To the editor:
Well, the word is finally out — pipes of the Kickemuit Upper Dam have been plugged up for a long time — a decade, if not more. Long-time residents attest to there being two outlets operating at all times, each independent of the other.
And there's more — one of the two culverts of the Schoolhouse Road bridge, just south of the dam, has also been plugged for a decade, if not more.
As a result of the recent rain storm and accompanying quick freeze, the upper dam's, or the levee's, northern face holds back an enormous frozen, lifeless swamp. Its southern face shows free water and no fluvial movement for its entire length except at the far southeastern corner where one would never expect. There we find a large, swirling eddy — the only noticeable outlet.
As regards Schoolhouse Road, the roadbed is overflowing with close to six inches of water on the eastern end, downstream from the eddy and yet another indication that the vast majority of flow is concentrated on the eastern end. The town DPW has erected headlight-reflecting barrels to warn drivers of the conditions.
Has anyone known of this neglect? Sure, again all local yokels can remember a time when all four pipes servicing the Reservoir were working simply because Schoolhouse Road hardly ever flooded, and not like this. The flooded roadbed is the proof of the problem the Bristol County Water Authority has never addressed. Also, upon a quick inspection, trees and other plant life are growing where moving water previously existed and where plant life would never be allowed.
And if two is one half of four, this means that for decades the Kickemuit Reservoir has been deprived of ONE HALF of its normal flow. Let's think about that for a moment — all the green stuff we saw on top of the Kiki was due to plugged pipes? All the photos we've looked at in technical surveys — surveys that cost taxpayer dollars — and in newspapers were because the Kiki was only getting half of the water it should have gotten? And no one looked at the pipes?
The chairman of the Warren Town Council now knows this. So does a specialist at Save the Bay and a state representative. Warren Police has reported the non-functioning road culvert to Rhode Island Department of Transportation, which will be arriving soon to repair it.
$250,000 is the quoted cost of redesigning the levee. Camera probes to check underwater pipes methinks would run a bit cheaper; or even if they don't, how about the present Water Authority unplugging its pipes anyway and getting the Kiki running again like it did? What's wrong with looking back and fixing it? What's wrong with having a healthy Kiki again and just the way it was? And what's wrong with possibly saving 250,000 smackers?
Barry Lial
Serpentine Road