Extremely BAD News: Dutch Springs likely closing permanently ...

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:rofl3:

I actually like Willow a lot. The owners are great, I think that it is still a wedding venue / dive site. I haven't been there in a while. Winter diving is best, you have your own gate card -works day or night. Don't even think of disobeying the few rules in place. All good, though.

Maybe you can still buy a T-shirt that says "Night Diving all Day Long". :wink:
 
"Google Earth" (used as a verb) Dutch Springs. It is now surrounded by warehouses.

Taking all values from the internet (and using lowball estimates) we could guesstimate the value of Dutch as a hole in the ground that could handle all the garbage that those warehouses could possibly generate.

1 Acre = 43,560 sqft
40 acres = 1.7 million sqft
at an average depth of 30 feet, the hole in the ground comes out to be a bit over 50 million cuft
compacted municipal waste is given as 20-25 pounds per cuft.
so we have 1,000 million pounds as capacity, or 500,000 tons
average cost to landfill municipal solid waste (MSW) is $53.72 per ton.
$25M. That is going to be a hard number to overcome for divers.

The quarry is in the dead center of a huge trucking operation. Backhauling MSW from some areas of the country could be stupidly lucrative...

You want a good alternative? Buy out the fish farm that keeps Willow Springs green. Home Page

I would be surprised if Dutch could practically be used as a "trash" land fill site.
  1. Meeting the containment requirements
  2. Getting it approved in two different municipalities [NIMBY]

I would think that "clean" construction waste/fil l(rubble, concrete, millings, etc.) would be more likely. Also buildable after completion whereas "trash" has organics subject to decomposition and huge subsidance.
 
Yu
The article has no specifics. It would be nice to see PADI make an investment to benefit and support East coast divers, but I'm not holding my breath (well-trained by PADI!).
Yup - but it’s the first time I saw anything about anybody trying to preserve the diving there.

As it’s a major training site for the area, I’m sure it’s closure could impact new PADI dive certs as I’m not aware of any other place in the area that is convenient.

Time will tell.
 
Article has this quote: "The site is very popular and receives nearly half a million divers every year. "
That can't be correct, can it?
 
Article has this quote: "The site is very popular and receives nearly half a million divers every year. "
That can't be correct, can it?
Maybe they mean visits, and not individual divers. But it is a popular place that draws divers from a VERY wide radius.
 
That would be 1,370 divers a day, every day of the year. Not likely!

I can't imagine there being a average of 500 dives a day done there.
 

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