I had a close friend here in Milwaukee who got really sick this summer from swimming in the lake while sailing after a dry weather overflow. She had no idea an overflow event had even occurred. This is pretty commonplace, and unfortunately, it's really difficult to correlate sewage overflows with illnesses contracted by recreational use, because so few people seek medical attention or make the connection that the water made them sick. There's a huge need to study that connection, but the records pretty much don't exist.

That's why the study we [Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers and the Emergency Department, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin] focused on the drinking water connection, which freaked everyone out. It is highly likely that many of the kids in our study could have gotten sick from recreational use as well. We weren't able to isolate their exposure, but the hospital is now using questionnaires so we can try to get at that question in the future.

Pediatrics, a peer reviewed medical journal, recently published an article on our study of increased visits to a pediatric emergency room for gastrointestinal illnesses after releases of partially treated, or "blended" sewage, here in Milwaukee.

Here's the abstract of the report as it appeared in the journal Pediatrics.

Volunteers Clean-up Bacon CreekI first got to know the good folks in the Bacon Creek Watershed Council (BCWC) when I went to work for Kentucky Waterways Alliance in 2002.

Bacon Creek had landed on Kentucky's Impaired Waters list thanks to the usual non-point source pollution suspects: sediment and sewage, both farm-related and residential.

A man who was accused of trying to bribe a New York City environmental inspector was sentenced to three years probation today. James Dimopoulos, 51, received the sentence in Westchester County Court in White Plains for attempting to bribe NYC environmental officials to over look that his restaurant, the Bedford Diner, has been leaching sewage in the town's water supply. It sounds like Jimmy might have been drinking that water if he thought he could pay his way out of poisoning his neighbors.

And now for the REST of the Spills of the Week...

Here is a disturbing and disgusting recount of a continuous two year spill in the state of Washington from Stuart Whitford, a Water Quality Program Manager from the Kitsap County (WA) Health District. Unfortunately this type of spill happens more often than we are aware or are lead to believe.

"A recent sewage spill in Kitsap County (WA) highlights the need for H.R. 2452. At 1:30 p.m. on June 27, 2007, the City of Port Orchard reported a sewage spill to the Health District. They reported that a small spill occurred when a gravity main plugged, forcing sewage out of a manhole onto the surface of the ground. The area was fairly overgrown with vegetation, so it appeared to City wastewater personnel that the spill was limited to the immediate area around the manhole. The plug was removed, and dolomite lime was spread on the ground in the area to soak up any remaining liquid, control odors and inactivate pathogens.

After finally getting some rest and allowing the dust to settle I'm very happy to say that River Action Day was a major success. About 90 river advocates from all over the country took to Capitol Hill to be the voice of their hometown rivers in the halls of Congress. As always, this event helped raise the political profile of several important pieces of river legislation that Congress is considering, including the Sewage Overflow Right to Know Act now pending in both the House and Senate. All told, River Action Day participants attended more than 200 congressional meetings and their presence was felt and seen on both sides of the Capitol.

What if one was your child? At least 10 children got sick after swimming in water downstream from a sewage spill in Austin, TX. The children had been released from school early that day and were enjoying an afternoon swim. Of the 15 children that went swimming, only a few didn't get sick. Parents reported vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea, which can be symptoms of contact with untreated sewage. The news media was informed of the spill the day after it happened, the same day the kids went for their swim.

Now the Spills of the Week:

Photo by: Brian EsquireThis is a story about swimming and sewage...two "s" words that should never be used in the same s-s-sentence...

I have explored Georgia rivers almost my entire life-first as a child "shooting the Hooch" on a raft in Atlanta and later as an adult in a 17-foot canoe. By and large, my interactions with our rivers have been from a boat.

Have you been enjoying your summer, splashing in your stream and swimming in your local lake? You may think you know whether it's safe to take a dip, but depending on where you live, there's a good chance you have no idea.

Given that there is no consistent national standard requiring sewage system operators to alert the public about spills, states play a critical role. But what states actually require public notification after a sewer overflow - in which states can you dive into your local lake or river confident that you won't be paddling through the waste your neighbor flushed down the drain the day before?

I take my dogs to a swimming beach on the South River where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay - and fortunately, Anne Arundel County has a great sewage spill notification program so I know when to keep the pooches out to avoid health problems. While some states work to keep their citizens (and their furry friends) safe by requiring public notification, much of the country is left in the dark about when it might not be such a good idea to take a dip.

Contact with untreated sewage is, to put it mildly, unpleasant. But there are real and significant health effects as well. To find out more, I asked Dr. Joan Rose, Microbiologist and the Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research at Michigan State University a few questions.