>> Our sewage-y oceans. “The L.A. and San Gabriel rivers are like ‘big latrines’ that dump into Long Beach harbor, a city health official says. Severe sewage contamination has forced four beach closures so far this summer.”
>> “For the fifth year in a row, Los Angeles County is home to the dirtiest beaches in the state, with repeat offenders Avalon on Santa Catalina Island and Santa Monica among those with the highest levels of fecal bacteria in ocean water, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council report to be released today.”
>> Possible solution: Get poo power from oceans? Vancouver’s getting a pilot project that “will produce biogas from from human waste and pump into into the area’s natural gas distribution system.”
Photo of Santa Monica sewage drain by Malingering
In Toronto our beaches are routinely closed due to an excess of poo from Canadian Geese (They’re a national symbol but we actually kind of hate them). So even if you do capture and treat and get power from sewage it doesn’t mean the beaches will be clean. Pretty gross though. Sorry to hear about it.
Comment by G.I. Poo — July 30, 2008 @ 9:05 am
“Santa Monica sewage drain” — that’s a little misleading. It looks like Temescal Creek to me (which doesn’t even flow into the ocean this time of year).
To call it a sewage drain reads like toilets flushed in Santa Monica flow directly out into the ocean.
In fact Santa Monica, which clearly still has a ways to go, has made pioneering efforts to clean up urban waste water. http://www01.smgov.net/epwm/smurrf/smurrf.html
Now if the rest of LA County would get on board…
Comment by Jonathan — July 30, 2008 @ 2:14 pm