Quabbin feeds into chu - chu feeds into Sudbury - and distributed further from there. And yes, if something were to happen in quabbin it would theoretically affect the whole water system - though they can close down the pipeline in several spots
What kind of problem do they anticipate? I was fishing area three once on Quabbin and there was a rotting deer corpse in the water. Probably slipped on the ice and broke it's pelvis. No one seemed concerned about it.
It may have to do with its size and being located near larger cities.I recall a few years back when they found a 40yr old car in the Chu lolhttp://www.masslive.com/news/worcester/index.ssf/2013/10/car_from_1970s_found_at_bottom.html
Also this - 15 mins from downtown Worcester - Wachusett would be a madhouse compared to the quabbin, and obviously much smaller.The powers that be will also talk about safety concerns. basically they are worrying about someone pouring smallpox or anthrax into the water supply. Or trying to blow up the dam.Just playing devils advocate... like I said, sign me up to take my yak out on the chu asap.
Oh I get it. I've dealt with the powers to be out here and been given some responses that are so stupid they insult your intelligence. One situation is our Fish & Wildlife planted lake trout in a small deep lake system and they wiped out the smelt and native cisco. A group I belonged to wanted to reestablish the smelt for a coldwater forage base for the brown and rainbow trout that are planted annually. The reason given for not planting the smelt was they are an exotic (and brown and rainbow trout are not?) and they would prey on the spawn of the native fish. However they indicate in their own surveys the lake system will never support a viable warm water native fish population. This is due to very little littoral habitat and the sterile marl bottom of the lake system. Average depth in two of the lakes is 40 feet with a maximum of 93 feet. Too much coldwater habitat for warm water fish. Anyway, I pointed out to them when largemouth bass and bluegill are spawning the water temperature is too warm for the smelt to be in the vicinity. Just makes no sense that smelt would be in the shallow water with water temps in the upper 60's to upper 70's. We also badly want a bag limit on bluegill out here as the exploitation rates by anglers is incredible. Ever time we have a rules change proposal it comes up and there is a lot of support for it. But nohting happens. Not even so much as an explanation.
But what does this have to do with the chu?