Oregon riders, stay off the Willamette

(wakehound) · (wakehound) **Join Date: Oct 2003** 03-08-2005, 11:55 AM

Just saw this, you guys should watch it for a week or so...

Raw sewage spills into Willamette River

March 8, 2005

More than 23,600 gallons of raw sewage overflowed into the Willamette River on Monday, Salem public works officials said.

The overflow happened at the Union Street sewage pump station, which is on the river.

Workers who performed maintenance on the pump Saturday neglected to turn it back to automatic mode, said David Prock, the city's wastewater collection services manager. The sewage backed up at the site, then overflowed.

Sensors at the pump detected the overflow, which was remedied quickly when the pump was turned back on.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality will review the spill to determine whether fines should be levied, Prock said.

Signs posted at the spill site warn the public of potential hazards from coming in contact with the sewage-contaminated river water. City officials expect to remove the signs in a few days, once high levels of bacteria have been flushed out of the river.

-- Dennis Thompson

(nlitworld) · (nlitworld) **Join Date: Feb 2005** 03-08-2005, 12:13 PM

Mark, this is absolutely nothing new with the Willamette and Portland. They dumped 65,000 gallons last summer, but they think nothing of it because they can afford the fine and it's cheaper to dump and pay the fine than it is to fix their sewer problems. With how often Portland and Salem have this "problem" I know it's intentional.

(solo) · (solo) **Join Date: Oct 2001** 03-08-2005, 12:29 PM

The Union street station is closer to Portland "Down River" Most of the riders out there will ride up near Wilsonville. By the way, when I broke my board two seasons ago on the Willamette, the doctor gave me a tetnice shot.

(piranha) · (piranha) **Join Date: Aug 2004** 03-08-2005, 4:12 PM

Why would the doctor give you a tetnice shot for breaking your board?

(solo) · (solo) **Join Date: Oct 2001** 03-09-2005, 9:11 AM

Smacked me right between the eyes. 12 stiches in all. When I told him I was in the river he freaked! Lol!

(nlitworld) · (nlitworld) **Join Date: Feb 2005** 03-10-2005, 3:12 AM

It's incidents like this that make people absolutely hate the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. This is undoubtedly one of the most contaminated and poluted rivers in the world, yet I ride on it almost daily during the summer.

(canaday)

Education is fun: tetanus

I used to ride Wet Wednesday's and it was always fun to see dead fish floating by the dock.

orgborn 03-10-2005, 9:17 PM

with the lack of rain and snowfall this year the willamette may get nasty this year. The nice weather now is great but has me worried that it could bite us in the ass later

jetpilotrider03 03-10-2005, 10:51 PM

yeah, i just moved up here to corvallis, where the hell do you guys ride anyway?

(nlitworld) · (nlitworld) **Join Date: Feb 2005** 03-11-2005, 12:38 AM

Yeah Mike, this summer is going to be a little iffy. Water levels are going to be REALLY low compared to normal.

(sunsport) · (sunsport) **Join Date: Sep 2002** 03-11-2005, 2:55 PM

The water on Lake Oswego doesn't look as good as it has in the past at this time of the year. I think it is due to lack of rain. Oh well hopefully it keeps the tubers off of it.

Skiing made me board,
Lyle
Chrome Dome