HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO COUNT TO A MILLION?

Costs of Canal Repair: UNCOUNTABLE???

The Aqueduct at Point Pleasant: 2.5 million

The Lock at New Hope (Lock #11): 1 million

FEMA Involvement after the 3 floods of 2004-2006

The FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) assessment is completed at last. The agency has unofficially set the cost of repairing the flood damage at $22 million. The official approval is expected soon. Federal funds will cover 75% of the total; the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is expected to supply the remaining 25% ($5.5 million). Meanwhile $200,000 in fed- eral funds has been released for use by the State already, with $3 million to follow in the next few months. (Friends of The Delaware Canal, Canal News, Autumn 2005 http://www.fodc.org/pdfs/newsletterarchive/canalnews905.pdf)

Published: Monday, March 16, 2009, 11:04 PM  

NEW HOPE, Pa. -- About $40 million in federal and state funds is being spent to repair three seasons' worth of flood damage inflicted on the Delaware Canal. Although the work is moving along, canoe owners and fisherman will not be putting their gear in the water anytime soon...Contracts of more than $19 million were awarded to rebuild heavily devastated areas to the canal near Easton and in Upper Bucks County.

The $30 million from FEMA and the $10 million in state funds for the flood project are welcomed by communities along the canal. Unfortunately for them, there is still much maintenance and repair work to be done that has been stalled for years. Given the condition of the Pennsylvania budget, there is little reason to expect a large infusion of capital funds.

Budgets insufficient to carry out maintenance or capital projects have been the rule as the canal bed, its banks, flood gates and locks continued to deteriorate for years.(NJ.com; http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2009/03/canal_work_flows_along.html)

The coffer dam at Centre Bridge that is used to hold pumped water in the section of the Canal used by the New Hope Canal Boat Ride was washed away and is in the process of being rebuilt by Park personnel. (Friends of The Delaware Canal Newsletter; http://www.fodc.org/pdfs/newsletterarchive/canalnews706.pdf)

Published: July 19, 2010

Following a $29 million flood repair project that took two-and-a-half years to complete, the historic Delaware Canal State Park will reopen this week with a celebration at the Forks of the Delaware Recreation Area in Easton. (Bucks Local News http://www.buckslocalnews.com/articles/2010/07/19/the_advance/news/doc4c44abc6542b4805918359.txt)

Excuse me, but how long exactly would it take for any one person to count to a million? Can anyone reading this conceive of such numbers? 

FUN FACTS

Naturally, that depends on how fast you can count. But if you can count from 1 to 100 in one minute, and you keep counting every minute, without stopping, for eight hours every day (taking time off to eat, sleep, and go to school), you would reach 1,000,000 in 20 days, 6 hours, and 40 minutes, or almost 3 weeks. 

If, however, you give up eating, sleeping, and school, and just count every minute of every hour of every day, you would reach 1,000,000 in 6 days, 22 hours, and 40 minutes, almost 1 week.(http://www.bigsiteofamazingfacts.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-count-to-1-million)

This is our taxpayer money.  You and I pay money to The State whether you are a home owner, a renter, an employer or an employee in Pennsylvania. Don't you want a say if you know that your dollars are being wasted, or being used merely for the sake of appearances and then the death of local wildlife?
This year, 2011, the DCNR has $27,000,000 at its disposal from The State to be used to pay its employees and for the management and repair of its parks and the canal system. We need to be able to have a say in whether they fix the canal properly this time before it is refilled, or whether the past is repeated again and again.


PLEASE STAY TUNED AND INFORMED TO FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN HELP. 


AND SIGN THE PETITION.

WHO EXACTLY IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ANIMALS DYING IN DROVES?

In their mission statement “The Friends of The Delaware Canal” have written:

The Friends of the Delaware Canal is an independent, not-for-profit organization working to restore, preserve and improve the Delaware Canal and its surroundings. Our primary goals are to ensure that…

the canal is fully watered from Easton to Bristol;

the towpath trail is useable over its entire length.

We embrace this mission in order to sustain a unique link to our heritage, protect diverse and valuable natural areas, provide recreational opportunities, and enable the canal to serve as a community and economic asset. (http://www.fodc.org/pdfs/canalnews109%20final.pdf)

Year after year, in keeping with their mission, "The Friends of The Delaware Canal" have been an unstoppable force in seeing that the canal be “fully watered”. 
They were in fact called three years ago and asked what was going on and could they please stop filling and refilling the leaking canal because there were hundreds of huge fish every year left flopping around in the mud after all the waters had disappeared. We were told that everyone felt
very bad about the animals, and no one wanted to see them hurt but there was nothing that could be done.

