh
— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) September 11, 2023
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Comments
Boston might not be a real
Boston might not be a real city but it decays like one.
Profound.
And funny.
Hats off to you.
Blame it on overbuilding
and overpopulation. More housing units and residents believe it or not puts a huge burden on the City’s infrastructure.
More residents means more water usage and more sewerage that needs to go through piping to be delivered and treated.
The current electrical grid cannot handle the additional loads put on it by the increase in AC, appliances and equipment that comes along with dense developments.
You cannot have increased housing and residents without impacting the infrastructure and environment.
You should probably look at Boston population rates over time
We've had way more residents than this in the past and I don't see any reason to believe that people used less water or sewerage in the past (you might be right on the electrical grid, I suppose, but I doubt that's causing flooding).
People and businesses use way more water now …,
..,, than they did even back when I lived in Back Bay. Regardless of demographics and population fluctuations.
Went ahead and looked it up
Couldn't find anything for Boston specifically, but it looks like water usage in Massachusetts has actually been dropping pretty steadily since the 1990s, even with a higher population:
https://www.usgs.gov/centers/new-england-water-science-center/science/ma...
Yep!
And that's thanks in large part to the MWRA project that got a lot less attention than Deer Island: Fixing the water system.
The MWRA (and local customers, such as the BWSC) spent a ton of money plugging holes in an aging series of tubes. The MWRA also built a second aqueduct into Boston so it could shut the main aqueduct for repairs - something it couldn't do before because that would mean shutting off 85% of the region's water supply.
Cool!
Thank you!
I guess due to better systems and less waste from those methods than from people taking more than the traditional Sat night bath nowadays. Those annoying water saving shower heads must have had an effect.
As kids in my family and many others, the bath water was handed down. So glad not anymore.
MWRA says ...
Since water conservation efforts were put in place, demand on the Quabbin has dropped down substantially despite a more than doubling of the service region population. https://www.mwra.com/04water/html/wsupdate.htm
Some businesses use a lot of water - like for processing seafood - but domestic use has been dropping steadily for a century due to everything from front loading washers, efficient appliances, low flow toilets, shower heads, and pipe replacements.
in 1950 there were over 800
in 1950 there were over 800,000 in Boston.
Age
Age of the infrastructure should be looked at as well.
The various utilities are notified when new construction is performed as part of the design as well as permitting process.