Tring Summit closure

[koukouvagia]

From next Tuesday the Tring summit will be closed between

locks 39 and 49.

 

This stark message was given to a group of local boaters by

British Waterways Manager this morning.  A similar meeting was

held yesterday with waterways businesses.

 

The Tring reservoirs are extremely low and the Cowroast

borehole is reaching the limit that can legally be extracted.

 

 

The net weekly loss of water from the summit is 61

megalitres - the equivalent of 220 lockfuls

 

This water loss is huge and it is not the result of either

lock usage (last week there were only 17 lockages) or leaking

lock gates but of what the BW hydrologist calls "soil

moisture deficit".

 

The prolonged drought conditions have lowered the water table

so far that the dry ground is absorbing water from the canal.

 I always thought that canals were puddled (lined

with clay) to stop this happening. Apparently the Tring

Summit is not lined, but relies on moist ground not drawing

water from the canal. 

 

By lowering the summit by 300mm this loss of water will be

minimized. 

 

The plan is to put stop planks in at New Ground Bridge just

north of Cowroast. This will mean that the level in Cowroast Marina

will be maintained but the rest of the summit will be

lowered.

 

British Waterways is making detailed plans to alleviate the

impact of this stoppage and will give details of these on

Monday.  If you have any concerns, contact Jeff Whyatt.

[Guest]

Where did all that rain go???

[Grace and Favour]

Where did all that rain go???

 

The River Trent I suspect

[Catrin]

There are a lot of boats up on the summit. Are they giving people time to get boats off the summit if they need to before they do that? How are they spreading this information?

Cath

[Dalesman]

Where did all that rain go???

It's all up here in Yorkshire, we have had rain for 29 days out of 30..

[Guest]

It's all up here in Yorkshire, we have had rain for 29 days out of 30..

 

Perhaps we should sell some to them suvenners....

[LEO]

There are a lot of boats up on the summit. Are they giving people time to get boats off the summit if they need to before they do that? How are they spreading this information?

Cath

 

Hi,

 

I was at the same meeting and the problem is like a major engineering fault, resulting in immediate closure. If your boat is the wrong side of the stop planks it will be like that for the duration of the stoppage - about 2 months.

 

Full details of the situation were well presented at the meeting.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Mike.

[Guest]

Hi,

 

I was at the same meeting and the problem is like a major engineering fault, resulting in immediate closure. If your boat is the wrong side of the stop planks it will be like that for the duration of the stoppage - about 2 months.

 

Full details of the situation were well presented at the meeting.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Mike.

 

I'm not fully understanding the urgency here - this surely hasn't come out of the blue leaving BW to take such drastic action - there must have been some leeway earlier on to allow boaters who needed to, to get themselves in the correct position.....

[LEO]

I'm not fully understanding the urgency here - this surely hasn't come out of the blue leaving BW to take such drastic action - there must have been some leeway earlier on to allow boaters who needed to, to get themselves in the correct position.....

 

Looking at the waterloss figures and experiences in similar situations, Geoff Wyatt has decided to act quickly. There is not the water available to service the summit.

 

At the moment a high percentage of this is coming from a borehole - the limit allowed for extraction by this method has almost been reached.

 

There is very little water in the reservoirs and there is no more water available.

 

BW alerted users to this situation at a meeting in October 2011.

 

As I said it's like a major engineering fault requiring immediate action.

 

Bw's case was well presented.

 

Water tables locally are at a very low level and many chalk streams have dried up (river Chess and river Misbourne to name but two). Extraction for domestic use runs at a high level and this plus low rainfalls have caused severe problems.

 

Leo.

[blackrose]

So all those boats in Cowroast marina will be stuck in there with no water, or will the planks go in north of the marina entrance?

[BlueStringPudding]

I feel sorry for the poor sods who have paid for a winter mooring on that stretch. It's poorly dredged and full of rocks. Those boats will spend the next couple of months at a very jaunty angle if they're not loosened off.

[Batavia]

Did BW give any hints about its ability /intentions to maintain flows off the summit level to keep the downhill pounds full-ish - i.e. to Berkhamsted/Marsworth and beyond?

 

Chris G

 

Edited to add - I imangine that the Northchurch borehole could be used to supply south of Lock 49, provided that its abstraction limit has not been reached.

Edited January 7, 2012 by Batavia

[GUMPY]

Did BW give any hints about its ability /intentions to maintain flows off the summit level to keep the downhill pounds full-ish - i.e. to Berkhamsted/Marsworth and beyond?

 

There are times when I thank the good people of Berko for being there.

One when its cold and the canal doesn't freeze

Two when there is a water shortage

 

For those that don't know we moor a down hill from the Berko sewage farm, so long as those people exist there will always be liquid in the canal here.