No, nothing that could be done, 
nothing that can be done, 
nothing can be done, 
absolutely nothing that can be done, 
nope, nothing could possibly resolve this issue,
no, naw, nope. 
Too bad for those poor animals. 
Wow, WE ARE REALLY SORRY, BUT 
NOTHING CAN BE DONE.

Yeah, wow...


Well, we'll have to see about that, won't we?  
              

Peace Out 

                                                                      photo furnished courtesy of NateBal.com

Experiments Kill Even More Animals

Last year in the month of July, newspapers all over the Delaware Valley reported the celebratory reopening of the canal to the joyful cries of the people inhabiting all the little towns from Easton to Bristol, PA. The Philadelphia Inquirer's reporter Larry King wrote on July 24, 2010, the following:

EASTON, Pa. - In the festive presence of kayakers, speechmakers, bicyclists, and a straw-hatted woman joyously blatting on a conch-shell horn, a storm-tossed relationship was renewed Friday. Water and the Delaware Canal, after a six-year separation, are together again. Standing at the head of the 58.9-mile canal, by the scenic convergence of the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers, state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary John Quigley opened a stop gate and the Lehigh current flowed again into the historic waterway.The "rewatering" ceremony marks the first time the canal - except for a small, leaky span in New Hope - is being filled end-to-end since 2004."It is being brought back to life today," Quigley said.Actually, the vital signs have been strengthening for some time. The Delaware-fed stretch of the canal south of New Hope has held water since spring, and the Easton-to-Raubsville stretch had been test-filled in June. It will take about a week for the rest of it to fill, said Rick Dalton, Delaware Canal State Park manager. (http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20100724_Ceremony_marks__quot_rewatering_quot__of_the_Delaware_Canal.html)

Is it really fair to keep running experiments, or better said keep filling the canal for the sake of appearances, as was done last summer when the canal was opened at Easton and the water allowed to travel the entire distance to well below New Hope? As of November 2010, thirty miles worth of animals who were unable to escape were dead. They cannot swim in 1-2 inches of water to safety, they cannot escape the burning summer sun, and if they could crawl away how far could they get? Certainly not beyond the  fairly recently inadequately constructed, broken but very expensive aqueduct by the Locktender's house in New Hope. That's the aqueduct that stands directly in front of the nose of some very, very important people, mind you. We'll discuss that very soon. Stay tuned...

Sign the Petition

LET US BE THEIR VOICE

In the years between 2004-06, when this area suffered three consecutive floods, the canal paths and walls were destroyed and the old pump at Center Bridge, PA was broken. On the New Jersey side of the Delaware, any damage incurred was immediately repaired. The Pennsylvania canal system, an historical landmark, was left in disrepair, and during these floods as well along with the water came the numerous species of creatures swept in by force to their inevitable demise. 

But we don't need the floods to prove we are incapable of protecting these species.  We allow certain groups in the area to keep repeating the refilling of the canal come spring. It is partially our fault as we have not yet, in force, attempted to remain vigilant, remain involved in the decision-making and stood up to oppose them. Not  up until now.  In a couple of months if permitted, these groups, in particular one, will command the DCNR to refill the canal  and all the creatures will be swept in again from The Delaware River. 

A couple of months of swimming about and feeding in these shallow waters, and then death by desiccation and suffocation.

Please "friend" us on Facebook: 


Delaware Canal Anti-Annihilation League


(Sign our petition too)

POWER IS IN NUMBERS

OUR CANAL IS A TRAVESTY

Our canal is a travesty. Last year, amongst much celebration, the headgates at Easton were opened in July and the water rushed down the entire length of the canal. By November, thirty miles worth of animals were dead. The canal has been filled then allowed to dry out, refilled and allowed to dry out again and again. That's certainly a tremendous amount of destruction when it comes to the various species of water animals that have inhabited it.  What exactly is going on, and why does it appear that the powers-that-be don't care?

It's a wornout story, this canal saga. The greatest problems lie between the city of Easton and New Hope as a result of disuse through the years and flood damage. There are innumerable leaks. 


At the same time millions of dollars have been invested in machinery that serves no purpose, fixing towpaths, aqueducts and locks that don't work properly. Who's responsible for this?