Here's a sewage/wildlife feel good story to lift your spirits before we get into the Spills. A swan mistakenly landed in an open sewage vat in East Sussex, England. The swan was trapped in the Uckfiled (I can't imagine a more appropriate name for a sewage treatment facility) Water Treatment Works because it didn't have enough "runway" room in the sewage vat to get the speed it needed to take off. Animal rescue services were called and after performing some delicate maneuvers with a net and "swan hooks" rescuers were able to remove the trapped waterfowl from the disgusting mess it had gotten into. The bird escaped unharmed but rescuers reportedly got "soaked" - gross.

Now the Spills of the Week:

I want to give some credit to an aspiring journalist in Cape Cod, Massachusetts who is working hard to raise awareness about the problems sewage dumping poses to the Cape.

I just had to share two recent events that illustrate the importance of passing sewage spill right-to-know legislation in addition to the ones mentioned in previous posts. On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of gallons of sewage spilled into Tampa Bay and yet local residents were unaware of what happened and of the potential health risks. One resident stated:

City officials in Marlborough, MA discovered 8,000 gallons of a laxative-like substance similar to Milk of Magnesia in the Assabet River. The source has been linked to a city sewage treatment plant.

Manhattan Beach, CAThis saga began with the massive sewage spill in Manhattan Beach in January of 2006, however, unreported sewage spills have plagued Los Angeles for quite a while. Certainly during my tenure as the Baykeeper, I have received numerous phone calls and e-mails regarding sewage spills that happened and yet never resulted in a beach closure despite high levels of bacteria in the water.

Here's something that takes the idea of "recycle and reuse" to whole a new level. Ecobrique, a revolutionary building material developed by the French company vBc 3000, is a brick that's 2 parts clay one part sewage.

Today is Friday the 13th but consider how lucky the river lovers in Albuquerque feel, thanks to the heroics of one San Juan County employee. James Netcher showed extreme dedication to his job and frank disregard for his own health and safety by jumping into and wading through a pool of raw sewage to make repairs to a faulty valve at the wastewater treatment where he works. This brave, albeit pretty disgusting, act saved the San Juan River.

Like it or not, residents in some states can expect to be notified when sewage flows in their local streams, while in other states people take their chances.

Consider a couple of states with the public's interest in mind - according to U.S. Public Interest Research Group:

We all make mistakes. Normally, we try to learn a lesson and move on. But what if you kept screwing up over and over again (say, 90% of the time)? Worse, what if your repeated mistakes put people at risk?

Imagine waking up one morning, walking to the bathroom, groggily lifting the toilet seat...and staring right into the beady red eyes of a white rat. Not a great start to the day, but it's a reality for residents of a neighborhood near the University of Arizona. Several people there have experienced the nightmare of rats coming out of the sewer system and into their house.