Sewage Pours Forth into Firth of Forth
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 04.23.07
A broken pump caused 100 million litres of sewage to pour into the Firth of Forth from a sewage processing plant. The sewage flowed for two and a half days before engineers could fix the problem by installing emergency pumps.
The chairman of the local residents' association has claimed that the plant, "has an infrastructure that is basically Third World technology." Residents have complained previously about the unsavory smells coming from the plant.
Edinburgh council have admitted that, "any raw sewage has human pathogens in it which has the capacity to make people ill", and have warned people to stay away from the shore. However, residents have complained that they weren't warned of the leak fast enough, and that some people may have come into contact with the waste.
According to the Guardian, "Large discharges of sewage can kill marine animals by starving the water of oxygen. The sewage is expected to break down in a matter of days, but chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide can be added to reoxygenate the water." :: The Guardian
Title: should be Firth of Forth. First sentence, ditto.
"Residents have complained previously about the unsavory smells coming from the plant."
That strikes me as funny. Why don't the residents change their usage of the sewer? That'd help reduce 'unsavory smells.'
It's annoying when people think "out of sight and out of mind, so I shouldn't have to deal with it any more."
Ooh, my home city makes it onto my favourite website...for all the wrong reasons!! Just to correct your spelling and grammar - it's the Firth of Forth. The Firth means the mouth of, the Forth is the name of the river.
Keep up the good work!
"It's annoying when people think "out of sight and out of mind, so I shouldn't have to deal with it any more.""
Well, people should certainly work in that direction, but it doesn't change that sewers shouldn't go into rivers..
It's Firth of Forth.
this story reminds me of the lake ponchetrain (sp) disaster but didn't something like this happen in chicago too? i think it involved sewage falling on people? human sewage is the most toxic of all animal wastes
gordon
Typo is fixed, thanks to everyone who pointed it out.
"That strikes me as funny. Why don't the residents change their usage of the sewer? That'd help reduce 'unsavory smells.'"
You expect the residents to just stop going to the bathroom? Or maybe they should just use their backyard instead?
Happens a couple times a year on Lake Michigan. It's largely a result of combined storm/sanitary sewers and rain events. It's a lot more than 100 million litres too. You guys should do a story:
Check this link:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=231565
That's 1.5 BILLION GALLONS.
It spilled into what? You aren't very specific.
It must be tough to ford the firth of Forth, for frothy, filthy foam fills the fathoms!
"You expect the residents to just stop going to the bathroom? Or maybe they should just use their backyard instead?"
There are a lot more possibilities than the two options you list. This only reinforces the common misconception that we have limited options, two of which are ridiculous (as you just pointed out).
It's really sad.
what are these options?