Surfrider Foundation - Portland Chapter raised awareness of local and national water quality issues with a paddle out for clean water across the Willamette River in downtown Portland on September 8th, 2007.

Photo Courtesy of Surfrider Sebastian InletIt is encouraging to see that surfing is becoming more respected these days. Surfers are now featured in car, credit card, and clothing ads. We're not considered bums anymore, but doctors, lawyers, teachers, and engineers. But in order to surf we need clean water to surf in, and that is becoming increasingly difficult to find.

It would seem to me that dumping 44 million gallons of sewage a year would be illegal but apparently it's not. Gambling day-cruises in operation off the Florida coast get away with polluting coastal waters enjoyed by millions of beachgoers simply by dumping their sewage when they are technically in international waters.

Despite what you are about to read, rest assured that The Slog is not being taken over by the state of Hawaii. It's just being temporarily overrun...by sewage.Ala Wai Canal March 2006: Photo by Jason Higgins

A couple of weeks ago when we "commemorated" Hawaii's worst sewage spill in history, it was not meant to be a challenge to the Honolulu Sewer Authority to beat last year's record. Well, they went ahead and tried anyway, coming up a tad short by spilling a mere 11,250 gallons of raw sewage into Kaneohe Bay.

Two weeks ago I wrote about the one year anniversary of Hawaii's largest sewage spill. The spill that occurred over the course of six days in March 2006 dumped 48 million gallons of raw sewage into the Ala Wai canal in Honolulu. The city has accepted responsibility for the cause of last year's spill but is fighting a lawsuit brought by a Waikiki surfer who suffered serious infections from surfing in the sewage laden waters off of Hilton Lagoon Beach.

Beach OutfallI bet some of you are headed off for a spring vacation pretty soon, as I am. Think of all the great places you can go...

Headed to the beach for some sand and sun?