From the New York Times,
‘Only a Stream Remains’: Minnesota Lake Is Drained After Valve Malfunction.
Dead fish, puddles and weeds are all that’s left of Alice Lake after a pipe, which was unable to close, pushed all of the water into the St. Croix River.
Not a single day can pass without Minnesota humiliating itself on the national (frequently international) stage.
I hate to get all pedantic, but a “pipe” didn’t push the water out of the lake. Gravity, or at least water pressure, did. A pipe, by definition, is a tube, open at both ends. This small distinction pays a big role in the tale.
The Times‘ headline tells nearly the entire story. State authorities were trying to drain a little excess water from a manmade lake, returned to find the valve stuck open, and then abandoned the site until the entire lake was gone and all the fish were dead.
The old joke from The Simpsons, “We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas,” appears to apply to the state Dept. of Natural Resources in this instance.
The Times reports,
A normally 9-foot-deep, 26-acre lake northeast of the Twin Cities is now mostly a dry lake bed, and nearly all of its fish have died, after a valve malfunctioned and caused water to drain out over the weekend.
To translate: the valve failed to perform as intended, allowing the pipe to continue to function as intended.
I have read every local media account of the event and I cannot find an answer to the question, “why?
Yes, the valve was broken, stuck in the “open” position. So block the intake. Or stop the outflow at the other end. What am I missing? What is it that I don’t understand?
As I frequently observe when it comes to Minnesota state government: at some point, the results of gross incompetence become indistinguishable from active sabotage.
At some point in the future, a solution to the value problem will occur and the lake will refill about a month later. Or, perhaps not.
