Jan 22 2010

Don’t Swim in the Poo, Continued

This just in, from Baykeeper:

Heavy Rains Trigger Sewer System Breakdowns

Heavy storms this week have caused numerous sewage spills and treatment facility overflows that are polluting waterways and closing beaches – and reports are still coming in from across the region.

So far, 235,361 gallons have discharged from 23 sewage system overflows, along with 90 million gallons of partially treated sewage released in the East Bay. See the map of sewage spills and overflows from across the region.

The Bay Area continues to struggle with the impacts of a failing sewage infrastructure as, every winter, rainwater infiltrates dilapidated sewer systems, spiking the volume of flow in sewer pipes and overwhelming treatment plant capacity.

  • sewage_spill_mapCrumbling satellite systems in Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland and Piedmont led to the release of 90 million gallons of under-treated sewage from East Bay Municipal Utility District facilities.
  • Six spills, totaling 160,200 gallons, occurred in the City of San Mateo.
  • According to the Marin Independent Journal, Monday’s Sausalito spill to Richardson Bay totaled about 40,000 gallons of diluted raw sewage.
  • In San Bruno, about 17,000 gallons of sewage was spilled, while Millbrae and Burlingame both experienced small spills yesterday.
  • Ocean Beach, Fort Funston Beach, Crissy Field and Candlestick Point remain closed due to high bacteria counts from sewer discharges.

So if you’re doing your math, that means that over nine million gallons of poo and poo-related fluids have dumped into the Bay in the last week. I don’t have the numbers handy for how much water it takes to flush the Bay, and I don’t know what else is in the runoff from all this rain (y’know, oil from streets, animal poop, whatever people have dumped on the streets, leach water from landfills, blah blah blah ick). But I can tell you that I’ll be waiting for a few high tides before I go back out paddling.

Related posts:

  1. Trying to Not Swim in the Poo
  2. Don’t Swim In The Poo
  3. Too little, too late; Marin fined $1.6 million
  4. More on Sewage Stoppage
  5. More Sewage in the Bay

Tags: , , , , ,

2 responses so far

2 Responses to “Don’t Swim in the Poo, Continued”

  1. # Zenon 23 Jan 2010 at 3:22 pm

    Sigh, now isn’t that special. The joys of urban life.

  2. # Alexon 26 Jan 2010 at 9:38 am

    So gross. That just should not happen. It’s like the 50’s all over again.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS

Leave a Reply