I'm sure some of my dear and otherwise enterprising and beloved Kossack engineer friends here can explain why this is necessary, but down here in SE New Mexico, we are in a state of extreme drought, while simultaneously observing folks doing a lot of road work with the sewers, the drains. I haven't seen anything about the water mains yet, though I read the paper quite assiduously, but what do I know.
Today, the City, in all of its infinite wisdom, was mucking around and digging stuff up half a block away from here. After they more or less got done, they did this:
This is what the street repair guys walked away from today, after mucking around and digging stuff up that presumably had to do with water. I watched them. They made this happen.
That has been going on for some hours now. I expect this sort of venting is necessary while the cement dries, or some damned thing or another.
But they're always doing this, draining things, flooding the streets.
We are in extreme drought. We will likely be asked to conserve water soon, under penalty of law, if it doesn't start raining soon. It hasn't rained since last September, other than the several inches of snow we got during the bad freeze.
What's wrong with this picture? It needs a photo caption, for that matter.
What's wrong with this picture is that it sends a horribly mixed message. They want us to conserve, I'll have to worry about my garden, quite possibly. Other people will have to worry about their starved lawns and other accoutrements. They will yell at us about watering our yards to the point where it starts seeping out into the streets.
I've been working my yard much of the day, and yesterday, including working it to be mulched and ready to withstand drought and all of that shit.
And that happy little fireplug party started quite some time ago.
Isn't there a better way to do this? For example, valves?
Oh, and what with the crazy about photo copyrights lately, I must add that any of you brave souls who want to steal that photo, rest assured I will neither sue you, nor give permission to anyone else to sue you. Creative Commons city, people. Just keep the story straight. I promise I won't delete this diary, either, assuming nobody threatens me or the woozle with dismemberment. Don't worry about giving me credit. In fact, I'd be delighted. Paste Miep Rowan O'Brien into your Photoshopping; have at it.
Several hours. Since late afternoon. At least two. Probably three. I'm going to keep watching.
This happens here a lot. Sometimes there is a LOT more water running merrily downstream...life is but a dream, I guess. Not a very good dream when good water gets pissed away like this, though.