11,000,000,000 Gallons of unfiltered sh!t was dumped into the mid-Atlantic after Sandy. That's about the same number of gallons that flows over Niagara Falls in 4 hours. It was enough sewage to make sea levels rise. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/30/hurricane-sandy-water-sewage/2123253/ How permanent is this damage, and is it possible to filter or clean our ocean 6 months after? Most of the federal money will go towards other projects, but i wish this would get more attention because it's easy for surfers to get sick. What do you guys think? this ocean illness report map shows how many more people around here get sick compared to others beaches https://sickatthebeach.crowdmap.com/ its also a good source to report your symptoms.
maybe Virginia Beach can give them some advice. They put up a special "fecal force field" when there's high levels of poopage. you can safely go out but not past certain streets.
Holy **** that's gross! surprised there weren't any reports in the Jacksonville area. We have a pretty good sized port and therefore coastal industry in our big hillbilly city. Not to mention, we have a huge coal fired electrical plant that sits on banks of the St. Johns River. Sorry to hear about the poo polution up north.
Where Sandy did the most damage is obviously where the most sewage contamination will be. Other than that, this will probably not effect the rest of the Atlantic ocean too severely.I have an extremely hard time believing that this caused any sort of fluctuation in the Atlantic ocean as far as rising is concerned. Although 11 billion gallons sounds like a mass proportion of sewage, in reality its is next to nothing when compared to the rest of the Atlantic. A rough estimate will tell you that there is about 17,500,000,000,000,000 gallons of water in the Atlantic ocean. Some quick math will show you that this 11 billion gallons of sewage would only make up about .000063 percent of the ocean... less than one ten thousandth of a percent. literally next to nothing. However, localized damage could be pretty bad and have a negative impact on the immediate surrounding ecosystem, as far as the rest of the atlantic is concerned, not even a blip on the radar.
you have to figure that most of the contents of the 11 billion gallons would have gone into the atlantic anyway. it just would have been treated first.
Yeah, thats just Any City in California after a rain. 11 Billion is WAY more than normal, but we had a few hundred million gallons of raw sewage release during el nino about 5 years ago when the opened the flood gate in the Point Loma treatment plant and it had lingering effects for about 6 months. It dumped 3 miles out. A few beaches were closed for a week and lobster season was a total waste. No one would eat anything off the sea floor for about 1/2 year.... Water quality was back to visibly normal a week later.... So, take that common CA scenerio and multiply it with about 25 times based on the numbers, and ad a higher water temp this summer and we will have to see what happens.
Sewage only disperses to a certain extent, it always sinks to the bottom at some point. Usually "water quality" is fine after about a week, but the river/waterway/ocean bottom near the outfall will be affected for years. The bacteria stays on the bottom and may or may not get covered up with other sediment. It then creates a huge issue if the bottom is disturbed. That said, enjoy your next beach renourishment! They are literally going to be pumping that toxic bottom material right onto your beach and directly into your lineup... THAT is when you will start to see real problems with sickness.
Ohh, in addition to that statement, for the record, this kind of pollution is no joke with surfers. Back in 2003 I didn't follow the 72 hour post-rain southern California rules. Surfed avalanche because it was going off. It was directly south of the SD river where it empties out. I was out of the water for about a month. Went to the ER with a terrible case of staph and some other ailments in my leg. Left a bullet whole wound in my inner thy and couldnt walk for a good couple days... Gnarly stuff. You will get sick, if not worse... be careful. know the surroundings of your local break and choose accordingly. Check the current, check the exact locations of the pollution dumping and respond to it with a calculated plan of action as far as getting in the water.
