I've been catching up on newspapers that accumulated during the few days we were away, and finally got to this week's Hardwick Gazette last night. Just about everyone here in Vermont felt the effects of tropical storm Irene. There was way too much water coming at us in a short period of time and, of course, water levels in all our lakes and ponds rose to new heights - again. Locally we were surprised and then relieved when we heard that the Molly's Falls Dam just west of us on Rt. 2 in Cabot, was in danger of failing and the power company (Green Mountain Power) officials were scurrying to do whatever they could to prevent a huge disaster. Imagine what would happen to the homes downstream of the dam and Marshfield and Plainfield villages, and beyond if that dam broke.

The Gazette ran a story this week about GMP's meeting with local officials to discuss ways emergency notification can be handled better. That's fine, and I'm glad they are doing that, but it was a couple of paragraphs later that caught my eye. Here's some of that article:

GMP dam operator Dave Tetreault said the water level rose 15 feet in 90 minutes during tropical storm Irene. He alerted the control center at Colchester [Vermont], which passed it to senior management.

Tetreault said the Agency of Natural Resources would not let GMP open the dam at Peacham Pond and release water a couple of days before the storm. The dam could have been closed during Irene and held back water from Molly's Falls Pond, giving it some relief.

. . . [Jason] Lisai said 5,500 cfs is what would be released if the spillways were fully opened. This is the maximum amount of water GMP could manage, he said. Select Board member John Warshow asked "what does 5,500 cfs look like in Marshfield and Plainfield."

If the dam breached it would release 80,000 cfs at full height, said Lisai. He said a dam breach analysis was done by the company before Irene came through.

The article didn't say what the answer was to Warshow's question, but it did describe the events that night. Ken Couture, engineering and control center manager of GMP said at 5:45 p.m. he was informed by Tetreault about the rising water. At 7:56 p.m. an e-mail was sent to alert state police an evacuation was necessary. The emergency operations center for GMP called the Marshfield fire station at 7:25 p.m., but Deputy Chief Tim Morris said they had no idea how much water there was or what homes or businesses should be evacuated. People were getting information from WDEV radio or from second or third hand. Fortunately, the dam held and excessive water was not released.

The recent meeting of GMP with select board and fire department members in Cabot, Plainfield, and Marshfield, Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission and Vermont Emergency Management, may prevent confusion in the future, but one wonders if anyone at ANR is aware of just how close a call it was that night. ANR people should have been at that meeting, too, so they might gain some understanding of how they can assist instead of hinder the efforts of GMP in managing expected heavy rainfall. The ANR mindset of how they are protecting the ecosystem is way out of whack and they need to get real.