Dam Vandals!

May 23, 2015

f264be62c56fb5f5bbc3bea2ac7b5e18Blustery sunshine this Saturday afternoon on California’s north coast — the whip-like wind is a bit chilly, too, but the windows are staying open for awhile to let the cool ventilation aerate the apartment.
I’m wearing a sweater now, so it won’t belong before my old bones get cold — just got to wait.

In a senseless display of pure asshole — from the Guardian this morning:

An inflatable dam in drought-stricken California was damaged on Thursday, causing the loss of nearly 50,000,000 gallons (190m litres) of water.
Police said vandals caused “irreversible damage” to the inflatable dam in Fremont, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The vandalism caused water meant for local residents to instead flow into San Francisco bay.
The Alameda County water district said the lost water could have supplied 500 homes for an entire year.

(Illustration: Pablo Picasso’s ‘The Tragedy,’ found here).

One has to wonder what possesses people to do certain things, but unwarranted destruction of shit vital to survival is not on anybody’s checklist.
More from SFGate:

The police believe someone went to Alameda Creek on Thursday morning and damaged the dam, which is made of roughly an inch-thick rubber material.
The dam was partially submerged when discovered, making it difficult to determine what caused it to deflate, said Geneva Bosques, a spokeswoman for the Fremont Police Department.
The loss of the water couldn’t come at a worse time for the Alameda County Water District, as the state suffers through an extended drought and cities and towns are under orders by the state to reduce consumption.
The State Water Resources Control Board has ordered the district to reduce its water demand by 16 percent.
The damaged dam is used to capture water, where it is diverted to Quarry Lakes Regional Park.
The water then percolates into the ground and becomes groundwater.
The deflated dam meant the water “simply flowed down Alameda Creek into San Francisco Bay,” said Robert Shaver, general manager of the Alameda County Water District.
One of two rubber dams on Alameda Creek, it is 210 feet long and can inflate to a height of 13 feet.
It was used because of its versatility, as the water flow down Alameda Creek changes dramatically with rainfall.
“This was a malicious intent,” Shaver said.
“It was an incredibly senseless, wasteful, destructive act.”

Sad when you need to put up a fence, install a watchman to keep a lookout…

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