Sewage

[legend 550]

Channel 11 just reported that from Toledos 27 sewer overflows. The city dumped 377,000,000 yep 377 million gallons of raw sewage into lake Erie from the weekend storms. And they can't explain why you can't swim at Maumee bay State park or why the algae bloom is so bad. Before they point fingers maybe should clean up there own house.

[onemorecast]

That would explain the 4 billion tampon applicators washed up on shore after the blow in front of wild wings.

[LEfriend]

Thanks for pointing that out. Certainly not good and certainly not acceptable. But a little facts and a little math are useful for perspective. The same WTOL 11 also reported tonight that Toledo contributes less than 10% of the phosphorus to the lake. If you Google Toledo Waterways Initiative you will see that the users of Toledo sewer systems are right now paying $500 million in increased rates for upgrades that are under construction right now to eliminate that discharge. Again, not saying overflow is right, just that the good thing is it is in process of being eliminated (as it should be) and at great cost to people of Toledo.

Here is another interesting number. The Maumee river was flowing at 94,000 cubic feet per second all of Sunday and half of Monday(google usgs maumee gage). (Right now it is down to "only" 60,000 cfs flow). At 7.5 gal in each cubic feet, and at that 94,000 flow, in one minute 42,411,600 gallons of river water flows past Toledo into the lake (think 42 million gallon milk jugs!) At that flow rate, all of that 377M gallon combined sewer overflow from Toledo would equal a whooping 8.9 minutes of river flow (377,000,000 gal/42,411,600 gal). Divide 8.9 minutes into the 36 hours that the river ran at that 94,000 rate Sunday and part of Mon and the Toledo overflow accounted for .004 of the flow into the lake. It is much less than that when you consider that the river will run at 40-60,000 cubic feet per second for days and days yet! Again, yes it should be zero. But even big numbers are all relative.

[MasterKraft]

That's some damn good research I must say, LEfriend. Great post!

[LEfriend]

That's some damn good research I must say, LEfriend. Great post!

It's "down" this morning to flowing "only 57,000" cubic feet every second . (Normal is about 1600) That's about 430,000 gal in one second, a number so big I still have trouble wrapping my head around it! California and most of the world would give their jewels to have that much water. We have a most precious resource and that's why all of us - cities, suburban homeowners, and farmers - need to do each one's part and more to protect the grand ole lady.

[MasterKraft]

............amen!!!............

[Luvs2Fish]

Thanks for crunching the numbers LEfreind! I agree any pollution is too much and we should always keep these kinds of issues visible. A frame of reference is especially valuable. I like the way you approached this!

[rscotfish]

that's a lot of poop

[West Basin]

Great post, LEfreind. It is very nice to see someone take the time to research a timely issue related to Lake Erie fishing and put some really solid facts on here (I'm not going to check all the math or the source since it appears a few others already have). The truth is often overshadowed by political agendas and hearsay.

Once the major point source pollution was addressed in the late 60's and 70's the biggest polluter has been agricultural runoff. That is a tough nut to crack with the 150+ years of till / tile / drain agriculture established in the Maumee River Basin. The only thing we can do now is address what chemicals and fertilizers are used and how / when they are applied.

Meanwhile the 'ole Lake seems to be doing a decent job of starting to clear up. Looks like out around West Sister and along the border from North Bass to east of Kelleys might be good for the weekend. There is even a small area off the Camp Perry range buoys between Green and Rattlesnake that is significantly clearer than a few days ago. Maybe try that spot first.

[dunn782]

I'd like to know what Detroit dumped into the lake last week.