Hugh McDiarmid Jr. lives in suburban Detroit, Michigan where he works in communications for a nonprofit foundation. He was a journalist with Michigan newspapers for 22 years including a decade at the Detroit Free Press before moving into nonprofit, government and foundation work -- primarily on behalf of natural resource protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation and social justice. Views solely his own.
Showing posts with label combined sewer overflows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label combined sewer overflows. Show all posts
This spring’s heavy rains resulted in some of the most voluminous dumping of raw and partially treated sewage into Southeast Michigan’s rivers in the past 25 years according to today’s Detroit Free Press: http://bit.ly/cRQVcm
Two local beaches had bacteria counts 1,000 times higher than levels considered safe. More than 10 Metro Detroit beaches were closed last week due to the pollution.
I know this is a bit repetitive with one of last week’s posts http://bit.ly/bLX2eu. But does talking about raw feces in our rivers ever get old? No, I didn’t think so!
We consider ourselves a pretty civilized society, here in the early 21st Century in the most powerful nation in the world. How bizarre that we’re still discharging huge quantities of what the Freep’s Steve Neavling calls “…a toxic cocktail of rainwater, fertilizers, human and industrial waste, chemicals, parasites and other pollutants…” directly into our neighborhood creeks and rivers.
The Freep story is the first I’ve heard of State Rep. Sarah Roberts’ bill to “require health officials to notify the public immediately of overflows and contamination on a popular web site or other medium that is easily accessible.” It sounds reasonable to me, as long as we remind ourselves that notifying people isn’t a substitute for fixing the problem.
A popular Lake Michigan beach in South Haven closed earlier this week after too much human sewage was routed into the lake by substandard sewer systems. Simply put, too much shit in the water: http://bit.ly/b63PlI
This problem is not unique. Lots of Michigan beaches are shut down each summer because of dangerously high counts of E. coli, the bacteria that is an indicator of fecal matter in the water. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) tracks contamination data from public beaches. In 2008 it reported that 5 percent of beach water samples in Michigan exceeded minimum bacterial standards: http://bit.ly/9dK2c0. That translates to hundreds of beach/days of closure each summer.
According to the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, there are six beach closures today alone: http://bit.ly/bM8g3L
The beaches exceeding standards by the greatest amount in 2008 according to the NRDC include: Crescent Sail Yacht Club in Wayne County (45%), Singing Bridge Beach in Arenac County (30%), St. Clair Shores Memorial Park Beach in MacombCounty (26%), PierPark in WayneCounty (20%), Silver Creek Channel (20%), Lighthouse Beach At Silver Lake State Park in OceanaCounty (19%), and CasevilleCountyPark (17%). You can track recent beach closures in Michigan here: http://www.deq.state.mi.us/beach/
And we’re only talking swimming beaches – not places like the RougeRiver downstream from my house, where rafts of condoms and piles of feces quite literally float by in the wake of heavy rainstorms.
Human waste is by no means the only culprit. Animal and bird feces contribute to E. coli, and it may even be reproducing in beach sand … meaning that shifts in wave action could drag the stuff out into the water: http://bit.ly/c55cz2
But human feces is, undoubtedly a huge problem. It's a little unsettling to think you could be swimming in the very same unmentionables you thought you'd flushed away yesterday. Or, worse yet, your neighbor's unmentionables. All told, it's a black eye for the Pure Michigan image of the Great LakesState, and for those in the 772 cities that the EPA says still have combined sewer systems: http://bit.ly/btAJh0
Such “combined” sewer pipes carry both stormwater runoff and “sanitary” sewage from your toilet. (Shouldn't they call it, "unsanitary" sewage?) When it rains hard, the sudden influx of stormwater and overwhelms the treatment plant. Emergency discharge valves open up, allowing the nasty mix to spill directly into the RougeRiver, or the KalamazooRiver, or the Grand River or whatever.
Today, all new sewer systems are separated. Stormwater goes into one pipe. Toilet water goes into another one. But there are enough old combined lines around to create a problem for decades into the future. Separating them is incredibly expensive, and not always the most effective use of scarce dollars available to spend on water quality improvement.
It’s a sterling example of how shortsighted policies of the past were penny wise and pound foolish. Building a single sewer pipe and dumping everything into the river saved a lot of money for the taxpayers of 1900, or 1920, or 1940. But their great grandchildren are now paying the price – both in terms of expensive solutions and in diminished quality of life.
