Holy Crap! Sewage Spill Anyone?

[Sasquatch]

I'm curious if anyone other than me is concerned about this major sewage spill in Puget Sound? I know the EPA is investigating and that it is considered a major ecological event. With our government "leaders" hesitant to really pinpoint the severity of certain events I'm wondering if anyone else has heard anything more quantitative regarding this.

For most citizens this isn't a huge blip on their radar 'specially in the aftermath of the storm and its more easily felt/seen damage. But for me, I'll be slipping into this recently defiled water and splashing around in it. What's the bottom line for divers and other sea life? Dive but REALLY rinse afterwards? I see many of you diving and there doesn't seem to be anything on the boards so no worries?

When does the Sound flush itself out? A news report I heard last night said that the raw sewage had moved away from the shorelines but was still a factor that has the EPA investigating. A tragic accident anyway and hopefully one we can recover from without too much damage.

 

[stillhope]

How about some links to info about "this major sewage spill in Puget Sound" for those of us who haven't seen it in the media?

 

[justleesa]

Looking forward to the report myself...we had a big spill this spring (millions of gallons) and only now have they found it necessary to replace the sand on Waikiki beach....as always they were busy blaming others for it happening and not doing too much about it....tsk, tsk, tsk.....

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

This was posted a few days ago ...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003480669_stormsewage16m.html

There were also spills in the South Sound from both Pierce County and City of Tacoma overflows.

I wouldn't be too worried about it ... we've had 13-15 foot tidal exchanges this week. That's a pretty big "flush" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[cerich]

Don't worry too much, where I'm from (Halifax, NS, Canada) the city dumped untreated sewage into the harbour for the last couple hundred years, there is still plenty of life and the water quality while not great isn't anywhere close to toxic except by the shipyards from the heavy metals and PCB's, the sewage mother nature can take care of even big spills in a short time.

 

[justleesa]

Tell that to the guy that died after falling into the harbor that the waste ran into....

 

[Sasquatch]

This was posted a few days ago ...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003480669_stormsewage16m.html

There were also spills in the South Sound from both Pierce County and City of Tacoma overflows.

I wouldn't be too worried about it ... we've had 13-15 foot tidal exchanges this week. That's a pretty big "flush" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

The article had a little more information than I had previously known. Good golly. I thought the 60 million gallons of untreated poo water was a total figure from all the spills. Hmmmm...wow.

I think I'll wait for the Sound to flush a few more times. No wonder the viz has been so crappy.

 

[Donnie1442000]

Justleesa I’m not saying that the sewer dump here is no big deal by any mean. The problem with Ala Moana Harbor (at least I think that is what it was called). Is that the water through there just doesn’t move. Here where they have the outfalls they are deep and in the channel where there is a lot of water movement. Meaning several thousand acre feet and it happens 4 times a day. So I wouldn’t hesitate to dive Seattle north but if there was one down in the south sound I may hesitate for a min or two.

 

[Donnie1442000]

After posting that the Alki Pipe line is abandoned right? I’m talking about the one that dumps in about 35’ of water and right off of those condos

 

[dsteding]

The Alki Pipeline is not abandoned, I think it is a city CSO (combined sewer overflow). RJack posted about it on northwestdiver.com, it overflows less frequently than the county owned CSOs.

Honestly, a bit of sewage here or there (and while 60 million gallons sounds like a lot, it is less than a day's worth of sewage treated by West Point) doesn't bother me. The Sound will flush over a few days and things will get back to normal . . .