November Meeting
Monday, November 21st at 7 PM
The November meeting will be at the Manatawny Still Works, located on the Circle of Progress near the airport in Pottstown. We need a good showing for this program, so please come out and join us to learn how this local company distils spirits.
The cost is $15 per person, payable at the door, which includes the tour, one drink, a tasting of their spirits, and a rocks glass to take home. This is a private tour for the Society, so again, we need your support!
Library Hours
November 2016: the 13th & 27th 1-4pm December 2016: only the 13th from 1-4pm
Welcome New Members!
Thomas Rutter
Bill Troutman
Trinda Garner
Thank You!
A big thank you goes out to all the members who assisted in the painting of the garage, brick wall removal, and the glazing of the windows. Again, words cannot express the sincere feelings that these members have shown to our Society by their actions.
Dredging the Schuylkill
In today’s environmentally clean era, due to the federal government’s EPA agency, our rivers are much cleaner than in the past. But in our area, there was a much earlier attempt to clean up the Schuylkill and deepen it to prevent flooding.
After WWII, a three-year project instituted by the state Department of Forests and Waters required all coal mines to stop dumping their silt into the river and all industry along the river to cease all discharges into it. Industries and boroughs were also required to build sewage disposal plants.
The second phase of this project began in 1949 when several holding basins were built along the river for filtering the sludge from the water. Two of these basins are near Frick’s Locks and on Route 724 near Douglassville. Temporary dams were built to deepen the areas in which the dredges would pump the debris into these basins. These dams were removed upon completion of the project.
The city of Reading alone removed over 3,400,000 cubic yards of sludge from the river bottom during this project. Possibly, our river could use another dredging today and a few of these basins still exist. But at what cost?