(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:

After more than 90 years trout and salmon in the River Ely in Wales England were able to spawn due to the water quality improvements. Unfortunately, last week so much raw sewage was dumped into the river that all of the mature and spawning fish were all killed. Construction worker Greg Davies , 31, of Tonyrefail said: "The outlet has been pumping litres and litres of stinking raw sewage straight into the Ely since Friday killing every single thing in it. It's wiped out every living thing in the river from fish to insect life which is a tragedy when you consider the river has only just cleaned up enough to attract trout and salmon par back here after 90 years. I counted over 560 fish suffocated to death in the poisoned water. We couldn't save any of them. We couldn't rouse anyone to tackle it until Sunday and then only because the Ely runs through the grounds of the Royal Glamorgan Hospital. It has taken six years to restore the river since the closure of the paper mill and the removal of the weirs and now this - it's an environmental and public health disaster for the river." Another example of a sad and disppointing opportunity lost.

And Now the Spills of the Week:

In the Finnish town of Nokia, thousands of people have fallen ill due to accidental contamination of their water source. According to AFP World News, a sewage treatment plant worker mistakenly opened a valve allowing treated sewage to flow into the town's water supply. Thousands of citizens have complained of diarrhea and vomiting. The situation seems to be under control, but not after exposing the entire town to potentially serious illness. The water had been treated and was supposed to be released into a nearby river. This incident and the 1193 Milwaukee Crypto outbreak are perfect example of just how harmful untreated sewage. Hopefully, public health scares like these lead to better understanding on why raw and partially treated sewage in our water sources is probably not a good idea!

And now the spills of the week!!