GL: Sewage dumping in south Florida

[Matt Mattson]

Same thing in the Umpqua where we dredge gold in Oregon.  The state  
prevents them from dumping in the summer (supposedly) but anytime I  
see what looks like dish soap bubbles coming downstream, I'm out of  
there.  I'm somewhat bemused by all the scrutiny over sewage handles  
on our little boats when the municipalities dump untold amounts.   
 From the Oregon EPA:

Waste load allocations are expressed as the effluent concentration  
allowed by the bacteria standard: 126
E. coli org./100 ml as a log-mean based on a minimum of 5 samples in  
a 30-day period and no single
sample exceeding 406 E. coli org./100 ml (Table 2.8). NPDES permits  
use a concentration target for E.
coli rather than a load. Maximum waste load figures are derived from  
the maximum permitted daily flow
for a facility (Table 2.9) and the average bacteria standard. Maximum  
waste load figures are used in the
computations but are not allocations. The two wastewater treatment  
plants in the basin are not permitted
to discharge between June and October because of other water quality  
concerns. This time period
roughly corresponds with the dry and low flow periods. Therefore, in  
Table 2.8, the maximum waste load
is presented as zero during these ranges of flows. However, if the  
wastewater treatment plants discharge
effluent that is at or below the bacteria standard they will not  
cause or contribute to bacteria violations
and, hence, will be meeting the bacteria TMDL. The treatment plants  
in the basin have requested a
waste load allocation throughout the year whether they discharge or  
not. Therefore, they are given the
same concentration waste load allocations for all ranges of flows.  
The two treatment plants in the
watershed currently meet their waste load allocations (Table 2.10).
Table 2.8.
TMDL by Range of Flows

If you don't know what "gold dredging" is, here is a clip:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ay2zZ7Dee3I


> Tom,
>
> Offshore dumping of sewage is one thing ... dumping it into a river is
> even worse.  For example, my home port, on the Hackensack River in  
> New Jersey
> ..... upstream is the city of Hackensack which has a connection  
> between the
> "sanitary sewers" and the storm water drains, and whenever it rains  
> the two
> flush together.  This causes raw untreated sewage to flow down the  
> Hackensack
> river, where it flows into the Meadowlands Wildlife Area.  When  
> there is no
> rain, there is no waterflow at all, and the sewage flushes back and  
> forth with
> the tide until its replaced by the next load of sewage next time it  
> rains.
> Bizarrely, the system was designed to do this.
>
> This is actually not limited
> to NJ, it goes on everywhere.
>
> Luckily I'm moving in a few months to the
> Champlain Canal, where the water is muddy but free of sewage.   
> Instead of
> sewarge they have PCBs there a distance downstream from me, left  
> over from
> manufacturing back in the 1960's.
>
> America The Beautiful!
>
> Fred
> Tug 44
> ----------------------------------------