Few people in Florida think about where their sewage ends up and we assume that the government is protecting us and the environment, but this is not always the case. It is not uncommon for people to be swimming right next to a sewage outfall pipe and not even realize it.

Last week, the Florida Clean Water Network released a report on the current condition of thousands of domestic wastewater treatment facilities along the Gulf Coast of Florida reveals that decades of poor planning and lax enforcement of the Clean Water Act has created an infrastructure meltdown. Our research found that many of Florida's domestic wastewater facilities are either over-capacity at times or simply not performing at levels for which they are designed.

Dishonorable Tribute: A request made by the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is causing quite a stir in local and national political circles. The request, "naturally hatched in a bar," according to the New York Times, would put a vote on the November ballot, asking for the local bay area Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant to be renamed the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

US CapitolFor the last year you've been hearing from Sloggers about the widespread problem of sewage spills and overflows in the U.S. and particularly how the public is all too often left unaware of the problem for days, weeks even months. Act for Healthy Rivers, and it's campaign supporters, have worked hard to make sure the public knows when sewage spills occur. With your support and the pressure you've helped put on Congress we are one step closer to having federal law to protect the public from dangerous sewage spills. Yesterday afternoon, lawmakers in the House of Representatives passed Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and Rep. Frank LoBiondo's (R-NJ) landmark bill requiring sewage treatment plants to notify the public in the event of a sewage spill. When contaminated tomatoes were discovered in supermarkets, they were pulled from the shelf. We need the same warning when our waterways are polluted. Next stop the Senate.

First it was a norovirus, followed by a fire, then came the mice, now it's millions of gallons of sewage. The $4 billion dollar, 300 acre National Harbor development project in suburban Maryland is beleived to be the root cause of a persistent sewage spill into Broad Creek a trbuatary of the Potomac River.