Sewage released into Boston Harbor
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matt_unique
Guest
You gotta love reading about this.....
abitton
Contributor
What BS...
"It's not clean, but its mostly rain"
One ton of $h.t is one ton of $h.t, regardless of whether it's flushed down with 10,000 gallons or 1,000,000 gallons...
"It's not clean, but its mostly rain"
One ton of $h.t is one ton of $h.t, regardless of whether it's flushed down with 10,000 gallons or 1,000,000 gallons...
LobstaMan
Guest
So those weren't Baby Ruths I saw bobbing around in the harbor?
LobstaMan
LobstaMan
OP
large_diver
Contributor
LobstaMan:
Those are affectionately known as harbor trout.....
matt_unique
Guest
You learn something new every day...never heard that one...."Harbor Trout".
I learned the term "Coney Island Jellyfish" on this board. I actually saw one two weeks ago in Boston Harbor. Just great to see our polluted waters.....
--Matt
I learned the term "Coney Island Jellyfish" on this board. I actually saw one two weeks ago in Boston Harbor. Just great to see our polluted waters.....
--Matt
JimJam
Contributor
Look on the bright side:
Now the harbor matches the Red Sox's Post Season.
(and yes, I AM a Red Sox fan)
Now the harbor matches the Red Sox's Post Season.
(and yes, I AM a Red Sox fan)
Since I have had to sit through the various nasty details of how sewage treatment plants work in marine pollution classes and in various meetings on water quality in Narragansett Bay I thought I'd share something about how this works.
When one of these overflows happens it is because the water is flowing in faster than they can treat it and they don't have adequate capacity to store the excess until they can catch up. This will often happen after a big rain event even if the plant doesn't malfunction just because it doesn't have the capacity to handle it. The Fields Point plant in Providence has had huge problems with this, and pretty much overflows after any major rains event. It is currently being upgraded to reduce these incidents.
When an overflow happens they usually still do the "primary" treatment step to remove solids so you should not see any "harbor trout". If you see that kind of thing it probably came from a boat illegally dumping its head. What the plants are skipping in an overflow is "secondary", and "tertiary" treatment steps (most US treatment plants don't do full tertiary treatment) which take more time . These steps include disinfection and the removal of various dissolved contaminants. The main danger of these overflows is all of the pathogens that get dumped into the water because disinfection was skipped.
If anyone wants to know how this process actually works, this is a really good summary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewage_treatment
When one of these overflows happens it is because the water is flowing in faster than they can treat it and they don't have adequate capacity to store the excess until they can catch up. This will often happen after a big rain event even if the plant doesn't malfunction just because it doesn't have the capacity to handle it. The Fields Point plant in Providence has had huge problems with this, and pretty much overflows after any major rains event. It is currently being upgraded to reduce these incidents.
When an overflow happens they usually still do the "primary" treatment step to remove solids so you should not see any "harbor trout". If you see that kind of thing it probably came from a boat illegally dumping its head. What the plants are skipping in an overflow is "secondary", and "tertiary" treatment steps (most US treatment plants don't do full tertiary treatment) which take more time . These steps include disinfection and the removal of various dissolved contaminants. The main danger of these overflows is all of the pathogens that get dumped into the water because disinfection was skipped.
If anyone wants to know how this process actually works, this is a really good summary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewage_treatment
scubastew
Guest
well the Harbor Today is still amazingly clean compared to what it used to be 15 or 20 years ago....
Ha ha, if the EPA had had its way this year, sewage in most major cities would now have their sewage "blended" into the local outflows pipes every time it rained. Stuff like this would have been everyday occurrences.
http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/050520.asp
And you'd think the EPA was an Environmental Protection Agency.
http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/050520.asp
And you'd think the EPA was an Environmental Protection Agency.
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