"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in
news:Po9qg.115624$Ce1.93254@dukeread01:

In THEORY that may be true assuming that the sewage treatment plant is
working up to the standard 200 E-coli colonies/liter. But a single
malfunction, as has happened on more than one occasion, can contribute
as much as several million boaters. Even a heavy rain can drive most
treatment plants over the limit by 1,000 times or more.



In 1989 I lived right where I do now, on the Ashley River at Riverbend,
about 6.5 miles upriver from Charleston Harbor. Two Dorchester County
sewage treatment plants use the river for a sewer dumping about 12
million gallons a day, now, into the river...treated sewage. Downstream,
except during a rising tide, of course, Charleston County's sewage plants
are dumping another 22 million gallons into it in the harbor the tide
drags upstream.

In 1989, Hurricane Hugo laid Charleston FLAT....for months on end with no
power, no travel, no city water as they shut that down, not to protect
the water supply, but to try to prevent us from FLUSHING OUR TOILETS. We
didn't, we COULDN'T! We were stranded!

None of the sewage plants had, or even to this day HAVE, proper emergency
power supplies that can operate the plants during and after such an
event. When the plant got full of the deluge flooding the pipes, THEY
JUST DUMPED IT INTO THE ASHLEY RIVER. Everyone near the river vomited
from the smell. It was just awful. It was floating in the river at my
house.

Today, you'd never know anything happened. It cleared by 1992 or so.
The crabs, after it cleared and sank to the bottom just BLOOMED!
Charleston crabbers were smiling from ear to ear.

Life goes on, but I'd sure like to see some serious power plants built
right next to those ponds......

Pfat Chance....