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:

I only thought this sort of thing happened in New York City in 1984. A Sussex sewage treatment plant is experiencing both the best and the worst of 1984 cinema as sewer authorities have called in parapsychologists to investigate a "zombie-like humanoid figure" that follows plant workers around the dank tunnels of the Southern Waters' Eastbourne treatment works. I imagine the tunnels of a sewage treatment plant are scary enough without creepy figures lurking in the shadows and the sound of anonymous laughter and muffled conversations coming through the walls. [shudder] gives me goose bumps just thinking about it.

And now the Spills of the Week (sorry for the delay):

San Francisco has had a rough week, with nearly six million gallons of sewage seeping in the bay. But it's been a big week all over the country. San Diego has kept it real by dumping more than 100,000 gallons onto its beaches. Florida seems to want to keep up with similar numbers into the heavily used St. Johns River. And in the DC suburbs, a screw up in Prince George's County dumped nearly five and a half million gallons of raw sewage into a major Potomac River (and Chesapeake Bay) tributary (see below). With all of the rain in the Midwest, I'm not even going to speculate what a troubled week it has been. It's weeks like this that reinforce our "Right to Know" what's in our streams, rivers and lakes. Contact your local and federal legislators and tell them you want them to Act for a Healthy Rivers by passing the Sewage Overflow Community Right ot Know Act.

And now the Spills of the Week: