Below are links to ongoing news stories from last week's revelation about the unreported five million gallons of sewage that spilled into San Francisco Bay. It's great to see all the attention this terrible crime is receiving, but it raises an interesting question.

In late January 2008 , heavy rains and operator error caused a huge sewage overflow of sewage at a treatment plant in Marin County. More than 2.5 gallons of only partially sewage spilled out of the plant and into Corte Madera Creek which flows into Richardson Bay. Unfortunately, this is the second spill to occur in one week. Only five days earlier, the same sewage treatment plant discharged another 2.5 million gallons of sewage after having been overwhelmed by heavy rains.

The impact of these spills is unquestionable. Richardson Bay supports steelhead salmon population and Richardson Bay is home to one of the largest eelgrass beds in the Bay as well as populations of native oysters, herring, endangered clapper rails, and endangered salt marsh harvest mice.

© XPRESS/Abdel-Krim KalloucheThere's dirty secret that permeates the oil and wealth of Dubai. According to the Xpress News, A Dubai newspaper, sewage tankers are circumventing regulations and long lines at sewage treatment plants by simply dumping loads of raw sewage into the streets and storm drains of the city. So far 50 tankers have been caught red handed and fined. Officials fear that this may only be the tip of the sand dune. Tanker driver's can make up to 2,000 dirhams ($544) per load. Illegally dumping can yield ten times that amount because drivers can get more loads per shift. They can dump full loads of raw sewage into the street in less than six minutes, as opposed to waiting in long lines at the treatment plant which can take hours.

Dubai is a rapidly growing city with enormous capital resources. It is a shame that it doesn't have the foresight to better develop its wastewater infrastructure more quickly. Hopefully regulators will get a hold of this and end a gross and dangerous practice. As for the tanker drivers, as my mother would say, ‘shame on you.'

Now the Spills of the Week: