I know that global warming is big and bad and will reshape our world - but for me, it really becomes tangible when I can understand how it will affect specific places. As Gary wrote last week, the Great Lakes are one of those places where we work and that inspire a great sense of place. Now, there's some additional specific information about how global warming will affect the Lakes - and it doesn't look good.

Big news this week from the Associated Press on pharmaceuticals in our drinking water. In an interview on NPR's Talk of the Nation, American Rivers' Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee member Dr. Joan Rose, summed it by explaining that the close connection between human waste, animal waste and our drinking water supply essentially "short circuits the natural environment and leads one to be concerned."

The Associated Press released the first major report on pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies in the U.S. this week, and the results aren't encouraging. Investigators found an array of pharmaceuticals from pain killers to antibiotics to mood stabilizers in the drinking water of 24 major metropolitan water suppliers. Even worse, thirty-four of the sixty-two water suppliers contacted by the AP couldn't provide results as they had never tested for pharmaceutical compounds.

Let's face it, the task of public relations for a sewer operator can't be the easiest job in the world. The job they do to keep "stuff" out of our waters is largely unappreciated and they end up putting said "stuff" in the water, either by design or by accident we are appalled and grossed out. I get the feeling that Kevin Cowan, Sewer Manager for the North Davis Sewer District in Utah, understands the juxtaposition his job puts him in.

When Cowan gives visitors tours of the facility he hands them a bottle of water that looks perfectly clear... Then you read the ingredients. "Water, fecal matter, toilet paper, hair, lint, rancid grease, stomach acid and trace amounts of Pepto Bismol, chocolate, urine, body oils, dead skin, industrial chemicals."

The specially labeled bottle of waters are being to reach out to the public to raise awareness about water quality, the important role sanitation systems play in our society and to remind us that everything we dump down the drain may end up in our precious natural water resources.

Now for the Spills of the Week:

The Riverdale Press published a good editorial following up on CSO boondoggle issue discussed on the Slog back in August. Here's a snippet of the editorial:

Back in April a sewage spill in Carlsbad, CA set a new record for the largest sewage spill in state history at 7.3 million gallons of sewage into Buena Vista Lagoon. That was the crime, here's the punishment. The San Diego Regional Water Control Board is fining the cities of Carlsbad and Vista $1.1 million for the spill.

I can't wait to see what our NYC readers think of the new Newton Creek Nature Walk. I guess this must be Brooklyn's Newton Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, the city's biggest sewage processing facility, way of giving something other than monstrous sewage floods or disgusting combined sewer overflows back to the community. This plan was met with healthy skepticism from the Newsday newspaper, Largely due to two aspects of the project: 1) It cost $3 million! Couldn't that money have been better spent by the sewer operator to improve the treatment facility's ability to prevent sewage spills and overflows? 2) The nature walk's new "fishing piers" and kayak and canoe launches. The section of Newton Creek, an industrialized waterway between Brooklyn and Queens, where this nature walk has been installed has a history of pollution and impairment for fishing and primary contact of which the treatment works is a contributes to. I'm sure this bit of greenwashing has the brass at the treatment works feeling nice and clean because Newton Creek isn't.

Now for the Spills of the Week:

"San Diegans are already drinking treated wastewater that's imported from the Colorado River," San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre said in a news release. The City Attorney and the Mayor, Jerry Sander, seem have a very public disagreement about recycling sewage water in the City. The Mayor would like to look elsewhere before pursuing the "toilet-to-tap" solution to the area's water problems. But rest assured, the City Attorney assures residents in a press release that "toilet-to-tap" is against state law. I have lived in an area that uses recycled, though non-potable, water. The uses were pretty limited to watering plants and lawns. Just another example of politics getting in the way of taking a reasoned look at a serious issue such as water shortage.

Now the Spills of the Week (that were reported at least):

Here's a shocking and infuriating example of how the New York City government speaks out of both sides of its mouth. Our local papers are carrying it as filter plant is soaking taxpayers.

Just two months after NYC sent in their CSO Abatement (LTCP or Watershed Facility Plans), which questioned the validity of low impact infrastructure (green roofs, tree beds, etc), they come up with this uninformed statement.

The news-media spent a good deal of time the other day talking about the New York City subway floods. As the New York Times pointed out:

I guess if sewage had been spilling into my yard for over a year, I would be tired of it too. Welcome to Harlingen, TX.

"When they open the door, the smell just comes all into the room," said Fabian Garza, a daycare worker. "It just empowers the room with that smell. It's gross you know."