Listening to the calming murmurs of Albany’s Talking Water Gardens on a sunny afternoon, you would not think there could be a problem. But there is, or at least the DEQ thinks it’s a problem.
At Albany’s Talking Water Gardens the other day, I noticed something new: Three spiffy bike racks near the entrance. Is that supposed to be a hint to bike riders to leave their wheels behind and proceed on foot?
Sometimes video surveillance of public property pays off. Consider, for example, the entrance to Albany’s Water Gardens, which not too long ago somebody mistook for a good place to discard a couch.
You can’t say Albany city officials are not cautious. Overly, extra, super cautious sometimes. As when they kept Simpson Park and the Talking Water Gardens off limits a full day after a fire nearly a mile away was put out.
Albany is asserting damage claims totaling some $84 million in the lawsuit it has filed over problems at the city’s wastewater treatment plant and the nearby constructed wetlands, the Talking Water Gardens.
At stake with DEQ: Saving Talking Waters
On June 13, the state Department of Environmental Quality gave the city of Albany 90 days to come up with a plan to stop leaks from Talking Water Gardens. The deadline has passed, but evidently it wasn’t meant to be met.
Tags: DEQ, leaking ponds, Talking Water Gardens, Willamette River