Epic

there's a yard under there...somewhere

I'd always wondered, even before this amazing, record breaking, rash of snow dumping storms, why the plows didn’t just deliver their payloads to the nearest body of water. After all, we're blessed with a whole bunch ‘o’ open water around here. There’s the Charles and Mystic Rivers, all the bays, lakes and ponds. It seems a stone gimme—perfect places to get rid of it all.

Except...except for the fact that the snow scooped off our roads is chock full of petroleum and other residues, salt, sand, silt, ciggy butts and other trash AND dog poop.

Oh. Rats.

The Courageous Snow Brothers

Given the titanically monster amount of white stuff we’re rockin’, Marty Walsh, Boston’s mayor, talked about potentially dumping the snow in the harbor with these caveats.

- Dispose of snow in open water with adequate flow and mixing to prevent ice dams from forming.
- Do not dispose of snow in saltmarshes, vegetated wetlands, certified vernal pools, shellfish beds, mudflats, drinking water reservoirs and their tributaries, Zone IIs or IWPAs of public water supply wells, Outstanding Resource Waters, or Areas of Critical Environmental Concern.
- Do not dispose of snow where trucks may cause shoreline damage or erosion.
- Consult with the municipal Conservation Commission to ensure that snow disposal in open water complies with local ordinances and bylaws.

“It is a last resort option that we do not think we will need to use at this point,” Bonnie McGilpin, press secretary for Mayor Walsh, told Boston.com. 

But it looks like that won’t happen, at least not in Boston. 

It seems that between the snow farms and those snow melters (borrowed from Massport and Northeastern University) that can tackle hundreds of tons of the white stuff per hour, the only snow falling into the harbor is the snow that comes from the sky.

What the hell’s a “snow farm?”  The name, to me anyway, implies that the stuff's grown there. //snort// Yeah, that’s something we totes need. Nope, these are just vacant lots. Snow farm sounds ever so much more...poetic?

Here in Quincy, on the Neck anyway, it appears that some of the giant mountains of snow along Edgewater Drive have been pushed over the seawall into the bay. Dunno what’s happening in the rest of town.

Yes, I’m concerned about polluting the bay. OF COURSE. Right now though, I’m very happy to see the water again, to have some of the giant snow walls gone. It was getting a wee bit claustrophobic around here.

Oni and his brother Kevin have done legendary amounts of shoveling. Heroic songs will be sung about them. Epic poems will be written. I'm certain of it!