The Water Closet: Aug 27, 2010
August 25th, 2010 | by Middleton Stream Team
THE WATER CLOSET
WATER RESOURCE AND CONSERVATION INFORMATION
FOR MIDDLETON, BOXFORD AND TOPSFIELD
| Precipitation Data* for Month of: | May | June | July | Aug |
| 30 Yr Normal (1971–2000) Inches | 3.63 | 3.58 | 3.50 | 3.35 |
| 2010Â Central Watershed Actual | 2.74 | 1.61 | 1.44 | 2.33 to 3 PM 8/24 |
Ipswich River Flow Rate (S. Middleton USGS Gage) in Cubic Feet per Second (CFS):
| For August 24, 2010: | Normal . . . 4.5 CFS | Current Rate . . . 0.99 CFS |
The Water Closet: Aug 27, 2010
August 25th, 2010 | by Middleton Stream Team
UPS AND DOWNS OF GREAT AND SMALL RIVERS
Kayakers Joan Flynn and Bob Lemoine of the Middleton Stream Team stand on one of many exposed sandbars wondering where the river has gone. Their group encountered numerous obstacles while paddling, wading and walking down the drought stricken Ipswich River. This photo was taken on the Middleton-Peabody line east of the bridge at Bostik. Photo: Judy Schneider
As the monsoons wash down over the Indus River Basin, Pakistan, television images of the high waters and resulting wet misery flood our media. Again, as in Bangladesh and New Orleans in prior years, we watch and worry about the victims and shifting water patterns around the globe. The feeder streams of the five great rivers, the 2000 mile long Indus and four major tributaries (Punjab: pun from pan meaning five, jab from ab meaning waters) originate in high Tibet where the Himalayan glaciers have been diminishing at an alarming rate for some time. Those in the broad rich agricultural valleys worry about too little water in the future while trying to survive way too much now. Will the monsoons from the south, the cause of this summer’s floods, increase while the life giving waters from the high north continue to decline? Pakistan’s future involves more than just survival from turbulent politics. As this is being written turbulent waters cover much of the land. Over twenty million people are estimated to have been displaced; their sugar, rice, wheat, cotton and other crops are under water. One guess is that 200,000 livestock have been swept away in just the past month. Few dare to predict the final human death toll, ironically much from a lack of potable water. (more…)
The Water Closet: August 20, 2010
August 20th, 2010 | by Middleton Stream Team
Beaver Lodge photo: Middleton Stream Team
WATERFRONT PROPERTY
We dug out the Closet’s well worn Webster’s Collegiate dictionary of the 1950s and looked up the word lodge after happening upon one we hadn’t seen before built by beavers. Usually we keep a close eye out for development along our river and streams that might crowd the privacy of our weather beaten shack dubbed the Water Closet.  Waterfront people are protective that way, NOMS, Not On My Stream.
The lodge, near the arbitrary bounds of the tri-towns just up river from their Masconomet Regional School, is only a swim and short hike for young beavers inclined to go to school. We think human students would get a kick out of their presence. Teachers and administrators would not. But kidding aside, we know beavers have more pressing needs than “book learning”. (One Closet wag wondered if that old phrase has been replaced yet by “electronic media learning”, EML.) (more…)
THE WATER CLOSET
August 20th, 2010 | by Kerry
WATER RESOURCE AND CONSERVATION INFORMATION
FOR MIDDLETON, BOXFORD AND TOPSFIELD
| Precipitation Data* for Month of: | May | June | July | Aug |
| 30 Yr Normal (1971–2000) Inches | 3.63 | 3.58 | 3.50 | 3.35 |
| 2010Â Central Watershed Actual | 2.74 | 1.61 | 1.44 | 1.43 to 3 PM 8/17 |
Ipswich River Flow Rate (S. Middleton USGS Gage) in Cubic Feet per Second (CFS):
| For August 17, 2010: | Normal . . . 5.8 CFS | Current Rate . . . 0.49 CFS |
