ULYSSES, KS MADE THE TOP 10 Weirdest News Stories! - DodgeBoard.com

hoarsewhisperer · #1 (**permalink**) 01-07-2008, 07:51 AM

Weirdest News Story of 2007

Quote:

Implement Plan B
The Frazier Park Lake near Ulysses, Kansas, has been dry for at least 20 years, so the city planned a $735,000 project to fill it by using the lake bed to hold its wastewater, rather than use nearly the same amount of money to refurbish the plant's evaporation ponds. There's only one problem: an unusually snowy winter has filled the lake with water. The city therefore plans to drain the lake so the project can proceed. (Garden City Telegram) ...Nothing new: for years, governments have emptied their bank accounts to make room for tax increases.

K C Muffin · #2 (**permalink**) 01-07-2008, 10:32 PM

ooooooohhhhhh. Yuck!

banyon · #3 (**permalink**) 01-07-2008, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hoarsewhisperer

Weirdest News Story of 2007

This seems weird the way it was presented, but I could see it presented a different way too. I mean, the way it is phrased it makes it sound like the citizens wanted to see the lake filled, so they elected to fill it with wastewater. That seems an unlikely motivation. Rather, they probably needed a place to put their wastewater and said, "Hey, how about this empty lake that's been sitting around forever". The fact that it snowed and filled up doesn't diminish the municipality's need for wastewater storage. Rather, now they need to drain it, because otherwise, they would be risking flooding surrounding territories with contaminated fluids.

K C Muffin · #4 (**permalink**) 01-07-2008, 11:43 PM

Yeah, I get that - but how safe can that be in terms of groundwater? It's not treated, right? Do these people know what they're doing? It just sounds slightly odd.

Highwayman · #5 (**permalink**) 01-08-2008, 12:00 AM

What is odd is that for roughly the same money the city could have refurbished the existing evaporation ponds. Now they would spend even more to pump the lake dry and run the risk of overflow during another big runoff.

And Banyon, please don’t confuse the wishes of the citizens with the actions of the city officials. We all know that those are not always one and the same.

Made in the USA · #6 (**permalink**) 01-08-2008, 03:01 AM

I am sure that they would have had to have this approved by the KDHE first. And personally, I don't think it could have been approved unless certain things had been put into place to properly contain and control the wastewater.

hoarsewhisperer · #7 (**permalink**) 01-08-2008, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by banyon

This seems weird the way it was presented, but I could see it presented a different way too. I mean, the way it is phrased it makes it sound like the citizens wanted to see the lake filled, so they elected to fill it with wastewater. That seems an unlikely motivation. Rather, they probably needed a place to put their wastewater and said, "Hey, how about this empty lake that's been sitting around forever". The fact that it snowed and filled up doesn't diminish the municipality's need for wastewater storage. Rather, now they need to drain it, because otherwise, they would be risking flooding surrounding territories with contaminated fluids.

yer Cute!