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Several thousand gallons of oil spilled in Brighton wind up in Muddy River
By adamg on Thu, 06/19/2008 - 8:38pm
The Tab reports that up to 5,000 gallons of mineral oil that leaked out of an electrical conduit at Sutherland and Strathmore roads in Brighton this morning got into a drainage pipe that then dumped it into Leverett Pond and the Muddy River on the other side of Brookline on the Jamaica Plain line.
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Comments
Leverett Pond is at
Leverett Pond is at Brookline Village where the Riverway overpass crosses Rt 9.
so that explains all the CleanHarbors crews...
There were a bunch of them all along the jamaicaway with giant suck-trucks.
One was being 'guarded' by a cop in a black nissan sentra, parked squarely in the middle of the bike path, blocking the whole damn thing and nearly invisible. It was idling, and when I peered inside, I could barely make out (through the heavy tint) a cop dressed in his uniform and safety stripes, playing with his blackberry.
Hard at work! Critical to public safety...
Geographic confusion
What Adam probably meant to say was "on the other side of Brookline on the Jamaicaway" -- a mere typo.
The Herald, however, went so far as to move the Muddy River to Brighton, along with the (ahem) "greasy geese". Summer intern time!
It is hard to understand
My wife was walking by there, and it was chock-a-block with hazmat folks. A cop told her it was an oil spill in Brighton. In Brighton? It took me a while to figure that out. I guess the storm drains in that part of Brighton go all the way under Brookline to Leverett Pond. That's more than two miles away; the Charles is closer.
the leak was on the other
the leak was on the other side of the hill from the charles. Water doesn't go up hill.
Not to be picky
But that's not strictly true. Water does go uphill if it has sufficient static head.
But yes, the hill there is a minor watershed divide.
I'm sure you will admit that it does seem peculiar at first observation that an oil spill in Leverett Pond could have come all the way from Brighton.
Gradients
Water with enough momentum can run up hill, true, but there is a different and artificial situation going on here.
The drainages are designed with enough gradient to keep things flowing well. That means that pipes are just buried deeper underground when the surface goes uphill to maintain that gradual drop. Just because the surface goes up hill doesn't mean that the pipes go up hill.
As I understand it, this went through pipes, not over the surface. Such "underground downhill - surface uphill" is also a possibility were it a natural aquifer following a geologic formation underneath the surface.
Corrected
Thanks; my brain thought "Jamaica Plain line," my fingers typed "Jamaica Pond." Durn fingers!