Inmates in the Jackson County Jail in Medford, Oregon have a creative, and pretty disgusting way of sending messages throughout the prison. Prisoners intentionally clog toilets causing sewage to flood the jail, which clears the pipes to toilets and sinks in the cells, allowing them to shout messages through the pipes into other cells. So the next time you feel inundated by email, remember that it could be much worse.

And now for the Spills of the Week:

Poo Jersey: Almost a full week after a powerful Nor’easter swept through the Mid-Atlantic and New England region, the town of Haledon, NJ area homes continue to experience sewage backups.
- April 24, 2007 North Jersey Herald News

Solon or Colon?: A power outage at the Solon Waste Water Treatment facility outside of Des Moines caused 9,000 gallons of sewage to be spilled into Turkey Creek.
- April 24, 2007 Des Moines Register

Homestench Apartments: Sewage flooded several apartment units in the Homestead Apartment complex in Grand Bay, AL, when pipes in the units backed up into the residents. When tenants called the property’s landlord to complain about the extensive property damage caused by the overflowing toilets the landlord merely laughed at her tenant’s awful predicament.
-April 25, 2007 WKRG –TV Mobile, AL

Spilling Station: Faulty sewage lines at a gas station spilled several gallons of raw sewage into the yards of several homes in Bedford Township, Michigan.
-April 25, 2007 Battle Creek Enquirer

Brown and Crummy Motel: Officials closed the Town and Country Motel in Fayetteville, NC after neighboring residents reported that the motel’s faulty plumbing was discharging raw sewage onto their properties. The motel had already been cited for illegally dumping sewage in 2006 and never paid the fine.
-April 26, 2007 Fayetteville Observer