Sewage spill - Swan Island

Pete · 05-06-2003, 06:21 PM

As if the creosote superfund site weren't bad enough, there was a 5000 gallon raw sewage spill at Swan Island today (5/6/03) on the Willamette. Oregon City isn't sounding so bad. No sashimi for a while!

KGW news story

[ 05-06-2003, 07:36 PM: Message edited by: Pete ]

The Fishing Geek · 05-06-2003, 06:29 PM

...and nobody cared enough to make a difference.

BrionLutz · 05-06-2003, 06:51 PM

Pete,

I loved this line from the report:

"Anyone coming into contact with the water near Swan Island should wash thoroughly."

OK...I will.

Brion

float2ber · 05-06-2003, 06:58 PM

A few acres of timber are logged and the environmentalists protest. Raw sewage flows into the Willamette several times a year and they say nothing. Seems odd to me.

Pete · 05-06-2003, 07:04 PM

Actually, the environmentalists spoke quite loudly about this more than a decade ago in a huge lawsuit. The result of the lawsuit is that the City of Portland has 20 years to solve the problem at a cost of over a billion dollars - and you wonder why your sewer bill is so high?

Most American cities have a similar problem. Sewer systems were built to carry both storm water and "brown" water to the treatment plants, but 50 or 75 years ago, no one anticipated the population growth we've experienced in this country. The result is that the systems can't handle the growth. Retrofitting sewer systems is very difficult and expensive.

Smj · 05-07-2003, 05:05 AM

Pete, I wanted to read that story from the link you gave for KGW, but it says I have to register just to read a story?? No thanks, I don't get SPAM now, I don't need it in the future!
Too bad about the sewage spill. A buddy of mine was fishing Swan Island yesterday and said it was dead dead dead, supposedly because of the spill. Deisel, sewage, it's always something. How much pee do you suppose is in the river down there with all the great fishing that's been going up at OC and below this year?

Smj

FISH EYED FOOL · 05-07-2003, 06:29 AM

We need a baseball stadium before they fix the sewer. thank you vera kats'.

dawhunt · 05-07-2003, 09:13 AM

How many more times does this have to happen before they fix the proplems over there.I'd think this was more important then a baseball team.I would think the schools would come first then items like this.But I live in Washington and we have the same type proplems in our state and get nothing but lip service from our leaders also.What to do,What to do ???????
Bob :whazzup:

Troller · 05-07-2003, 09:23 AM

This one just happened up here above seattle. I hope they fine them big time. 40 tons that is alot. http://www.king5.com/topstories/NW_0....2f2b071b.html

Pete · 05-07-2003, 10:02 AM

The fix is in the works, as I pointed out above, Portland is half way through a ONE BILLION dollar, 20 year process of fixing the sewer system. It's a big and complicated job. Consider that in the 1950's, the Columbia Slough was so polluted that millworkers refused to touch logs stored there. Things are getting better, government is addressing the problem, they just haven't finished yet.

garyk · 05-07-2003, 10:43 AM

If you've traveled in North Portland particularly Columbia Blvd in the past three years or so, a lot of the road tear-up is the implementation of this $1-Billion 'Big Pipe' project. Some of the results are visible in the expanded treatment plant located on Columbia Blvd, just west of I-5.

Hopefully, in the future the results will be noticable by the absence of sewage overflows when it rains (and Mult. Channel brown trout (specie septic trutta) just an unpleasant memory).

In the big picture, the diesel spill at Terminal 6 was more damaging to the environment. Inexcusable too, having a fueling area runoff into a storm directly into the slough is really a poor design.

It points how the care that needs to be taken in order to keep the waters clean.

whitewaterbill · 05-07-2003, 09:24 PM

I do not kow about gallons and other technical info....But.... What I saw on Sunday at the mouth of the Willamette was a Diesel mess!!!!

What ticked me off the most was... nothing was being done about the spill.

I started trolling near the Island at the mouth of the Willamette and as I was about to be all rigged up approaching Kelly point...All of the sudden I am in a diesel pond!!!!

Snuff out the cigar now!

When I looked up river to the channel above the point...I see 2 booms accross it and diesel moving past it....no effort to clean it up at all and diesel leaking by it big time.

Next thing I saw was the Foss boat that is dropping people off on the island and the point to walk around looking for bank damage.

Lot of walking and looking going on here!

Diesel still flowing down the river...and they are looking!

Why was no one cleaning this up? It is running down river un-checked?

Seems like know one cared...I am told it was a spill by a tanker truck that is owned by the port of Portland....What a shock that it was not in the news!

If you and I had made this spill...It would be a big deal like the Exon Valdize!!! People everwhere cleaning things up!

Port of Portland...No big deal?

Just let it go and mother nature will fix it???

Where do I send the bill for cleaning this crap off of my boat?

I guess I just don't get it!

SG

BrionLutz · 05-07-2003, 10:37 PM

SG,

Not defending them, being a bit of an environmental wacko, but diesel fuel is light distallate vs. the heavy crude of the Exxon Valdez spill that you mentioned.

The reason it smells so bad is that it is evaporating.

Only thing they can do is to put out the booms and get up as much as they can.

The booms you saw across the slough actual suck the surface riding distallate off but it's not going to catch it all.

I don't think enough folks are motivated to do something, like asking their elected reps about their stand on environment specifically requiring holding tanks etc. on oil transfer installations, funding for sewage treatment plants, etc.

Somehow anti-environmental folks keep getting elected so prevention and penalties are being reduced.

Brion

BrionLutz · 05-07-2003, 11:04 PM

Garyk,

A technical quibble...the diesel spill actually ran into a 600 gallon holding tank which then overflowed into the river so they had some prevention in place.

The sewage spill was due to blocked pipe. Not sure how that works or if that will be solved when the runoff water system upgrade is completed.

A hefty fine that would pay for the state DEQ to fix the problem would work for me.

Brion

sinker · 05-08-2003, 01:32 AM

5000 gallons ain't nuthin!!

Try 40 tons!!! :shocked:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/..._cruise06.html

Mr. Carp · 05-08-2003, 01:49 AM

At least we can still touch the water in this country. Not the case in Europe I hear.

[ 05-08-2003, 02:49 AM: Message edited by: Mr. Carp ]

Finn-icky · 05-08-2003, 04:34 AM

Yes, a very sensitive subject. But as Pete has pointed out very politly, the city is in the process of fixing the problem. The one billion dollar figure has now grown to a larger sum due to inflation. The next big project is the big pipe on the west side. This one starts in the Johns Landing / Sellwood area...goes thru town, and then makes a turn and goes under the river to a super pump station that will be built on Swan Island. A major undertaking to say the least. It would be nice if it could happen over night so the speak, but it is simply to large of a problem for that. The fix will also incorporate expected population growth. If you have any construction background it is perhaps a little easier to grasp the magnitude of this problem and translate the dollars into infrastructure. While most of you vent your anger at todays present leaders (and I'm NOT defending Vera), I personally blame the city fathers of the 70's, 80's, & 90's for not being more concerned about our environment. Even though any overflow is unacceptible to me, I do know for a fact that several spills have been avoided that otherwise would not have been had the city not invested to date what they have. Hard to see and understand because spills still occur, but it is slowly getting better. Hope this helps.