Historically, we have begun the lake drawdown on November 1st. As part of a pre-release inspection, we discovered the culvert under West Greenville Road is 90% blocked with debris. If we were to release water, it is likely it would overflow West Greenville Road within hours if not minutes.
While CPWL is not responsible for fixing this problem, we are impacted by it, and it will affect the drawdown timetable slightly.
Bob Eaton and Phil Viall met with a response team of Smithfield officials Thursday afternoon, including Emergency Management, Fire, Police, Public Works, Town Engineer, and Town Manager. As West Greenville Road is a state road, they will coordinate with the RI Department of Transportation in the cleaning of this culvert.
There was concern on the part of officials that if any downstream culverts are blocked, road wash out might be a problem downstream when the West Greenville Road culvert is cleared, and a sudden rush of water is released.
This problem will hopefully be resolved next week, and we will begin releasing water as we have historically. We will notify the membership before we begin the drawdown.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email cpwl@cpwl.org