Newark Watershed Commission dissolved

[basspilot]

Anyone with any more insight as to the impact it might have accessing the reservoirs for fishing? Below is a link to the article on NJ.com.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/201...olves_lea.html

[NorthJerzyG]

Considering the sheds permit sales bring in revenue I'm assuming they'll keep it up and running while reorganizing the rest of the commissions personnel. Gotta say, if they shut it down completely, ill be organizing a protest, lol.............

[basspilot]

I'm well versed in homeland defense and though I agree about not closing it entirely do you honestly believe the revenue brought in from permits outways the potential for an attack on the water system? I prefer to think that they'll leave the fishernen alone but time will tell.

[acabtp]

Originally Posted by basspilot

do you honestly believe the revenue brought in from permits outways the potential for an attack on the water system?

yes, absolutely, 100%, without a doubt, the permit revenue outweighs the potential of an attack on the water system because the potential for an attack on the water system at the reservoir lakes approaches zero.

the water in drinking supply reservoirs is tested and constantly monitored at the intake of the pumping plant where it is filtered, sanitized, and retested before it is sent down the aqueduct. at the other end of the aqueduct in the destination city, it is tested and monitored again before distribution. it would be incredibly difficult to get a poison into the system without it being noticed.

further, with the particular case of the newark reservoirs, the most downstream reservoir with fishing access is oak ridge reservoir. from there, the water has to go through charlottesburg and macopin reservoirs before entering the water supply system. so it would take huge quantities of contaminants (like tanker trucks) going into oak ridge, and then several days or weeks for anything to filter downstream (at which point it would be diluted to a billionth or trillionth of the original concentration).

here's a quick read that demonstrates the problem of scale that an attack on the water supply would require http://www.giwersworld.org/911/poison-water.phtml

it sounds scary, but it is just not something that is practical for any terrorist entity to effectivley do. so it would be a complete crock of **** if they closed the reservoirs down in the name of 'security'.

[basspilot]

I don't disagree that it is unlikely but the potential is there. Also I guess we could use the wanaque as an example in terms of liability. One of the reasons the wanaque restricts bost traffic is because one it is privately operated so to speak and the liability if there was such an attack. I hate to say it but if the new commission decides to do so I can easily see them eliminating the permit program. Regardless of how many they sell a year it is minimal in the overall operating budget for the watershed program. What I can see happening is how United water operates with strictly shore fishing.

[basspilot]

Also no disrespect to the article you posted, but a blog or article without refrences from an accredited source is not reliable. That article is purely oppinion with no factual information. The potential for an attack is quite small, but so was the attack on the world trade with a large passenger jet used as a means of WMD. Again I don't want to start an argument on here I just wanted to raise awareness of the change, and the possibility of an alteration to their permitting process.