I can't wait to see what our NYC readers think of the new Newton Creek Nature Walk. I guess this must be Brooklyn's Newton Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, the city's biggest sewage processing facility, way of giving something other than monstrous sewage floods or disgusting combined sewer overflows back to the community. This plan was met with healthy skepticism from the Newsday newspaper, Largely due to two aspects of the project: 1) It cost $3 million! Couldn't that money have been better spent by the sewer operator to improve the treatment facility's ability to prevent sewage spills and overflows? 2) The nature walk's new "fishing piers" and kayak and canoe launches. The section of Newton Creek, an industrialized waterway between Brooklyn and Queens, where this nature walk has been installed has a history of pollution and impairment for fishing and primary contact of which the treatment works is a contributes to. I'm sure this bit of greenwashing has the brass at the treatment works feeling nice and clean because Newton Creek isn't.

Now for the Spills of the Week:

Spillian, Alabama: The mysterious "unknown amount of sewage" spill struck Lillian, AL and flowed into Peterson Branch in Baldwin County. Health officials are urging residents to exercise caution around the river when engaging in recreational activities on the water and to wash and cook thoroughly any fish caught in the Peterson Branch.
- September 22, 2007: The Press-Register - Huntsville, AL

Temescal Leak: Grease clogging a sewerage line caused a 500 gallon sewage back-up that spilled into Temescal Creek, a tributary of the Santa Ana River in Corona, CA. When cooking grease is poured down the kitchen drain, sewage spills into rivers.
- September 25, 2007: The Press Enterprise - Corona, CA

Mt. Spewliet Creek: Here's a quote that might make folks at the Tennessee Clean Water Network and the Tennessee Izaak Walton League heads spin. From Tammy Heise with Tennessee Department of Environmental Quality: "We take all reports of sewage overflows seriously." Well it's great that TDEC appears to have sprung to the scene at Mt. Juliet to fix a ruptured line that was spilling sewage into Stoner Creek, however the residents of Knoxville would probably say TDEC's typical response to solving sewage overflows is less than satisfactory.
- September 25, 2007: WKRN 2 News - Nashville, TN

Palo Uh-oh: I guess a sewage spill is to be expected if the end of the discharge pipe is plugged. Public works contractors sealed off the end of a pipe sending 24,000 gallons of partially treated sewage out of a manhole located near marshlands adjacent to San Francisco Bay in Palo Alto, CA. Needless to say, the plugging of discharge pipes is illegal and the city is considering citing the workers who did it.
- September 25, 2007: San Jose Mercury News - San Jose, CA

Welcome to Infamy, Montana: I think this sewage spill marks Montana's first appearance in Spills of the Week. The basement of Elrod Elementary in Kalispel, MT was full of sewage following "a major malfunction of the sewer system." Maintenance workers fixed the problem quickly and the school's principal assured the public that the kids are alright and were never at risk.
- September 26, 2007: KAU TV NEWS - Kalispell, MT

Dookie, Wes Virginia: "The Bennetts of Davy say that raw sewage is seeping out of a broken septic line in their front yard. Not only is the stench unbearable, but a health concern to Carmella Bennett and her children. Carmella says she's told the Mayor of Davy and the McDowell County Health Department about the leak, but has been ignored. The leak is so bad that she doesn't let her kids out in her own front yard." Thanks Channel 6 News I couldn't have said it any better.
- September 27, 2007: WVVA 6 - Bluefield, WV

Mystery Enterococcus: The Lee Health Department issued a swimming advisory for Bowman's Beach in Sanibel, FL due to poor water quality resulting elevated enterococcus bacteria levels. The article dances around the cause of the elevation saying it could be anything from pets or even just stormwater run-off. You gotta be kidding. Pets? That's a lot of terriers, parakeets and tabbies going in the water. Sounds like the local sewage treatment works might be doing a less than satisfactory job monitoring their output.
- September 27, 2007: Naples Daily New - Naples, FL