(Not so) Clean Water: Athletes on Olympic rowing teams have no doubt worked in just about every kind of water imaginable. But the bright green algae that covered nearly the entire Olympic venue in Bejing this week, had some rowers fearing for their health. Despite reassurances that the water is safe, it took boats, bulldozers and even the military to clear the water of the choking algae. Even scarier, nearly every team has a story about someone getting sick or infected after accidentally touching the water. An Australian rower accidentally swallowed some water last year, after slipping on a boat ramp, and only recently recovered from a ten month bout of gastrointestinal trauma that put her in the hospital on numerous occasions. Yikes. Doesn't seem so clean to me.
- July 7, 2008. AFP - Qingdao, China

And Now the Spills of the Week:

Royal Mess: Remember Queen Creek Wash in Pinal County, Arizona? We talked about it several weeks ago on the slog, about a 10,000 gallon sewage spill that occurred there in May. Well, it's July folks and things in Pinal County are looking....the same. Literally nothing has been done to change or clean up the waters of Queen Creek. After officially being declared unsafe for human contact, action has come to a screeching halt, as the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and Johnson Utilities bicker and fight over pollution readings and proper blame. But the fact remains that the water is still unsafe. "We have offered up solutions to ADEQ, but thus far they haven't blessed any of the proposals that we have put on the table," a rather sarcastic Johnson attorney stated. But what he didn't mention was that one of these solutions was to chlorinate the polluted pool of water in the Creek. I guess the fact that so much chlorine could lead to ground water contamination and pollution downstream, not to mention the fatal effect it would have on fish, ducks and all other aquatic life in the area, wasn't a huge concern to him. And with the rainy season approaching in the Southwest, people are beginning to worry about what might happen if heavy rains caused the pool to overflow and carry the contaminants further downstream. Meanwhile, nothing is done to fix the problem. Great.
- July 4, 2008. The East Valley Tribune - Phoenix, AZ

Double Time: Residents of the Grosse Pointe Condominiums in Grand Rapids, Michigan spent their holiday weekend cleaning up the raw sewage that seeped into their basements last Wednesday after a heavy rainstorm. However, while that was difficult on its own, the real itch was that this happened two years ago. Yet somehow, the city hasn't managed to do any work towards fixing the problem in that time. "We had a lot of rain last night. We had five inches of rain, and there was more water in the sewer than the pumps and the lift station could pump," Mike Lunn, Grand Rapids Assistant Director of Environmental Services, told local news sources. This is supposed to be the excuse: too much rain. Updating infrastructure takes time, and instant results are impossible, but blaming the rain and not doing anything to improve the system is not ok. It's only going to get worse as heavy rain and flooding become more normal. Something else needs to be done.
- July 3, 2008. News Channel 8 - Grand Rapids, MI

At Long Last: Someone seems to be doing something right, if only a small step. The Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist signed a piece of legislation, Monday, requiring a mandatory elimination of the six remaining pipes that pump sewage directly into the Atlantic, and essentially straight onto the coral reefs off the coast of South Florida. While sewage companies are upset, claiming that "no wrong doing was taking place," residents and activists are pleased. "The practice of discharging sewage into the ocean is archaic. Particularly when it discharges onto a coral reef," says Ed Tichenor of the Palm Beach County Reef Rescue. The elimination will take place over the next ten years, with a complete elimination by 2025. Not immediate action by any means, but it's a step.
- July 6, 2008. Channel 12 News - West Palm Beach, FL

Usual Suspect: Heavy Rains in Portland last Wednesday caused an ever ubiquitous combined sewer overflow to occur, putting a raw sewage-rainwater mix into the Willamette River. No-Contact warnings were issued, but have since been raised. Unlike many places, however, this problem is actually in the process of being fixed. The East Side Big Pipe project, set to be completed in 2011, will be able capture all the current combined sewage and more, and send it on for treatment, rather than sending it to the river. The downside, of course, is that until 2011, when it rains the choice will be into the river or into the streets. And no one wants to be walking through sewage, do they?
- July 4, 2008. Northwest News Channel 8 - Portland OR

Grizzly Situation: Big Bear Lake, in Boulder Bay Park, California, is finally open to swimmers. The closure occurred due to a combination of two spills that happened late last week. According to David Lawrence, director of engineering and public works for the City of Big Bear Lake, the main sewer line was mysteriously blocked with oil...a lot of it. The city is investigating where the oil may have come from. Sewage also flowed up into a local lodge and out into the storm drains which flow into the lake. The reasons for this spill are similarly mysterious. But regardless, the combination caused the water of the lake to be closed to swimmers and all contact over the holiday weekend. Signs were posted to warn citizens of the danger.
- July 9, 2008. Big Bear Grizzly - Big Bear Lake, CA