A pipe spews water at Albany’s Talking Water Gardens on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026.
A reader’s email sent me back to Albany’s Talking Water Gardens on Friday. Let me explain:
And here’s another shot from the Gardens on Friday:
Some of the upper ponds had water in them, but not this one.
As you may recall from the Wednesday story, the city started pumping water into the Gardens from Cox Creek that day.
City Manager Peter Troedsson told the city council about it in his weekly message:
“The water is flowing at Talking Water Gardens… The power connection was completed on Wednesday morning, and the pump is moving water to the gardens. The Public Works team did a great job coordinating all the elements needed to get the pump powered and operating, along with the needed connections to bring back regular water flowing at the gardens.”
You can go there and see for yourself. The walking paths through the installation remain open to the public even though the main function of the constructed wetlands — cooling treated effluent from the Albany-Millersburg sewage treatment plant — remains shut down.
If the Cox Creek bridge on Waverly Drive is temporarily closed by construction, you can get to Talking Waters on the Cox Creek path from Salem Avenue. You just have to walk or take a bike. (hh)
Great, Hasso. Thanks for the pictures and the info.
How ironic – just as the gardens are pleasing to look at again (mostly) the roadway into the site is closed, unless of course, you are willing to hike/bike overland into the Talking Waters. It seems likely that the City turned on the pumps in order to avoid the scathing pen of one Hasso Hering. I’m not reading any other original sources on the topic.
Hasso thank you for your continuing attention to this wonderful asset for Albany!!!!
IF the point of the “water garden” is to cool water before it reaches the river, how does the temperature of Cox Creek compare to this water when they both reach the river?
It seems to me, dumping this water on warm ground would be warming the water during this time of the year.
Avoid the scathing pen…..COOL …said Hasso Hering
“Avoid the scathing pen.” “Cool, said Hasso…” You guys crack me up!! Thanks for the laughs!!