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Andy wrote:When I watch the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks I've often wondered how he pooped on the island. I would have gone out into the water and just pooped there instead of digging a hole and throwing some dirt on it, you're gonna have to wash up anyway.

I haven't done it, but I would if the situation presented itself.

David Hall wrote:

Andy wrote:When I watch the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks I've often wondered how he pooped on the island. I would have gone out into the water and just pooped there instead of digging a hole and throwing some dirt on it, you're gonna have to wash up anyway.

I haven't done it, but I would if the situation presented itself.

One time in mexico I caught a bit of Montezuma's Revenge. Not proud to say that I swam out as far as I could in order to prevent embarrassing myself on the crowded beach.

Craig wrote:

David Hall wrote:

Andy wrote:When I watch the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks I've often wondered how he pooped on the island. I would have gone out into the water and just pooped there instead of digging a hole and throwing some dirt on it, you're gonna have to wash up anyway.

I haven't done it, but I would if the situation presented itself.

One time in mexico I caught a bit of Montezuma's Revenge. Not proud to say that I swam out as far as I could in order to prevent embarrassing myself on the crowded beach.

...then you swam like a sonofabitch to make it to shore before the wave action outted your indiscretion?

Andy wrote:When I watch the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks I've often wondered how he pooped on the island. I would have gone out into the water and just pooped there instead of digging a hole and throwing some dirt on it, you're gonna have to wash up anyway.

I haven't done it, but I would if the situation presented itself.

By Chad Selweski
Macomb Daily Staff Writer

1.1 billion gallons of sewage dumped into lakes this year

Macomb received a dubious distinction Wednesday as one of the state’s “Dirty Dozen” counties that dump large quantities of sewage into the waterways.

The Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association ranked Macomb No. 2 on their list, behind Wayne County, as Macomb has already experienced more than 1.1 billion gallons worth of sewer overflows this year.

MITA said that the state’s 12 worst polluters discharged 15 billion gallons of sewage into lakes, rivers and streams since Jan. 1. The association said the official figures for the first four months of 2011 show that the state is in desperate need of infrastructure improvements to neglected, aging or overloaded sewer pipes that cannot handle heavy rains.

The most current statistics for Macomb County, through the end of April, show that the rainy spring has produced 36 overflows at eight locations.

Most of the human waste has been dumped by the large sewage retention basins: Chapaton in St. Clair Shores, 112.2 million gallons; Martin in St. Clair Shores, 272 million gallons; Milk River on the St. Clair Shores-Grosse Pointe Shores border, 21.2 million gallons; and the George W. Kuhn Drain (formerly Twelve Towns) in Madison Heights, 627.3 million gallons.

Some of the pollution flows directly into Lake St. Clair while other locations, particularly the GWK Drain, discharge into tributaries that flow to the lake. All of these discharges, which consist mostly of rainwater, are treated with chlorine before being released.

The figures compiled by the Macomb County Health Department also show that the Mount Clemens retention basin experienced a rare, 2.3-million gallon spill on March 25.

Of greatest concern to environmental officials is that three Macomb County sites have dumped raw sewage into the waterways.

On March 5, one of the Clinton Township relief pumps along the Clinton River, which were supposed to be fully upgraded years ago, sent 132,000 gallons of untreated sewage into the river. On three occasions, the Warren retention basin flushed a combined 124 million gallons of sewage into the Red Run Drain that did not meet environmental standards.

And Fraser continues to spew raw sewage into the Sweeney Drain as the city’s long overdue sewer improvement project along Masonic Boulevard is not yet completed. Fraser dumped a combined 906,000 gallons of untreated waste into the drain on six dates.

Keith Ledbetter, MITA director of legislative affairs, said the numbers show that Macomb County still suffers from an inadequate sewer system and a major environmental problem 17 years after lake pollution first caused mass beach closings.

“Macomb County really jumps out as a place that really has a problem. The figures are really striking,” Ledbetter said.

At the same time, officials point out that Macomb County and surrounding communities invested more than $500 million in sewer

improvement projects in the years after the 1997 Macomb County Blue Ribbon Commission on Lake St. Clair warned of catastrophic environmental consequences if no action was taken.

Some officials say the area can no longer afford adding additional capacity to the sewers, particularly during a time when local tax revenues have plummeted and state and federal funds for sewer projects is drying up.

Doug Martz, chairman of the county Water Quality Board, said that he agrees with MITA’s criticisms if they’re calling for incremental improvements to attack pollution hot spots.

“If they’re talking about illegal cross-connections and broken sewers and blown-out bulkheads, then I agree with them,” Martz said.

Despite all the multi-million dollar construction projects on sewer pipes, so-called “lift stations,” and retention basins, the county continues to suffer from a huge volume of water pollution almost every year. Macomb experienced 2.9 billion gallons of overflows in 2009 and 3.3 billion gallons in 2008.

Yet, officials who operate the sewer systems argue that they do not pollute the waterways. Most of the water contamination, they maintain, comes from the intricate network of small, underground drains that flush into the southeast Michigan’s lakes and rivers.

At the Macomb County Public Works Commissioners Office, Brent Avery, who runs the Chapaton retention basin, asserts that, because discharges at Chapaton and other facilities are skimmed, settled and chlorinated before release into the waterways, the outfall is actually cleaner than typical lake water near the shore.

Ledbetter said Michigan has infrastructure underground that is up to 100 years old, and funding must be found to “catch up” on modernizing the system.

“People don’t like to pay taxes,” he said, “but they also don’t feel it’s appropriate that, when they flush their toilet, the waste ends up in Lake St. Clair.”

Heywood McCrakin wrote:No, but I pee in the shower.

Heywood McCrakin wrote:No, but I pee in the shower.