[SustainableTompkins] Was: Lake water versus creek water

[Thomas Shelley]

At 05:03 AM 3/5/2008 -0800, you wrote:
>One of the questions that I have never heard or read about in the City's 
>decisionmaking process on Six Mile Creek versus Bolton Point is what could 
>happen to Six Mile Creek and Six Mile Creek Gorge without the dams, the 
>lakes and water treatment system tapping the creek.

Dear George and Friends--These are some interesting thoughts and good 
questions.  I agree with Joel's assessment of maximizing the hydropower on 
Six Mile Creek.   Specifically, there is the potential to generate a 
significant amount of electricity that, in the future energy constrained 
world we face, would be more than useful for City 
operations.  Hydro-electricity could be supplied to power City operations, 
especially in an emergency situation--ice storm, terrorist attack on the 
grid, collapse of the grid (thanks, Ohio!) or other severe power 
failure.  It would be more than really nice if the police, fire department, 
county 911 operations, the hospital, the high school as an emergency 
shelter, etc., had electricity.   All or most of these operations have 
emergency generators, but they only can be fueled for a limited period of 
time and/or they will fail within a certain time framework.  In an extended 
power outage providing power to emergency services is really important.  I 
want 911 and the ambulance service and the fire department, etc., to be 
fully operational.   With a properly installed local hydro power system, 
owned and operated by the City, this could be a reality that would 
literally be a life-saver and maintain the integrity of our community in a 
way that is hard to imagine without electricity.  If you have any doubts 
about this, just ask the folks in Northern New York and Quebec that 
suffered through up to 6 weeks without electricity a couple of winters ago 
after the Big Ice Storm.  My $.02.   Tom

Tom Shelley
118 E. Court St.
Ithaca, NY 14850
607 342-0864
tjs1 at cornell.edu
http://www.myspace.com/99319958
P I thank you for printing this e-mail only if it is necessary

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present 
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own 
needs."

The World Commission on Environment and Development,
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, 1987

MY NOTE:  Sustainable development does not mean "sustainable growth" as 
growth per se is not sustainable.  And the term "sustainable" has to mean 
"for a very long time" (A. Bartlett).

"The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives."        Sioux proverb