If it gets bad down here Chris can I ask you to drink some more beer?

[koukouvagia]

So all those boats in Cowroast marina will be stuck in there with no water, or will the planks go in north of the marina entrance?

The stop planks are north of the marina, so the level in the area between Cowroast lock and New Ground bridge will be maintained.

 

Did BW give any hints about its ability /intentions to maintain flows off the summit level to keep the downhill pounds full-ish - i.e. to Berkhamsted/Marsworth and beyond?

 

Chris G

 

Edited to add - I imangine that the Northchurch borehole could be used to supply south of Lock 49, provided that its abstraction limit has not been reached.

I think this is the case. Also they'll backpump.

 

I feel sorry for the poor sods who have paid for a winter mooring on that stretch. It's poorly dredged and full of rocks. Those boats will spend the next couple of months at a very jaunty angle if they're not loosened off.

 

Those boaters who have paid for moorings will be offered alternative spots either outside the Marswoth yard or within the Cowroast "containment" area.

[Batavia]

For those that don't know we moor a down hill from the Berko sewage farm, so long as those people exist there will always be liquid in the canal here.

If it gets bad down here Chris can I ask you to drink some more beer?

 

Only if you can offer a substantial subsidy for the vast quantities of beer that I would require.

 

Chris G

[matty40s]

Does anyone on that stretch actually pay a winter mooring fee?? And does it entitle them to a BOGOF with summer thrown in free.

Looks for tongue in cheek smiley....

I feel sorry for the poor sods who have paid for a winter mooring on that stretch. It's poorly dredged and full of rocks. Those boats will spend the next couple of months at a very jaunty angle if they're not loosened off.

[koukouvagia]

Does anyone on that stretch actually pay a winter mooring fee?? And does it entitle them to a BOGOF with summer thrown in free.

Looks for tongue in cheek smiley....

There are at least two, according to BW.

[BlueStringPudding]

I'm waiting for the influx of boats tomorrow all trying to squeeze in to the short stretch between Cow Roast lock and New Ground Road bridge. There ain't enough room. With the Bulbourne end of the pound closed off the area will be down a water point and a winding hole. Cow Roast is gonna get hideous for the next two months.

[jenlyn]

Buggers my plans, but how can they forecast the problem will be sorted in 2 months?

[Lesd]

Re 2 months; BW must be hoping for lots of rain I would guess, they must have lots of crossed fingers....there are so many leaking locks down stream of cowroast Im amazed they're saying that's not a factor.

Edited January 7, 2012 by Lesd

[alan_fincher]

I know Jim raised this in his meeting with Jeff Whyatt and other BW players, because he told me so.

 

However I find it incredible for something of this severity, (a total stoppage, at almost zero notice), that they have not managed to get anything yet on the Waterscape stoppage list to cover this.

 

More people may actively heading toward it, with zero idea what they are going to find.

[stuart23]

As I moor in the Marsworth pound ...and spend a lot of my time with the boat aground because the levels drop so much, just wondering how much this'll affect that pound ...and whether being permanently aground is going to be the norm....bring on a few months of rain!!

[Chalky]

I was looking at the BW hydrology pages earlier this evening. It looks like the whole southern part of the system is low on water. The BCN is low as is the Oxford. How long before there's no waterways route to the south? (speaking as a moorer on the south Oxford)

[jenlyn]

I know we need rain, but I do feel that maintenance on lock gates, dredging and the fact that there seems to be no water management now has played a factor in this.

[LEO]

I know we need rain, but I do feel that maintenance on lock gates, dredging and the fact that there seems to be no water management now has played a factor in this.

Hi,

 

The fact there is water management has shown that an immediate stoppage is needed. If the water is not entering the reservoirs and aquifers through natural means (rainfall) BW cannot use it.

 

As I said, this situation was outlined at a BW user meeting last October (I put a post on to this effect following a report by KK).

 

The odds are stacked against BW, if you look at early pictures of the Tring summit (or canals generally) the banks of the cutting were grass covered, now they are heavily wooded - trees need water, this and a lack of puddling when built has not helped the situation.

 

As reported earlier, BW's case was well presented, the 'stored' water availability generally on canals is poor and the knock on effects for major events later in 2012 are enourmous.

 

If a boater was heading towards a stoppage caused by a breach or tunnel collapse that stoppage would be immediate and without warning, a major hydrological problem such as this should be treated the same.

 

KK alerted the meeting to a wonderful picture of an early stoppage at Cowroast where many working boats were held up by a stoppage caused by a water shortage, Cowroast was crowded with boats then - it would seem that history has repeated itself.

 

Leo.